ICT can be your catalyst for carbon emissions reduction
For many businesses Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solutions affect a very large proportion of overall carbon footprint. The implementation of appropriate networked IT services can be a significant catalyst for changing people’s behaviour and transforming the business to a more sustainable model. It is important that your IT team provide best practices for educating your workforce and encouraging behavioural change throughout your organisation.
A leader in sustainability
BT has demonstrated leadership in carbon reduction, with large-scale deployment of carbon-neutral and energy saving programmes for networked IT services. Our solutions significantly reduce carbon emissions and enable flexible and remote working, which contribute to this reduction.
Our implementation of carbon cutting strategies internally is demonstrated by our track record in recent years.
“We have reduced our UK carbon emissions by 60 percent since 1996 and aim to reduce it by 80 percent (against the 1996 baseline) by 2016. We aim to create new products and services that use less energy, helping customers to reduce their carbon emissions from their homes and businesses.”
– BT Sustainability Report, 2007.
An assessment tailored to your needs
The key components of BT’s Carbon Impact Assessment are:
- ‘Scoping’ meeting with client to define parameters of assessment
- Data gathering using information supplied by client. This will include: inventory of equipment and appliances; analysis of ‘worker types’ within organisation e.g. home workers, mobile workers; and energy usage and costs
- BT’s Carbon Impact Assessment framework to assess and describe the organisation’s carbon footprint using industry standards to inform a reduction strategy
- BT’s Carbon Impact Assessment report, consultation and options analysis for reducing carbon emissions to identify and plan actions
- BT will identify BT or third party resources to enable you to implement actions for reducing carbon emissions, lowering operational costs, and improving employee productivity
- BT’s reassessment of the carbon footprint following implementation to measure the impact and consider next steps
Cutting costs as well as carbon emissions
BT has deployed carbon emissions-reducing solutions extensively, both internally and for our major customers.
- A recent audit of the energy consumption at ten of BT’s data centres has identified opportunities to decommission or consolidate around 3,000 servers, reducing electricity consumption by 23GWh a year and reducing CO2 emissions by 3,300 tonnes.
- The BT Workstyle project has enabled more than 70,000 employees to work flexibly, resulting in 12 million litres of fuel saved – equivalent to 46,500 less tonnes of carbon every year.
BT helped leading UK retailer Tesco implement a branded teleconferencing service. As a result its:
- Carbon emissions reduced by 2,446 tons
- Travel costs were cut by £10m annually
- Staff productivity was enhanced by 18 percent
Reduced consumption, raised efficiency
BT products and services are designed to reduce carbon emissions, lower operating costs and increase productivity. For example, as well as cutting carbon:
- Remote/home/agile working can reduce building space requirements, minimise time lost through unnecessary travel, and increase staff retention.
- Data centre virtualisation and consolidation can reduce capital costs by removing superfluous equipment. Reduced real estate carries lower running costs. Smaller, less efficient data centres can be rationalised.
- Moving to ‘thin client’ desktop can reduce power use, improve security, centralise management of applications and data and increase the lifespan of equipment.
- Collaborative working tools and Field Force Automation can help eliminate unnecessary travel, reducing fuel consumption, saving costs and boosting productivity.
