BT 2000 Annual Report Download - page 25

Our commitment to society
24 Annual report and Form 20-F
exchanges has been identi¢ed as BT's most signi¢cant
environmental risk.
Although there are a small number of BT sites where
ground remediation is taking place, the cost is not material
and so the company declares no material contingent
environmental liability in its ¢nancial statement. In order to
minimise any future liability in this area, we have allocated
»18 million to cover tank testing, enhanced maintenance
schedules and remedial works.
Some components from old exchange equipment contain
polychlorinated naphthalenes. When they require disposal,
we exceed our legal obligations and ensure their safe
destruction as hazardous waste.
During the 2000 ¢nancial year, we have made no purchase
of any tangible ¢xed assets solely on the basis of environmental
requirements. However, we often include environmental
considerations in the purchase of new equipment, but do not
account for these considerations separately.
The main areas of environmental impact associated with
BT's operations include energy consumption, waste disposal,
transportation and use of ozone-depleting chemicals.
Since 1993, our energy e¤ciency programme has been
accredited to the Energy E¤ciency Accreditation Scheme run
by the National Energy Foundation. Since 1991, we have
reduced our annual energy consumption by over 20%,
contributing to a 44% reduction in overall CO
2
emissions, and
well ahead of the o¤cial global warming targets.
We have an extensive programme for recycling and
recovering materials, including metal from redundant
exchange units, cables, toner cartridges, o¤ce paper and
electronic waste. In the 2000 ¢nancial year, we received gross
income from our recycling activities of »9.6 million, which was
o¡set against the »7 million we spent on our recycling
activities and the »6 million spent sending 103,900 tonnes of
waste to land¢ll. We are also continuing to reduce the amount
of waste generated, with waste to land¢ll down 5.6% compared
with the ¢gures for the 1999 ¢nancial year.
E-mail and the BT intranet are helping us reduce the
amount of paper we use and, during the 2000 ¢nancial year,
we realised a reduction of 13.12% (1,834 tonnes) of paper.
This year, by printing on both sides of the paper used for
telephone bills, we will save over 150 million sheets of paper.
We use CFCs in a small number of refrigeration systems
and halons for ¢re extinguishing. We plan to comply fully
with the proposed new legislation surrounding the use of
CFCs and currently have plans in place to eliminate the use
of halons for ¢re extinguishing well in advance of any
legal requirements.
Our operational £eet of around 38,000 vehicles, one of
the largest in the UK, has been reduced by 26% over the past
eight years. There has been a corresponding 30% reduction in
fuel consumption. We also aim to reduce our transport related
environmental impacts in other ways. For example, nearly
3,000 BT employees no longer have a ¢xed o¤ce location,
primarily working from home.
Stewart Report
We recognise public concern about possible health e¡ects
arising from radiowaves emitted by wireless equipment such
as cellular base stations and mobile telephones. We welcome
the report of the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones,
chaired by Sir William Stewart, and commissioned by HM
Government's Department of Health. The report, published in
May 2000, concluded that `the balance of evidence does not
suggest that mobile phone technologies are a risk to health',
but made a number of recommendations, including further
research, a precautionary approach to the use of mobile
phones by children, and changes to planning rules on siting of
masts. The health and safety of our customers, employees, and
the general public is very important to us, and we are
committed to working with HM Government and the rest of
the industry to address these issues.
Older or disabled customers
Through our Age and Disability Unit, we pay special
attention to the needs of our more vulnerable customers.
We support Typetalk, a service that allows people with
hearing di¤culties to use the phone. We provide a free
priority fault repair service for housebound people, special
equipment such as telephones with large buttons and
ampli¢cation for people who need help using the telephone,
and supply bills and other information in alternative formats,
such as Braille and large print for those who ¢nd it di¤cult to
read standard text.
Further details can be found in our Guide for Older or
Disabled People at www.bt.com/world/community/
aged and disabled.
Future objectives
In all matters of social responsibility, we are working to
involve our operations outside the UK.
In 1999, we updated our statement of business practice,
The Way we Work, to make it more relevant to the global
marketplace. During the 2001 ¢nancial year, we will be
extending both our community programme and our
environmental management systems outside the UK.
In June 2000, we will publish our annual environmental
performance report. In June 2001, we shall integrate all our
non-¢nancial reporting into a single document.
For more information, visit www.bt.com/world/society