BT Group, the joint-largest private purchaser of electricity in the UK, confirmed that its network, offices and shops worldwide are now powered with 100% renewable electricity.
The company has committed to run its global operations on renewable electricity where markets allow and will purchase the remainder from neighbouring markets until local solutions can be found.
Cyril Pourrat, Chief Procurement Officer at BT, said: “As an organisation that consumes nearly 1% of the UK’s electricity, it is important for BT to demonstrate its commitment to a green recovery. Our team has worked hard to secure renewable electricity contracts for our sites globally, a crucial step towards the Paris agreement’s 1.5°c target.”
BT’s transition to renewable electricity has been delivered through supporting the development of local renewable energy markets, with 16% of its electricity supplied through corporate Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) and the remainder from high-quality green tariffs or in a small number of markets, renewable certificates.
In addition, Openreach, which has the second largest commercial fleet in the UK, is aiming to switch out a third of its 27,000 combustion engine vehicles to electric by 2025. With 33,000 vehicles, the entire BT Group fleet accounts for two thirds of its operational emissions.
In June 2020, BT Group including Openreach joined forces with the Climate Group to launch the UK Electric Fleets Coalition. The coalition of 27 companies has taken a leading role in communicating the benefits of switching from combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles (EVs) and has called for supportive policy measures which target 100% electric car and van sales by 2030; extend grants for electric vehicles and charging points through to at least 2023 and speed up the rollout of public charge-points across the country.
