The Environmental Impact of Tobacco Industry. Philip Morris International: a Case Study.

10 CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY AND NARRATIVE. THE “3F MODEL”: SCALE OF IMPACT OF TOBACCO INDUSTRIES. PHILIP MORRIS INTERNATIONAL: A CASE STUDY The first aim of this chapter is to illustrate the methodology that was used in the present research. A quantitative approach was chosen as it appeared to suit better the purpose of the study, i.e. a thorough investigation of the impact of environmental issues on tobacco industry, enriched by an overview of the proposed measure for improvement as well as by the discussion of a case study. The latter was adopted to provide rounded, detailed illustrations of the actual management of the issue by a tobacco company, namely Philip Morris International. The first part of the research consisted in gathering information on the topic, by drawing on an extensive number of resources, available in online archives such as Jstor, PubMed and Google Scholar. The study of these documents constituted the basis for the forthcoming stage of the work, namely the definition of the “3F model”, which will characterize the whole structure, determining the direction of the research. Indeed, each of the three F is associated with a particular phase of the tobacco product lifecycle, as it will be discussed later on in this chapter. Once gathered all the relevant information on production, curing, manufacturing, distribution, consumption and final disposal, they were compared to the practises that PMI reported to have carried out in the last year, in order to reduce its footprint. Finally, another research was carried out, in order to assess the existing proposals meant to ensure a better and more sustainable future.