As part of World Environment Day, Jim Rushen, Group Head of Environment outlines how we are helping to safeguard the environment.
Today is World Environment Day (WED), which for me is an important day in the calendar because it encourages worldwide action to safeguard the environment. I believe this has never been more important because collectively, we’re consuming far more than our planet can sustain and it’s startling to think that if our current levels of consumption and production continue as our population grows, we will need three planets to sustain our lifestyles by 2050.
But we only have one planet, so it’s time for us all to take swift and meaningful action. And at Centrica, we’re fully committed to doing just that by understanding, managing and reducing our environmental and ecological impacts through cultural change, technology and innovation.
That’s why the dedicated volunteers in our Green Teams ran a series of events across the business to celebrate WED, with the purpose of reinforcing and raising awareness of the important role each and every one of us can play protecting our planet.
For example, we promoted our onsite electric vehicles to cut carbon emissions from travel and displayed the amount of waste our sites produced and how it could be reduced, reused or recycled more effectively to help us reach waste reduction targets. British Gas colleagues highlighted how our innovative smart meters and Hive Active HeatingTM technologies can reduce energy consumption at home by giving greater control and insights into usage, while Centrica Energy conducted a number of activities to boost biodiversity in local woodlands and via litter picking.
These activities among others inspired our people to pledge their own commitment to sustainable living. Those who did at our Millstream head office were rewarded with releasing butterflies into our meadow to encourage the local fauna and flora to flourish.
This is all part of being a responsible business. And whether it’s helping our customers reduce their energy consumption and costs to securing energy supplies sustainably, below are some highlights I’ve chosen that demonstrate our ongoing commitment to safeguarding the environment.
- This year CDP, a leading international NGO, ranked us joint first in the FTSE 350 and in the top 1% globally for our action and disclosure on climate change.
- We have one of the lowest carbon intensities of power generation among major UK energy suppliers and calculate that the products we have installed in the UK since 2010, have helped our customers avoid carbon emissions equivalent to the average annual carbon emissions of 2.6m UK homes.
- Since 2007 we have reduced the internal carbon footprint of Centrica by over 25%, ahead of our 20% target.
We’re committed to consuming with care, are you? Join us and become more sustainable today.
Find out more about how we are reducing our environmental impact on our website or via twitter #7BillionDreams.