Our achievements

2009

BT becomes one of the first companies in the UK to receive certification to the Carbon Trust Standard. Independent third-party assessors confirm that BT is a company that “has genuinely reduced its carbon footprint and is committed to making further reductions year on year”.

 2008

BT continues to hold the “number one” position in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index’s ranking of telecommunication companies for eight consecutive years. In the 2008 index we were deemed to be the best-performing company in the telecommunications sector in the categories of talent attraction and retention, environmental policy/management, climate strategy and stakeholder engagement.

Programmes that have improved our environmental performance have saved us £365.3 million over the past five years.

BT announces construction of a solar photovoltaic system for its North American corporate headquarters site in the City of El Segundo (Los Angeles County). BT expects to reduce carbon emissions by 642,000 pounds (more than 290 metric tons) annually as well as decrease its overall power costs for the site in future years.

BT publishes new model for measuring and tracking carbon emissions – backed by the Carbon Disclosure Project. This represents an important step in measuring carbon emissions in a consistent way across the globe.

BT sets a stretching new target to reduce its worldwide CO2 emissions per unit of BT’s contribution to GDP by 80 per cent from 1996 levels, by 2020.

BT reduces its absolute UK CO2 emissions by 58 per cent since 1996, with 98 per cent of its energy coming from renewable sources. We have also pledged to further reduce absolute CO2 emissions by 80 per cent from their 1996 levels by 2016.

BT’s environmental credentials have been given a boost – with renewal of its corporate certification against the international environmental management system (EMS) standard ISO14001 for another 3 years. The corporate accreditation covers the UK, Ireland, Belgium and Germany. Standalone accreditation has also been awarded to BT's operations in Italy and Spain.

BT launches new range of energy efficient phones that consume around half the power of their predecessors. We estimate that the replacement of all our DECT cordless and fixed-line phones with more energy-efficient equivalents will result in an overall reduction CO2 emissions in excess of 195,000 tonnes over the next three years and save customers a total of more than £39 million through reduced electricity bills.

BT Global Services launches Carbon Impact Assessment service in Germany and France to help large companies and public sector organisations to reduce their energy consumption and carbon footprint. The service was initially launched in the UK and USA in 2007.

BT has entered the Chatsworth list of FTSE 100 green companies for the first time. The green survey polled 1,500 journalists, sustainability experts and political groups.

BT named as one of the top 12 green-IT vendors in the IT magazine Computerworld's first Green Computing edition as a company that is implementing smart, efficient strategies to achieve "green-IT".

Chris Tuppen, BT's director of sustainable development, has been named by The Guardian as one of the 50 people who could save the planet from environmental disaster.

 2007

BT extends UK green energy contract with npower and British Gas to 2010. It involves the supply of up to 1 terawatt hour (TWh) of renewable energy and 1.2 TWh of accredited combined heat and power (CHP) every year.

BT hailed as one of the world’s leading carbon cutting companies in a table compiled by the international magazine Business Week.

The Republic of Ireland’s Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan, pays tribute to the efforts of BT in helping tackle climate change.

BT holds its first ever "Living Lightly Day" an initiative aimed at encouraging BT employees to commit to making simple changes to reduce their carbon footprint.

BT honoured as best in class in its approach to climate change disclosure in a report by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP).

BT Global Services launches new Carbon Impact Assessment service in the UK and USA to help large companies and public sector organisations to reduce their energy consumption and carbon footprint.

BT’s Environmental Management System becomes global as it extends coverage of its oneBT ISO14001 approval to include its operations in Belgium. Separate registration to the international standard already exists in Spain and in Italy.

In 2006/07, BT eliminates over 800,000 meetings and saved at least 97,000 tonnes of CO2 on business travel through employees’ use of audio, video and web conferencing/collaboration services from the workplace or home.

BT announces plans to develop wind farms aimed at generating up to 25 per cent of the company’s existing UK electricity requirements by 2016. It is the biggest investment in wind power to be announced so far by a company outside the UK energy sector.

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) launches a climate change task force which is chaired by Ben Verwaayen, CEO BT. The CBI climate change task force report, Climate Change – Everyone’s Business, was launched in November.

BT recycled 40,000 tonnes of waste 42% of the total generated. The amount sent to landfill was 54,000 tonnes 9% less than 05/06.

 2006

The company makes key changes to its Environmental Management System (EMS) to ensure compliance with the new version of ISO14001.

BT launches its new climate change strategy which has four elements: Reducing our own carbon footprint, Influencing our customers, Influencing our suppliers and Engaging our employees.

 2005

BT placed joint third as one of the top 100 ‘companies that count’ in the Business in the Community (BiTC) Corporate Responsibility Index.

BT’s CEO, Ben Verwaayen and CEO's from 23 other multinational companies signed a statement calling for action by world leaders on climate change.

BT introduces environmentally friendly copier and printer paper.

BT’s EMS is successfully re-assessed against the requirements of ISO14001.

2004

BT wins Liveable City Award from the corporate of London for contribution to Air Quality (including climate change) 2003 for the third year running.

BT signs one of the world’s largest contracts for the supply of “green” energy with npower and British Gas.

 2003

Business in the Environment Index of Corporate Engagement – placed in the premier league of the top 12 companies scoring over 95%.

2002

BT’s EMS is successfully re-assessed against the requirements of ISO14001.

2001

BT receives a special Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants for producing consistently high quality Environmental Performance Reports.

BT Fleet named runner up in the Environmental category of the UK Fleet Awards.

2000

BT is the top rated FTSE 100 company in the Business in the Environment Index of Corporate Environmental Engagement.

BT wins Best Industry Recycling initiative at the National Recycling Awards for our toner/inkjet cartridge recycling scheme.

1999

BT’s UK-wide Environmental Management System (EMS) is certified to ISO 14001, the international standard for environmental management systems.

With over 100,000 people at over 8,000 sites, this is thought to be the largest coverage ISO 14001 certificate in the world.

1998

1997

1996

1993

BT’s procurement division wins the Royal Society of the Arts Environmental Management award for their pioneering work on integrating environmental factors into the purchasing process.

BT is the first major company accreditation under the energy efficiency scheme, run by the National Energy Foundation.

BT wins ACCA award for its 1993 Environmental Performance Report.

1992

BT sets its first carbon reduction target and begins reporting on its environmental performance.