BT 2008 Annual Report Download - page 33

responsibility to reduce their CO
2
emissions and BT has pledged
to help fulfil the task force’s commitments.
We aim to be a leader in the new low-carbon economy.
Communications technology can benefit the environment by, for
example, reducing the need for people to travel, which in turn
reduces carbon emissions. On the other hand, the manufacture
and use of our products and services also produce emissions and
our energy consumption could increase as a result, for example,
of the growth of our data centres. Consequently, we have
conducted an audit of the energy used by these data centres
and are implementing energy saving measures. We will also be
helping and encouraging our customers, employees and suppliers
to play their part, and this includes encouraging our suppliers to
develop products that emit lower levels of carbon. To help raise
awareness of environmental issues, we have launched a website
to enable people to calculate their carbon footprint –
www.bt.com/climatechange
Our CO
2
emissions in the UK are 58% lower than in 1996 and
we aim to achieve an 80% reduction from 1996 levels by 2016.
Our UK green electricity contract (to purchase green
electricity from a number of energy suppliers) is one of the
largest in the world, and we recently renewed it until 2010.
Renewable electricity supplies are limited in many countries and
growing demand is pushing up prices. In response, we have
announced plans to develop our own wind farms in the UK. This
will be the UK’s biggest wind power project outside the energy
sector and by 2016 will meet up to 25% of our UK electricity
needs. We are exploring suitable sites and expect to start
generating power in 2012.
We are involved in a number of other energy-saving
initiatives. We are currently building an energy efficient
combined cooling, heating and power plant at our Adastral Park
site in the UK. This will initially use natural gas, and may use
renewable fuels in future. We are also installing a solar
photovoltaic system at our office complex in Southern California
in the US, and expect to reduce CO
2
emissions by 290 tonnes
annually.
We are also integrating carbon management into our newly
acquired businesses, and now have low-carbon electricity
contracts in Belgium, Germany and Italy as well as the UK. In
2008, we carried out energy audits at ten UK and three
European data centres and plan to cut CO
2
emissions in line with
our carbon reduction target.
The table above shows our CO
2
emissions as defined in the
Greenhouse Gas Protocol and therefore includes not only the
CO
2
e (carbon dioxide equivalent) emitted directly by BT, but
also that emitted in the production of the electricity purchased
by us.
Promoting sustainable economic growth
Enabling growth that benefits society – in both the developed
and developing worlds – within environmental limits is a new
area of focus for BT. During 2008, we established a set of
sustainability criteria for assessing potential new products and
services. In 2009, these criteria will be used as a part of our
standard development process. During the year we also
developed an ‘opportunities map’ to help us prioritise and
communicate sustainability opportunities throughout our
business. The map quantifies the commercial potential and
sustainability impacts of products and services currently in
development as well as longer-term prospects. We will also use
this to raise awareness with investors and other stakeholders.
Helping everyone get a fair chance
We believe that ICT has a role to play in creating a more
inclusive society, helping everyone get a fair chance. We want
everyone to share the benefits of communications technology.
We are committed to promoting inclusion by:
"
making our products readily available, affordable and easy to
use;
"
increasing communication and ICT skills through community
investment programmes; and
"
creating an inclusive culture throughout BT.
We aim to help people communicate, whether face-to-face, on
the phone or via the internet, and we are proud of our
reputation for developing products that can be used by all our
customers, regardless of age or ability.
In July 2007, we launched the inclusive design toolkit
(www.inclusivedesigntoolkit.com/betterdesign), the result of a
collaboration with the i~design (a consortium of business people
and academics) research team. This toolkit aims to support
designers and those involved in product development to include
users in the design process and consider the needs of people
with reduced capabilities.
Report of the Directors Business review
.............................................................................................................................................................
CO2 (UK only)
% below 1996 58% 58% 57% 48%
Note: this table reflects the changes to the Defra (Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs)
measures which were revised in June 2007.
Total 0.68 0.68 0.69 0.84
Tonnes per £1m turnover 33 34 35 46
Million tonnes 2008 2007 2006 2005
32 BT Group plc Annual Report & Form 20-F