Centrica introduces Responsible Business Ambitions out to 2030

The Ambitions support the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals and aim to tackle some of the most challenging issues facing the environment and wider society, focussing on four key areas: customers, climate change, colleagues, and the communities in which Centrica operates.

The company has set out clear goals for tackling climate change up to 2030 that are aligned to the Paris Agreement, including a target to deliver 7GW of flexible, distributed and low carbon technologies globally - equivalent to over 10% of current UK peak demand.

Centrica’s distributed energy and power business, Centrica Business Solutions, sits at the heart of the climate goals, which will be achieved through a combination of customer solutions and owned projects including battery storage, solar, combined heat and power (CHP), demand-side response, and peaking plants. The company’s energy marketing and trading business will also play a key role in providing a route-to-market for renewables by balancing and trading power production as part of multiple wind farm agreements across Europe.

“We’ve already come a long way and now produce over 80% less carbon than we did a decade ago through shifting our focus away from being a traditional utility operating centralised generation and production assets to become a customer-facing energy and services company. We have now committed to reduce Centrica’s internal emissions by a further 35% in the ten years to 2025 and, by 2030, demonstrate that we remain on track with Paris and develop a path to net zero by 2050.

“We are now entering a new phase where we must innovate to facilitate and harness our customers’ ability to change, finding ways to help our customers use energy more sustainably, decarbonise the energy system and reduce our own emissions.”

In addition to the 7GW goal, the company has committed to helping customers reduce their emissions by 25%, directly contributing 3% via its products and services, which is equivalent to the annual emissions of 2.5 million UK homes. Centrica will further reduce customer emissions indirectly through de-carbonising the wider energy system and using their expertise to influence policy and establish the conditions required for de-carbonisation.

For more information, go to www.centrica.com

Notes to editors:

Centrica’s 2030 Responsible Business Ambitions also include:   

• Reducing Centrica’s internal emissions by 35% in the ten years to 2025 and develop a path to net zero by 2050;
• Doubling the number of female recruits into Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) roles, up to 40%;
• Supporting 2,500 young people not in education or employment with skills development opportunities;
• Encouraging employees to share their skills by volunteering over 100,000 days;
• Building a more inclusive workforce by helping 1 million carers stay in or return to work via active promotion of carer-positive policies;
• Applying new energy technologies to drive positive change by delivering £5 billion of value for communities, including £300 million in energy efficiency savings to public and essential services.

About Centrica plc:

Centrica plc is an international energy and services company. Everything we do is focused on satisfying the changing needs of our customers. We aim to deliver shareholder value through returns and growth, be a trusted corporate citizen, an employer of choice and to be known as a forward-looking energy and services company.

We supply energy and services to more than 25 million customer accounts in the UK, Ireland and North America through brands such as British Gas, Direct Energy, Bord Gáis Energy and Hive, all supported by around 15,000 engineers and technicians.   

We have three global business divisions: Centrica Consumer, Centrica Business and Exploration & Production. All are underpinned by investment in technology.

For more information, please contact:

Emily Highmore-Talbot on 07557 614936 or emily.highmoretalbot@centrica.com