What is Net Good?
Net Good is BT’s programme to deliver a net positive environmental impact. We achieve this
by minimising the negative and maximising the positive impacts delivered by our products
and people. Net good means that the positive outweigh the negative. In respect of our
principal environmental impact – greenhouse gas emissions – our goal is to deliver more carbon
abatement (reduction) than the emissions in our end-to-end carbon footprint. Our Net Good
goal is an abatement/emissions ratio of 3:1 by 2020.
By pursuing this goal, we are shaping and accelerating the
transition to a more sustainable, low carbon, economy. It
also helps us innovate – to develop products and services
that deliver new kinds of value to customers – and to be
competitive in this better future.
Net Good was launched in June 2013. We set our goal and
shared our methodology so that others may benefit and
develop similar approaches. We have grown the portfolio
of products and services delivering demonstrable carbon
abatement, and report on the abatement and revenue
value of the portfolio, in addition to the end-to-end carbon
footprint of our business. Our methodology and reporting
is developed with, and endorsed by, recognised external
carbon accounting bodies.
Our own emissions
• Downstream: Emissions made in the use of our products
by customers. We use process analysis to calculate these,
using performance, use and end-of-life data for each type
of equipment we sell.
Abatement via our products and services
The abatement we report is delivered by the products and
services that make up our Net Good portfolio, described in
the table overleaf. We include products and services only
when we have found a verifiable abatement calculation.
Making progress
We are on track to meet our 3:1 goal but we still need to
do more. We will do this by continuing to reduce our own
end-to-end emissions and by helping our customers save
more carbon.
Our end-to-end footprint includes:
• Upstream: Emissions made in the supply chains on which
we depend. We use environmentally extended input
output analysis to calculate these, which has the benefit
of including all upstream emissions associated with our
consumption of products and services, not only from our
direct suppliers but the entire supply chain.
• Our own operations: The emissions we generate from the
combustion of fossil fuels, from the generation of electricity
we consume, and from staff commuting. We use process
analysis to calculate these using actual energy, fuel, mileage
and travel mode data. For electricity we report both Gross
and Net emissions (grid-average and generation-sourcespecific emissions intensities respectively). We use the Net
figure, which is the lower of the two due to procurement of
renewable energy, in our 3:1 calculations.
Emissions
Continue to reduce our own
end-to-end emissions
1
Now
2020
3
Help our
Abatement
custome
rs save ca
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Net Good portfolio 2013/14
Products
Source of abatement
Description
Broadband
Avoided travel due to
‘telecommuting’ by office
workers
Through the provision of a broadband network, BT enables
workers to work remotely using a broadband connection. This
reduces commuting travel and the associated emissions.
Audio conferencing
(BT MeetMe)
BT provides the MeetMe audio conferencing facility to busiAvoided business travel due to
nesses and other organisations. This reduces business travel
use of audio conferencing
by providing an alternative to face-to-face meetings.
BT provides the networks that enable business to move
applications from servers in their own premises into the cloud.
This replaces energy consumption by computers at customer
premises with more energy efficient computing services
provided in the cloud. Examples are applications such as
cloud-based email, CRM platforms and groupware used by
UK-based SMEs.
BTnet Leased Line
Ethernet
Superfast Broadband
Reduced energy use by SMEs
due to cloud computing
Broadband
Broadband enables a range of technologies that remove
or replace the use of carbon-intensive products or
Dematerialisation and reduced
processes (dematerialisation). We measure the effect of
consumer travel due to use of
dematerialisation and reduced consumer travel enabled by
the internet
online news, music streaming, online banking, online retail,
online education, digital photos and e-mail.
Video conferencing
(Telepresence)
BT provides the Telepresence high definition video
Avoided business travel due to conferencing facility to businesses and other organisations.
use of video conferencing
This reduces business travel by providing an alternative to faceto-face meetings.
Superfast
Broadband
Additional dematerialisation
and reduced consumer
travel due to use of superfast
broadband over the fibre
network
The provision of superfast (or NGA) broadband over the fibre
network increases the extent to which the internet enables
dematerialisation. We measure the resulting additional
abatement enabled by the increased speeds available over
fibre, specifically from the dematerialisation of CDs, DVDs,
Games, Books, newspapers and mail, and reduced consumer
travel to shops. We account for the additional energy burden
of operating the fibre network, and the increased use of
consumer equipment resulting from faster speeds.
Broadband
Reduced energy use by
commercial space due to
e-commerce
The broadband network enables e-commerce activities,
i.e. on-line retail and wholesale. This results in reduced
commercial, retail and wholesale space and a corresponding
reduction in energy to build and operate these facilities.
Avoided business travel due
to use of third party provided
teleconferencing
BT’s provides Inbound Call services to other communication
providers, which enables them to deliver international dialin functionality for their teleconferencing platforms. This
reduces their customers’ business travel by providing an
alternative to face-to-face meetings. We count the impact of
teleconferencing that makes use of our inbound call service.
Inbound Call services
Products
Source of abatement
Description
Field Force
Automation
Reduced mileage due to
efficient fleet management
BT’s Field Force Automation services enable organisations
with mobile teams to improve their productivity by
automating fleet/driver scheduling and reporting. This
reduces the mileage travelled by the field force, with a
corresponding reduction in fuel use.
Flexible working
services
Reduced energy use in offices
due to flexible working
practices
BT provides a number of telecommunication applications,
processes, support and consultancy services to businesses
and other organisations that help them adopt flexible
working practices. This helps improve the efficiency of office
space, resulting in reduced energy use in office buildings.
BT Vision
BT Vision allows customers to download films on demand
Reduced travel by consumers
over a broadband connection, avoiding travel to a rental
and dematerialisation of media store to physically collect and return a film, as well as
reduced emissions associated with the postal of rental DVDs.
Reduced energy use by global
companies due to cloud
computing
BT provides a number of services including BT Virtual Data
Centre, managed hosting, and telehousing/co-located
services that involve moving IT applications from equipment
based on customer premises into the cloud. This reduces
energy consumption due to the greater energy efficiency of
the cloud. We count the impact of services delivered by BT
to multinational companies with a global footprint.
Managed Mobility
Reduction in travel by flexible
working practices enabled by
the N3 NHS network
Telecommunication services provided by BT enable employees
to work flexibly while away from the office. This enables
mobile workers to access their enterprise network, data
and applications through a secure broadband connection.
A specific example of this is the N3 network that BT
provides to the NHS. This enables the NHS to adopt flexible
working practices that reduce commuter travel and energy
consumption in the NHS estate.
Cloud Contact
Reduced energy use by
organisations due to the use of
virtual contact centres
Through our Cloud Contact portfolio BT provides
hosted contact centre services to businesses and other
organisations. This moves server activity away from customer
equipment to the cloud and therefore reduces energy
consumption due to the greater efficiency of the cloud.
Reduced energy use due to
cloud computing
Through our One Cloud portfolio BT helps businesses and
other organisations move from customer premise based
private branch exchange telephone systems and IP telemetry
servers to cloud-based network switching. This reduces
energy consumption due to greater efficiency of running
these applications in the cloud.
Data centre services
One Cloud