The BBC in the community 48 Annual Report and Accounts 2001/2002 Above: Encouraging access at the BBC’s new Open Centre in Sheffield. Right:The BBC National Orchestra of Wales’ education and outreach programme takes live music into communities across Wales. Far right: Media on the move: the BBC Lancashire Mobile Zone takes learning out into the community. As both a broadcaster and a responsible and ethical employer, the BBC engages directly in the life of the communities in which it operates.This involvement takes many different forms, some based on partnerships with other organisations, and all reflecting the social and environmental responsibility which the BBC sees as an essential part of its public service role. BBC Open Centres BBC Open Centres aim to expand the scope of the BBC’s relationship with local communities.The concept was launched in Blackburn last year and has now been extended to Sheffield, Merseyside and Wrexham, with Stoke, Hull, Brighton and three further Welsh centres to follow.Through partnerships with local education authorities and other bodies, each offers opportunities for local people, on a drop-in basis or through more formal courses, to learn about the media, acquire IT skills and become involved in community broadcasting. A series of buses complements the building-based Open Centres.The buses take media facilities out to towns and villages, while also enabling the stations to involve people from all corners of their editorial area in their broadcasts. Piloted in Lancashire, these buses will operate in the areas covered by BBC Radio Derby, Newcastle, Cumbria, Lincolnshire and Cleveland.A similar project is also planned in rural mid-Wales with the establishment of a touring community studio. Community involvement The BBC’s community involvement programme encourages active citizenship by staff so that the skills and talent which the public has paid for through the licence fee can be invested back into communities. Staff can identify volunteering opportunities from a regularly updated intranet site or can explore other avenues through their own contacts. A team from BBC London recently helped clear old tyres, plastic bottles and other debris from part of the Lower Lea area, getting to know local people and helping improve the environment. BBC Radio Cumbria staff spent a day working with Eden Community Outdoors, converting a double-decker bus into a mobile youth club, and also helped restore Kirkby Stephen East station on the Settle-Carlisle line. Annual Report and Accounts 2001/2002 49 Musicians from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales have spent the past year on a voluntary community music-making project in Corwen in North Wales, culminating in a large-scale public concert and the release of a CD, and staff from Television Centre and Bush House in London have donated nearly 400 books to local hospitals, nurseries and schools. A programme of media skills sessions has been organised in schools, colleges and community organisations in different parts of the UK.This included a series of workshops led by the Director-General at Regent’s College in Leicester where the students, more than 90% of whom are from minority ethnic groups, were given a flavour of the opportunities that exist in broadcasting. A mentoring project has also been established in several areas of the country, with youngsters attending workshops and working in small groups with staff from different disciplines to learn about the media at first hand. Charitable appeals A record-breaking performance by BBC Children in Need in 2001 – raising £25million to help disadvantaged children in all parts of the UK – highlighted another key aspect of the BBC’s role in the community. Broadcast appeals give audiences the opportunity to donate to a wide range of charities, as well as helping charities themselves to raise awareness of their work. The BBC Governors oversee the allocation of the regular weekly and monthly appeals on BBC Radio 4 and BBC One through the Appeals Advisory Committee (AAC), whose members they appoint. The AAC also advises the Governors on policy issues and assists them in the scrutiny of specific fundraising projects such as BBC Children in Need and Comic Relief. In particular this year, they helped with plans for the Sport Relief appeal in July 2002, looking at how the money would be distributed and ensuring that it provides an appropriate fit with other BBC appeals and fundraising projects. Last year, the BBC carried appeals for 64 individual UK charities. The weekly BBC Radio 4 Appeal raised over £994,000 for 51 charities (excluding Children in Need).This included £470,000 raised by the traditional BBC Radio 4 Christmas appeal on behalf of the St Martin in the Fields church for its work with homeless people in London and around the UK.The monthly Lifeline appeal on BBC One raised just under £340,000 for charities ranging from Deafblind UK to the Canon Collins Educational Trust for Southern Africa. BBC local radio in England, and BBC Wales and BBC Northern Ireland carried regular appeals for charities working in their region or nation. For example, BBC Radio Cambridgeshire awarded grants of nearly £40,000 to over 80 charities across the county, most of it raised by an annual on-air auction run by the station’s staff and local volunteers. BBC Scotland also reflected the work of Scottish charities across its programmes. In November 2001, Blue Peter launched its Wheel Help Appeal. So far, viewers have raised over £939,000 through bring and buy sales.The money is being used by Help The Aged to buy minibuses, scooters and adapted cars for isolated elderly people. Following the terrorist attacks of 11 September, the BBC screened a fundraising event in aid of the United Way 911 Fund, which included opportunities for audiences to donate via an internet site.We also took part in an emergency appeal in February 2002 following the eruption of the Nyiragongo volcano in the Congo.The appeal, which raised a total of £1.6million, was requested by the Disasters Emergency Committee, an umbrella organisation which co-ordinates UK appeals on behalf of 14 aid agencies in response to major international disasters. Raising millions BBC Children in Need raised a record-breaking £25million for children across the UK in 2001 50 Annual Report and Accounts 2001/2002 Socially responsible investment The BBC is committed to conducting its business in accordance with the principles established by Lord Nolan’s committee on standards in public life.The trustees of the BBC Pension Scheme, who are committed to the same standards, have established policies on both socially responsible investment and corporate governance.These aim to ensure that all companies in which they invest operate in a socially responsible way, including environmental and ethical considerations.The policy is also designed to follow best practice and take account of the recommendations of the Combined Code on corporate governance. Ethical policy