BT

What does climate change leadership look like?

BT is a telecommunications business with global reach. It is well placed to make a significant contribution to the process of reducing carbon emissions as it uses about 0.7% of UK electricity, employs over 160,000 people and has millions of customers.

In 2005, BT asked CarbonSense: 'What would a genuinely carbon neutral BT look like?' with the aim of stimulating innovative thinking about how the company should develop in the face of such a challenge.

We came to realise that ‘carbon neutrality’ would be a limited goal that could divert attention away from the challenges that true carbon leadership would entail. This led us to consider how BT could develop decarbonising products and services that would engage customers, suppliers, industry groups and society at large in the climate challenge. By working throughout it’s sphere of influence, BT could become a proactive agent in a wide-ranging social shift towards a low carbon future. We called this ‘carbon positive’.

This led BT towards developing a full climate change strategy during 2006-07.

BT believes the concept of carbon neutrality is a useful marker for defining climate change policy but that this is just a step on a journey to a much more interesting place – carbon positive. By driving climate change understanding through the organisation to employees at every level, and using their considerable sphere of influence with customers and suppliers, BT believes it is possible to go beyond merely being “neutral” on climate change and begin to have a positive impact on society's transition to a low carbon future. This document, completed by CarbonSense, defines how this is happening at one of the largest telecommunications organisations in the world.
Chris Tuppen, Head of CSR
BT

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