We're using the power of communications
to make a better world... a world where people are prepared for the challenges that tomorrow brings.
Introduction
The UK aims to be a leading digital economy, but faces a major digital skills challenge that's costing an estimated £63bn a year.
ChairmanBusiness has an important role in delivering long-term value for stakeholders and society. BT's focus on digital skills will help to prepare people for an increasingly digital world, equip them for the jobs of the future, and support the UK's productivity.
Non-Executive Director and Chair of BT's Digital Impact and Sustainability CommitteeWe've updated our strategy to focus on the UK and global challenges that we can make the most meaningful contribution to through our technology, our reach and our people.
Chief Executive OfficerWe've refocused our ambitions to help us drive progress in the areas where we can make the biggest impact.
Our ambitions
Our ambitions
1. Measured for Scopes 1 & 2 greenhouse gases
2. Measured for Scopes 1 & 2 greenhouse gases, per unit of gross value added
The world is increasingly shaped by technology. But the rapid pace of change is leaving people behind – as many as 11.3m UK adults and 10% of the UK workforce lack basic digital skills. This digital skills gap is costing the UK economy an estimated £63bn a year.
Building better digital lives
Our ambition Reach 10 million people in the UK with digital skills training by 2025.We can help the UK fill the digital skills gap. And grow demand for our products and services too. We're working with partners to make a difference to families through targeted support at key stages of life. We're helping businesses upskill their workforce and boost productivity by doing more digitally, ourselves included.
Supporting families' digital lives
Barefoot's Crazy Characters activity asks children to create their own crazy character and write a sequence of instructions for their friends to follow to draw it. If their friends draw a character that looks different, the pupil rewrites their instructions until it looks the same. They've just written and debugged their first algorithm – an important building block for computational thinking.
Supporting working people and businesses
Our TechWomen programme helps hundreds of women in technology and commercial roles progress their careers.
Over the course of a year, participants get face-to-face training, masterclasses, coaching, and access to a new network of peers and senior leaders. The number of women taking part doubled this year to 770. We added a new course for women in early management roles, as well as training senior leaders. We've expanded the programme to India too.
In 2017/18, 41% of participants secured a bigger role after completing the programme. 87% said they were more confident driving their own career and 90% felt more confident networking.
Supporting charity partners
In India, around 150m school age children are illiterate. Improving their literacy – and digital literacy – can make a big difference to their future prospects.
This year, we launched a three-year partnership with the British Asian Trust to empower half a million young people, with a particular focus on adolescent girls, in India. It will use apps, videos and other interactive digital technologies to breakdown social barriers and improve young people's health, education, employability and life skills.
We're also pioneering new finance models to support learning on an even bigger scale as the first corporate to support the British Asian Trust's education development impact bond. It aims to improve literacy and numeracy skills for more than 300,000 children in India through local partnerships.
This builds on our existing work to tackle illiteracy in India through the Katha Information Technology and E-commerce School (KITES) that we set up with the charity and publisher Katha in 2001. It's helped over 375,000 children in the slums of New Delhi learn how to read, with support from BT volunteers. This year, we supported the development of new online learning resources to reach more children.
Human rights are important for everyone – society, government and business. We use the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights to shape our approach.
Championing human and digital rights
Championing human and digital rights
Our ambition Keeping people safe and secure online, whilst protecting privacy and freedom of expression.Everyone's entitled to basic rights and freedoms – both on and offline. We're committed to respecting these rights, partnering to combat modern slavery and helping to drive the conversation on issues like data privacy.
Tackling modern slavery
On National Anti-Slavery Day in October 2018, we lit up the BT Tower with modern slavery messages, visible to thousands of people across London. This included highlighting the modern slavery helpline and smartphone app.
We partner with the charity Unseen to raise public awareness of slavery in society and provide communications services, equipment and consultancy to support the UK modern slavery helpline it runs. Since its launch in October 2016, it has received many thousands of contacts indicating over 13,500 potential victims.
freedom of expression
Protecting privacy and freedom of expression
Customers expect us to keep their information safe and private. We must – and do – protect our customers' personal data. And when we design a new product or service, we consider privacy from the very start. We call this privacy by design.
We believe everyone should have access to any content online as long as it's legal. So we won't block access to material on the internet except in a very specific set of circumstances. We don't think internet providers like us should be making judgement calls about what content is and isn't acceptable. But we think someone should. In September 2018, we joined other broadcasters and media providers in an urgent call for an independent watchdog to regulate the industry and make the internet safer for everyone.
The October 2018 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change highlights the importance of urgently tackling climate change. We're listening. And we're taking action.
Tackling climate change and environmental challenges
Tackling climate change and environmental challenges
Our ambition A sector-leading approach to climate change, with a target for net zero emissions by 2045.We want to be a leader on climate action. That's why we've pledged to become a net zero carbon emissions business by 2045. We're also partnering with our suppliers to target a 29% reduction in emissions from our supply chain by 2030 (from 2016/17 levels). And we're helping our customers reduce their carbon footprint too.
Net zero carbon business
We're aiming to be a net zero carbon emissions1 business. That's no mean feat. But we've already made big strides. To do this, we're targeting 100% renewable electricity by 2020. We're investigating how to decarbonise our buildings. And we're looking at how we can convert our fleet to ultra-low emission vehicles.
1 Greenhouse gas emissions Scopes 1 & 2our emissions
Partnering with suppliers to cut our emissions
ADVA is one of our key suppliers for networking equipment. Its eco-optimised approach means products are designed to be recycled and reused at the end of their life.
For the next major release, they plan to use artificial intelligence to improve energy efficiency through predictive maintenance. And the company has also intends to reduce emissions from producing and transporting the equipment.
Overall, this could save BT's supply chain 12,000 tonnes of CO2e and £6 million over a ten-year period of buying the equipment.
Helping customers save emissions
We're not just reducing our own carbon footprint, we're helping our customers reduce theirs too.
We see big potential for our products and services to save our customers energy, fuel, materials and emissions. Investing in ICT could reduce the UK's carbon emissions by an estimated 24% in 2030.
Downloads
Download the full Digital impact and sustainability report 2018/19 or select individual sections, and other documents from our Download Centre.
Documents
- Digital impact and sustainability report 2018/19 PDF 6.05mb
- Digital impact and sustainability report 2018/19 (Accessible version) DOCX 86.2kb
- Annual Report 2019 PDF 8.06mb
Chapters
- Introduction PDF 507kb
- Building better digital lives PDF 1.29mb
-
Championing human and
digital rights PDF 505kb -
Tackling climate change
and environmental challenges PDF 1.29mb - Strong foundations PDF 2.06mb
Appendixes
- Governance PDF 286kb
- Environmental management PDF 77kb
- Our key non-financial metrics PDF 77kb
- Our reporting methology PDF 92kb
- LR Independent Assurance Statement PDF 137kb
-
The UN Sustainable
Development Goals PDF 463kb - Global reporting initiative PDF 3.41mb
- United Nations global compact PDF 100kb