BT is pulling out all the stops to make a difference to the planet

Mar 20 2008 By The Journal

CLIMATE change is one of the biggest challenges we face, but we can make a difference. BT firmly believes that citizens, organisations and governments across the planet must take steps to reduce the size of their carbon footprint and last year announced the BT climate change strategy, writes Simon Roberson, the company’s North East regional manager. It has introduced a four-pronged strategy aimed at carbon cutting and based on:

:: reducing BT’s own emissions;

:: influencing suppliers to produce lower carbon-emitting products;

:: influencing customers by proposing lower carbon solutions to their needs;

:: engaging with the workforce, both to reduce their personal carbon footprints and to empower them to influence their local communities.

Specifically, BT has pledged to:

:: increase the 60% reduction in carbon emissions achieved since 1996 to 80% by 2016;

:: incorporate energy consumption and environmental factors into its procurement processes.

:: conduct a complete review of energy supply, including exploring the further potential of wind… and in 2008 unveiled plans to develop wind farms aimed at generating up to 25% of its existing UK electricity requirements by 2016. The wind farm scheme represents the UK’s biggest corporate wind power project outside of the energy sector.

BT has also announced the extension of a “green energy” contract – one of the biggest in the world – until 2010, where nearly all of BT’s UK electricity is supplied from low carbon sources, including renewables and combined heat and power.

BT is well placed to harness the potential of networked IT services and the positive effect that they can have on reducing carbon emissions by, for example, cutting down on unnecessary travel. More than 80% of BT people already work from home some or all of the time thanks to broadband technology, while BT’s teleconferencing business is the fastest growing in the world.

BT chief executive Ben Verwaayen is chairing the CBI’s climate change task force – established to set the agenda on how business tackles climate change.

BT is also encouraging small businesses across the North East to calculate their carbon footprint and explore ways of reducing their impact on global warming through the website at www.btplc.com/climatechange.

BT’s carbon calculator enables office-based companies to calculate their annual CO2 usage at any point in time, based on the fuel consumption at the office and the travel patterns of their staff, including flights and yearly road and rail mileage. The calculator lets businesses change their profile over time, showing how their carbon footprint changes with each action they take. Armed with the details of their carbon footprint, companies can consider ways to reduce it, both at home and at work. The website boasts a wealth of bite-sized information, tips and web links detailing action that can be taken to make their offices more carbon friendly, how to reduce carbon emissions from travel, and smarter working practices and purchasing policies. The simple actions that businesses can take range from encouraging flexible working and using conferencing to buying renewable energy and sourcing from local suppliers. Many have the added bonus for employees of reducing stress, improving work-life balance and increasing personal productivity.

BT continues to address environmental concerns with the launch of a new range of more energy-efficient phones that consume approximately half the electricity of previous models; this will make a major contribution to the reduction of CO2 emissions. The new range, which was recently unveiled, heralds the start of a £2m commitment to improve the energy efficiency of its entire home-phone range. More than 90% of the entire home phone range supplied by BT will be more energy efficient by July 2008 at no extra cost.

The new handsets boast power units designed specifically to consume around half the power of previous units, not only reducing electricity costs but also contributing significantly to cutting CO2 emissions.

We estimate that the replacement of all our cordless and fixed-line phones with more energy-efficient equivalents will result in an overall reduction in CO2 emissions in excess of 195,0001 tonnes over the next three years – the equivalent of taking 57,000 cars off the road for a year. Consumers are also set to save a total of more than £39m through reduced electricity bills.

The amount of packaging used for each phone has also been reduced; this includes replacing user guides with smaller ‘quick-start’ leaflets, while making the detailed guides available online or on request.

:: Further information on the BT’s Climate Change policy can be found at www.btplc.com/ climatechange.