BT 2001 Annual Report Download - page 27

BT Annual report and Form 20-F 27
Since 1993, our energy e⁄ciency
programme has been accredited to the
Energy E⁄ciency Accreditation Scheme
runbytheNationalEnergyFoundation.
Since 1991, we have reduced our energy
consumption by over 22%, contributing
to a 46% reduction in overall CO
2
emissions. This is equivalent to
850,000 tonnes of CO
2
.
In the 2001 ¢nancial year, we
recycled 18% of our total waste. We
received »4 million income from our
recycling activities, o¡set against the
»7 million we spent on recycling and the
»1.5 million spent sending 117,000
tonnes of waste to land¢ll.
During the 2001 ¢nancial year, we
reduced the amount of copier paper we
purchased by 290 tonnes, largely due to
increased use of e-mail and the BT
intranet. This year, by printing on both
sides of the paper used for telephone
bills, we should save a further 156 million
sheets of paper.
We use CFCs in a small number of
refrigeration systems and halons for ¢re
extinguishing. We plan to adhere fully to
the proposed new legislation on the use
of CFCs and are part way through a
programme to eliminate the use of halons
for ¢re extinguishing, well in advance of
any legal requirements. During the 2001
¢nancial year, 15,750 kilograms of halon
was recovered, from over 4,000 BT sites,
and has been destroyed.
Our operational £eet of almost
38,000 vehicles, one of the largest in the
UK, is now predominantly diesel fuelled.
Over the past nine years, we have
reduced our £eet size by 27% and
achieved a 33% reduction in fuel
consumption, with a corresponding 25%
reductioninoverallCO
2
emissions. This
is equivalent to 57,800 tonnes of CO
2
.
We are also continuing to reduce our
transport-related environmental impacts
in other ways. For example, a research
study, undertaken in the 2001 ¢nancial
year on behalf of BT, shows that the
internal use of audio conference calls
saved BT 59 million car miles during the
period April 1999 to March 2000, and
around 150 million journey miles across
all modes of transport (car, rail, air, etc).
This equates to a reduction in CO
2
emitted of some 34,000 tonnes, and a
saving of seven million litres of fuel ^
worth almost »6 million.
Older or disabled customers
We are committed to supporting all our
customers and, through our Age and
Disability Unit, pay special attention to
the additional requirements of our older
or disabled customers. We fund
Typetalk, a text-to-voice relay service
that allows textphone users to
communicate with hearing people.
We provide:
&a free priority fault repair service for
housebound people;
&telephones with additional features,
such as large buttons and
ampli¢cation, to give people greater
freedom to communicate for
themselves; and
&bills and other information in
alternative formats, such as Braille
and large print, for those who ¢nd it
di⁄cult to read standard text.
Details of these and other products
and services can be found in our Guide
for Older or Disabled People via
www.bt.com
Future objectives
Our success in addressing issues of
corporate responsibility has been widely
recognised. In the past ¢nancial year,
BT was presented with Business in the
Community’s Community Investment
Award by HRH Prince of Wales, received
an ACCA award for continued excellence
in environmental reporting, and
maintained its position as top of its
industry sector in the Business in the
Environment’s annual index of
environmental engagement.
The next phase of our strategic
approach to corporate social
responsibility will be built around the
overall objective of helping bring about
a better world through better
communications. This will be
particularly apparent through our
employee involvement education
programme, through our support for
charities and through a high-pro¢le
campaign focusing on digital inclusion.
We shall also be introducing an internal
governance process into the restructured
BT, based around our existing Statement
of Business Practice.
For more information, you will ¢nd
our latest environmental and social
report at www.groupbt.com/society