The BBC seeks to meet the highest standards of ethical, employment and environmental practice. In the past year a new code of conduct has been introduced requiring our suppliers to operate on the same principles.This requires all direct suppliers, who in turn are required to supervise their sub-contractors, to observe best practice in the following areas: general employment practices, the employment of appropriate workers, worker insurance, working environment, respect for the individual worker, environmental standards, ethical standards, equal opportunities and freedom of association. The BBC and the environment In many of its programmes the BBC explores environmental issues and often exposes abuses. It is therefore all the more important that, as a major organisation with more than 25,000 employees working in over 500 buildings across the UK, the BBC recognises the direct impact of its operations on the environment and the responsibility this brings to conduct its business in an environmentally friendly manner. In 2000 the Board of Governors approved a formal environmental policy. Strategy is driven by a cross-divisional steering group, led by Jenny Abramsky as Environment Champion. Progress is monitored and reported annually, in summary form in this report and more fully in the BBC’s environment report published on www.bbc.co.uk/info, which follows global reporting initiative guidelines. Last year’s document was shortlisted for the 2001 ACCA Environmental Reporting Awards. The BBC has developed new indicators and targets in the past year to help focus on its environmental performance. The new policy, and the strategy we are now pursuing under the five headings that follow, take full account of the Turnbull Report, the Company Law Review, the Global Greening Initiative and the Government’s call for the country’s top 350 companies to report openly on their environmental activities. Above all, they reflect the view of audiences, licence payers, staff and the communities in which the BBC operates that we should adopt environmentally sound and sustainable practices which protect and improve the quality of life in each place. Waste Seventeen per cent of BBC waste was recycled last year, up from 12% in 2000/2001. Our target is to increase this to 55% by 2005 and to achieve a 10% reduction in waste sent to landfill by 2003. Recycled paper is used to make toilet rolls and hand towels that our waste contractor LS Trillium then purchases for BBC use. Used toner cartridges are recycled through a special arrangement with Hewlett Packard that converts them back into credits which go to Children in Need and the BBC’s Procurement department has donated £12,000 to BBC charities for the exchange of printers and consumables. BBC Technology Limited has recovered 6,729 items of computer equipment for donation to the Tools for Schools scheme. Environmentally sound disposal of old video, audio and film tapes is another priority, and the BBC Specialist Factual division has begun recycling tapes through a company in the Netherlands, with 2,500 recycled during March 2002. The BBC in the community Left and above: BBC Training & Development’s skillXchange team enables BBC staff to work on community projects, such as creating a wildflower garden from wasteland at a primary school in London (left), and running a workshop on web design for young people (above). Utilities Total BBC energy use rose in the past year with the launch of new digital television and radio channels. An estimated 126,027 tonnes of carbon dioxide were released – a 5% rise on 2000/2001.The BBC’s target is now to reduce energy consumption per broadcast hour by 8% by 2010, based on the new 2002 baseline.Water consumption rose 8% to 431,905 cubic metres where data was available and new targets will be set for the coming year. The combined heat and power system at Television Centre in London, which uses steam generated from the turbine’s waste heat, has saved 10,392 tonnes of CO2.The proportion of energy from low carbon sources has increased from 0.3% to 14% and the BBC is currently tendering for all its local radio stations to be entirely supplied with ‘green’ electricity. Property All the BBC’s premises have a direct impact on energy and water consumption, waste disposal and the local transport infrastructure.We are introducing energy efficient schemes wherever we can and actively support environmental ventures in the communities in which we operate.The BBC came third out of 18 leading companies invited to participate in the 2002 Property Environment Group benchmarking survey which measures the success of their environmental practices. Rigorous standards are being applied to the BBC’s major property development programme in London and across the UK to ensure that best environmental practice is achieved at every stage of the design, external construction and internal fitting process and throughout the full life cycle of all new buildings.The facade for Pacific Quay in Glasgow has been designed to maximise daylight potential and the major new development at BBC White City will be powered by its own energy centre, using sustainable technologies. Minimal use will be made of air conditioning in the new buildings and rainwater collection schemes will feed landscaped areas.The new Mailbox development in Birmingham will use canal water for cooling the building. Transport and travel Transport planning to help staff travel to, from and between places of work led to the introduction in 2000 of a half-hourly shuttle bus between the BBC’s main premises in the W1 and W12 areas of London.This is now saving 10,000 individual tube, taxi or car journeys a year, a 25% rise on last year, cutting costs and reducing congestion.The fleet has been upgraded to new technology diesel engines and now also carries packages, saving around 1,500 courier trips a year.A car-sharing scheme has been introduced to reduce the number of mini-cab trips by 10% and the BBC is working with Ford on an 18 month trial of a totally electric ‘Think’ car. Supply chain and procurement BBC purchasing activity in a typical year generates business worth over £700million, providing the opportunity to have a positive influence on the environmental policies of some 20,000 suppliers. Early in 2002 a new purchasing policy was endorsed, which included assessment of the environmental impact of IT and stationery contracts. BBC Music magazine has followed the lead of BBC Wildlife which last year became the first consumer magazine in the world to carry the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) trademark, requiring the highest ethical standards throughout the production chain, from forest owners and paper manufacturers to publishers and printers. Tools for schools 6,729 items of old BBC computer equipment were recovered last year for donation to schools 51 Left: Artist’s impression of BBC Scotland’s new headquarters to be built at Pacific Quay, Glasgow. Below: BBC London’s energy-efficient Smart car.