Centrica introduces its People & Planet Plan

20 April 2021

Sustainability

Bieneosa Ebite, Head of Corporate Communications

Centrica is announcing five goals where the company is well-placed to play its part in creating a more inclusive and sustainable future that supports colleagues, customers and communities. The plan accelerates action in areas that matter deeply to society and where Centrica can have the biggest impact.

To help in the fight against climate change, Centrica has bolstered its climate goals, pledging to help every customer live more sustainably and be net zero by 2050 while working to become a net zero business by 2045. Over the past year, Centrica has transformed to provide 100 per cent zero carbon electricity to all UK customers, and will continue this going forward.

The company is working with customers to accelerate electric vehicle adoption and has upskilled many of its Smart Energy Experts to fit EV charging points. Centrica’s ambition is to install 23,000 EV charging points this year across its residential, small and large business customer base. The company has also brought forward the commitment to electrifying its 12,000-strong fleet of vehicles from 2030 to 2025.

Centrica is introducing bolder goals to create a workforce that reflects the full diversity of the communities it serves, where everyone feels motivated, valued and able to reach their full potential. This includes a commitment to recruit 1,000 apprentices over the next two years, which will play an important role in the company’s contribution to the green homes revolution. While the company acknowledges that boosting female representation in its traditionally male-oriented engineer field force will be challenging, it is already making positive advances, with over 50 per cent of apprentices recruited so far this year being female.

To help build more inclusive communities, Centrica wants to inspire colleagues to volunteer a total of 100,000 days by 2030, building on the success of the partnership with The Trussell Trust, which saw Centrica volunteers helping to deliver four million meals to those most in need during the pandemic.

"As we look to rebuild from COVID-19 and our biggest ever transformation, I want to do things differently and reshape our future to one that’s fairer and protects the environment. That’s why we’ve introduced our People & Planet Plan to create a more inclusive and sustainable future that supports our communities, our planet and each other."

Chris O’Shea, Group Chief Executive, Centrica

Centrica’s People & Planet Plan is underpinned by its refreshed purpose: ‘to help our customers live sustainably, simply and affordably’.

NOTES

Centrica’s five People & Planet Plan goals

Help our customers be net zero by 2050
Be a net zero business by 2045
By 2030, we want to create an engaged team that reflects the full diversity of the communities we serve
By 2022, we want to recruit 1,000 Apprentices, with the ambition for 50% to be women
By 2030, we want to inspire colleagues to give 100,000 days to build inclusive communities

About Centrica

Centrica is a leading energy services and solutions provider founded on a 200-year heritage of serving people. We serve around 10 million customers across the UK, Ireland and Continental Europe through brands such as British Gas, supported by around 9,000 highly trained engineers and technicians. Our purpose drives our strategy to help our customers live sustainably, simply and affordably. You can read the People & Planet Plan in full here: www.centrica.com/sustainability