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Our commitment to society
The Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes rank companies for their success in managing social, ethical and environmental factors for competitive advantage. During the 2005 financial year, BT was ranked as the top telecommunications company in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for the fourth year in a row. We also hold the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in recognition of our contribution to sustainable development. This section of the report, together with the broad statement on social, environmental and ethical matters included in the section on Corporate governance, provides information in response to the Association of British Insurers’ disclosure guidelines on social responsibility. More detailed disclosures on BT’s implementation of social, ethical and environmental policies and procedures are available online in our independently-verified social and environmental report, which has been prepared in accordance with the 2002 Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) sustainability reporting guidelines.
A Board committee – the Community Support Committee – oversees community, charitable and arts expenditure and the strategy for maximising our contribution to society. The committee, chaired by Sir Christopher Bland, consists of representatives from BT businesses, two non-executive directors and two external independent members, who have a reputation for excellence in this field. An executive committee, the Corporate Social Responsibility Steering Group (CSRSG), oversees the implementation of our CSR strategy and programme. This includes risk assessment, target and objective setting, ISO 14001 certification – the international standard for environmental management systems – and public accountability. The CSRSG consists of CSR champions nominated by the lines of business and seven support functions (human resources, corporate governance, health and safety, group property, communications, internal audit and procurement). The CSRSG is chaired by BT’s CSR champion, Alison Ritchie, Chief Broadband Officer and a member of the Operating Committee. It is supported by advice from an independent panel of CSR experts. Embedding CSR into BT’s commercial operations is an important part of our CSR strategy, and a key part of our work in the 2005 financial year has been extending our CSR activity into our global operations. We have carried out a number of ‘health checks’ in our commercial operations to identify specific social, economic and environmental impacts (positive and negative) and particular CSR risks and opportunities. A report is then compiled which includes recommended actions. We have important relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, including employees, customers and suppliers. We engage with these stakeholders in a number of ways, including consumer liaison panels, an annual employee survey and a supplier relationship management programme. Our CSR team co-ordinates and monitors CSR performance, identifies potential issues and opportunities that might affect the business, and supports BT’s commercial activities. As part of our CSR performance measurement, we have 12 non-financial KPIs (key performance indicators) which provide a comprehensive overview of BT’s social and environmental performance. Our performance against these is published in our annual Social and Environmental report.
In the context of CSR, our most significant risks are:
This underlines how important it is not only to protect our reputation through appropriate risk management activities, but also to enhance it through our community activities. Long-term sustainability trends are creating market opportunities for us, such as the use of teleconferencing and flexible working to reduce the need to travel and provide more flexible lifestyles. Increasingly, BT has to address social and environmental matters when bidding for business. In the 2005 financial year, bids to the value of £2.2 billion required us to demonstrate expertise in managing these issues. BT is one of the largest consumers of industrial and commercial electricity in the UK, and the growth of broadband has, as expected, increased our electricity use. In the 2005 financial year, our usage increased by 3.1%. However, we also signed the world’s largest green energy contract which means that almost all of BT’s UK electricity needs will be met from environmentally-friendly sources, including wind generation, solar, wave and hydroelectric schemes. In CO2 emissions savings, this equates to 325,000 tonnes each year, equivalent to that produced by approximately 100,000 cars.
During the 2005 financial year, we received an income of £3 million from our recycling activities, offset against the £7 million we spent managing our waste contracts, recycling our waste and sending waste to landfill.
During the 2005 financial year, we reduced our commercial fleet – still one of the largest in the UK – by 2% and our fuel consumption by 3.5%.
Our involvement in the EverybodyOnline programme, established in partnership with charity campaign group Citizens Online, continues to be a key part of our digital inclusion campaign. The campaign aims to increase skills and access to communications technology in deprived communities and to increase the understanding of the causes and effects of the digital divide and how they can be addressed at a national level.
The focus of our community programmes is on big issues where better communication can make a real difference to society. For example, more than 10,500 schools and over two million young people have taken part in the BT Education Programme – a drama-based campaign helping children to improve their communication skills. This activity is supported by our volunteering programme which has several thousand registered volunteers working with schools. ChildLine, a UK charity, answers 2,300 calls every day but many hundreds more go unanswered. We are working with ChildLine on a campaign to ensure that every child’s call for help is answered. In addition, BT people gave £2 million directly to charities during the 2005 financial year through Give as you Earn, to which BT added a direct contribution of £1 million.
For people with hearing or speech impairments, for example, our textphone offers easy access to BT TextDirect – the service that enables users to dial direct to other text or voice users. Customers with visual or mobility impairments benefit from products with large, clear keypads and cordless or hands-free options. During the 2005 financial year, we also launched Relate 3000, an inclusively designed phone and our new BT Text service, which includes a speaking SMS facility. |
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