Building a sustainable future for all
Understanding the needs of our customers and building a sustainable future that works for everyone is about finding practical and affordable solutions that can be simply applied to help save energy and lower bills, regardless of circumstances.
Centrica and British Gas champions innovation and provides funding and support through its Energy for Tomorrow fund and the British Gas Energy Trust in a bid to find ways of saving energy and make life more affordable for the people in our local communities. Through our award-winning partnership with Carer’s UK, we’re also helping to raise funds and awareness of the challenges faced by the growing number of unpaid carers in our society.
And, to future-proof the service provided by our expert engineers, we’re building a diverse workforce for the future by recruiting 1,000 new apprentices onto our award-winning scheme.
We invited British actor, TV presenter, radio DJ, writer and director, Reggie Yates to meet three sisters who were awarded a grant to help develop their energy efficient shutter business for social housing in Liverpool…
Energy efficiency for social housing and beyond
Liverpool sisters Rechelle, Nadine & Rhianne at Flutter Shutter are on a mission to help homes save energy, especially those in the social housing market, through its innovative thermal plantation shutter. Reggie Yates met them and heard how Centrica supports sustainable projects. Video by FIVE7.
Centrica awards grants of up to £100,000 and provides business support beyond the funding through its Energy for Tomorrow scheme. The aim is to empower energy innovators from all sectors, helping to reduce carbon emissions and transform how communities manage their energy towards a net zero future.
Tackling fuel poverty head on
Rising wholesale energy prices and the demise of many domestic energy suppliers has meant millions of people are paying more for their energy now than ever and it’s tipped the balance for many into fuel poverty.
We set up the British Gas Energy Trust as an independent charity in 2004 to provide dedicated advice and support for financially vulnerable households. It’s one of the largest grant-giving energy trusts in the UK and has already helped over 500,000 people across the UK, regardless of who supplies their energy.
In December 2021 we invested £2 million into grants to help keep our vulnerable customers warm this winter. We’ve added a further £2 million to this fund. The fund will remain open until all the money invested has been awarded. This is on top of the debt relief grants we make available to both British Gas customers and customers of other energy suppliers.
We help thousands more customers who are struggling to pay for their energy by making them aware of government funded schemes available like the Warm Home Discount and Winter Fuel Payment, finding alternative tariffs and ways to pay and offering energy saving advice.
Working to raise awareness of unpaid carers
It’s estimated there are as many as 13.6 million unpaid carers looking after loved ones, neighbours, and vulnerable people in the UK, made worse by the coronavirus pandemic.
That’s why we’re proud to partner with Carers UK by sponsoring this year’s Carers Week, which aims to raise awareness and highlight the challenges faced by unpaid carers. And when Carers UK reported a huge rise in calls and emails from carers needing extra support during the pandemic, we donated £1m to fund an extended hours service helpline.
We know many of our own customers are carers, so our customer service teams are specially training to understand their specific needs and how we can support them. We’re ensuring help and support is available for carers within our own business too.
Investing to build a diverse workforce for the future
At British Gas, it’s important to us that we provide the best service we can for our customers and our community with well-trained professionals that reflect the customers we serve now and into the future.
The UK needs many more engineers, but there’s a massive gap in gender representation, so we’re committed to building a rich and diverse workforce for the future by recruiting 1,000 apprentices in the next two years onto our award-winning scheme with at least 50% being female.
Reggie Yates went along to our Academy in Leicester and met Ella, Luke and Jess to find out more.
Committing to be a net zero business by 2045
We’ve made significant strides in reducing our own climate footprint – emitting over 80% less carbon than we did a decade ago. As part of our People and Planet Plan - which sets ambitious goals that matter to our business and society – we’re committed to becoming a net zero business by 2045 and helping our customers be net zero by 2050. As part of this, we’ve reduced our UK property emissions by nearly 70% in the last 5 years and installed 140 onsite EV chargers across our property portfolio. We’re also bringing our target forward to electrify our 9,000 strong British Gas fleet of vehicles to 2025 – our EV fleet have already travelled nearly 3 million miles this year. Crucially, all the energy we supply to our customers is zero carbon as standard.
As a responsible energy and services provider, we’re always looking for ways to improve the lives of the people in our communities across Britain and safeguard all our futures. We’ve been doing this for over 200 years, and we’ll be here to solve for many more years to come.