Energy
We can make a big difference to our carbon footprint by using ‘green energy’ and reducing the amount of energy we use.
We hold one of the world’s biggest ‘green energy’ contracts for electricity, and have extended this to 2010. Partnering with npower and British Gas, the contract will save the equivalent of more than 300,000 households’ electricity consumption every year.
In the UK's biggest wind power project outside the energy sector, we are also exploring the possibility of developing wind farms that could generate up to 25 per cent of our electricity needs by 2016.
We are also taking a number of steps to reduce our energy consumption:
- Working with Intel to reduce the power consumption and heat outputs from our IT products
- Taking a radical approach to cutting consumption at our power-hungry data centres by decommissioning and consolidating servers
- Reducing the need for air-conditioning and cooling through better design and more efficient equipment, and using fresh air cooling instead
- Moving from AC to DC power, has cut energy consumption by 30 per cent
- Moving from refrigerated-air cooling to fresh-air cooling has reduced refrigeration energy by an average 85 per cent
- We will reduce the overall power consumption in our data centres by 60 per cent
- Engaging our people around the world by proactively encouraging them to save energy
(c) British Telecommunications plc 2007