BT: Real Leadership on Carbon Emissions

I have written about BT and its sustainability efforts before, parts 1 and 2, but the firm is not resting on its laurels. Far from it. So I thought an update would be appropriate.

Firstly BT has decided it needs to invest more in its own power generation capabilities with a wind farm program aimed at generating up to 25% of its existing UK electricity requirements by 2016. BT already has some capability in this area for peak times, when national grid electricity hikes in price – but stepping it up makes sense. Certainly as oil looks to hit new highs, and its only 2007 – forward thinking makes perfect sense.

Secondly I really like what BT is doing over at Bigger Thinking. The data center section shows Steve O’Donnels trademark agressive stance on BT’s capabilities.

“We’re really very far out ahead in thought leadership on this,” says Steve O’Donnell, Global Head of Data Centre and Customer Experience Management for BT, adding “We want the market to follow us, and reduce the global carbon footprint for IT services.”

Thirdly it would be easy to dismiss Steve’s claims as so much hot air (yet more carbon emissions…) were BT not walking the walk when it comes to transparency. How many organisations would have the nerve, and the data at hand, to show their energy consumed per million pound turnover?

Its this last area that most impresses me about BT. A core tenet of GreenMonk thinking is that open shared collaborative data will be essential for better environmental outcomes. So well done BT for being so clear on your KPIs, successes, failures, and the economics of sustainability.

At the opposite end of the spectrum- all mouth and no trousers is John Hutton, secretary of state, who is quoted in the story above. John- the government is doing NOTHING to help the UK meet the targets that the government itself set in its usual hand-waving, no delivery, style. How businesses can contribute? Can contribute? Well we’re seemingly not getting any help or leadership from the current UK government, so praise be to the private sector.

Other organisations I would like to big up on a Friday afternoon are British Medical Association (BMA), Ford, Sony UK, John Lewis, E.ON UK, CQS, the University of Cumbria and Lloyds TSB. You all deserve a lot of credit for your work together at the Environmental IT Leadership Team (EITLT).

thanks for the picture use, phault.