Foundations
Our People & Planet Plan is underpinned by strong foundations that ensure we
act fairly and ethically – from human rights to customer service.
Together, they support the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals
and the United Nations Global Compact.
2022 Highlights
Customers
We want to be there for our customers, whenever they need a helping hand.
Vulnerable customers
The rising cost of energy has been a real worry for many. That’s why in the UK during 2022, we created the largest voluntary energy support fund, which will grow with our commitment to donate 10% of British Gas Energy’s profits for the duration of the energy crisis. In total during 2022, we gave nearly £290 million in mandatory and voluntary contributions to fund debt advice, grants and energy efficiency.
Customer service
We strive to provide an excellent service to customers. Towards this in 2022, we invested £25 million to provide 700 additional call centre agents. While our net promoter scores improved, complaints increased which broadly reflects the rise in energy costs.
Colleagues
We want our people to feel safe, engaged and rewarded.
Safety & Wellbeing
Keeping our colleagues and customers safe is key. So we reinforce our strong safety culture while improving controls and monitoring. We’re also focused on mental health provision and prevention, including via our 100-strong network of mental health first aiders.
Colleague Engagement
It’s important that everyone feels motivated and able to deliver for our customers. Having created a more inclusive and supportive place to work in 2022, engagement improved by 18% to 73% favourable.
Reward and Remuneration
We reward our people fairly. This includes paying at least the Living Wage in the UK, upholding equal pay and reducing our gender and ethnicity pay gaps, which we did in 2022.
Communities
Our scale and passion enable us to be a force for good in our communities.
Supply Chain
A reliable and ethical supply chain is vital to serve our customers and support our communities. In 2022, we continued to target high standards to maximise opportunities and minimise risk. This included rolling out on-the-ground audits to nine sites and issuing 7,245 remote worker surveys. Although no serious non-conformance was detected, we agreed 61 improvement opportunities to continuously raise standards.
Human Rights
Upholding the human rights of everybody who works for us or with us, is a priority. We ensure that colleagues in higher risk countries are safeguarded and aim to protect and advance the rights of those in our supply chain. To date, we’ve identified no instance of modern slavery but we remain vigilant.
Environment
Alongside our focus on getting to net zero, we also aim to reduce our wider environmental impact.
Water
Efficient water management is essential. While we don’t operate water-intensive activities in water-stressed zones, we constantly seek to minimise use of this vital resource. In 2022, our water consumption did however increase by 30%. This was largely due to our Whitegate power station resuming normal operations following an outage in 2021.
Waste
We aim to reduce, reuse and recycle as much waste as we can to avoid landfill. We’re also working to eliminate single-use plastic. In 2022, our waste rose by 3% due mainly to Whitegate power station coming back online following an outage the previous year.
Biodiversity
We continue to manage our business’ impact on biodiversity, particularly in energy generation where the potential impact is greatest. We run impact assessments and develop action plans that involve colleagues and communities wherever possible.
Air emissions
We strive to reduce air pollutants. In 2022 this included the combustion of natural gas in power generation which releases pollutants like Nitrogen Oxides and Sulphur Dioxide.
Performance & Reporting
Access reports and explore our Data Centre to find out more about our responsible business performance