By Timothy S. Donahue

Top Takeaways:

• Sustainability recognition: Pyxus has earned a top-tier “A” rating from CDP for climate-related supplier engagement.
• Supply chain focus: The company’s strategy centers on growers and Scope 3 emissions throughout its global network.
• Industry signal: ESG performance is increasingly tied to long-term supply-chain resilience and business outcomes.

Sustainability is becoming a competitive metric and Pyxus International is embracing it.

The global leaf supplier has been named a Supplier Engagement Leader by CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project) for the third consecutive year, earning an “A” rating on CDP’s Supplier Engagement Assessment (SEA) Leaderboard—the highest level of recognition.

The SEA evaluates how effectively companies collaborate with suppliers to address climate change across their value chains, focusing on governance, emissions targets, Scope 3 performance, and supplier engagement. For Pyxus, the recognition highlights a strategy centered on its global grower network.

“Addressing climate change requires a long-term, collaborative approach,” said Pieter Sikkel. “As part of our global strategy, we partner with our contracted growers to build a more resilient and sustainable supply chain, which supports environmental stewardship, business performance and farmer retention.”

Sikkel added that the recognition “validates our focus on supplier education, shared accountability and continuous improvement as we deliver measurable emissions reductions across our value chain.”

The focus on Scope 3 emissions—those generated across a company’s supply chain rather than in its direct operations—is especially relevant in agriculture, where upstream activities such as farming and processing account for a significant share of total environmental impact.

In the nicotine industry, where companies rely on extensive networks of contracted growers, supplier engagement is increasingly central to ESG strategies.

Pyxus, which works with thousands of farmers worldwide, has positioned sustainability as both a risk-management tool and a business driver, linking environmental practices to supply chain stability and long-term production capacity. CDP’s framework reinforces that shift.

The organization’s assessment looks not only at internal climate policies but also at how companies influence behavior across their supplier base—an area that is gaining importance as regulators, investors, and customers place greater emphasis on transparency and emissions reduction.

For Pyxus, the third consecutive “A” rating signals consistency.