Communications services provider, BT today announced that its newly formed global services sustainability practice has launched a service to help large corporates and public sector organisations reduce their energy consumption and carbon footprint.

BT''s carbon impact assessment enables organisations to accurately calculate the amount of CO2 emissions produced as a result of the use of networked IT services. It also provides a set of workable solutions to help customers reduce their energy consumption and carbon footprint.

Initially available in the UK and the US, the BT carbon impact assessment takes into account the contribute of individuals'' work patterns (such as their travel and IT use) to CO2 emissions, and how business operations, shared services, and building infrastructure add to an organisation''s carbon footprint.

The strength of the approach allows a number of business scenarios to be tested and an assessment made of the associated energy and carbon reductions, such as, ''What if I virtualised all or part of my call centre?'', ''What if I introduced agile working?'', ''What if people didn''t need to travel to meetings?'' and so on.

Dinah McLeod, head of sustainability practice, BT Global Services, said, "Large organisations have many activities that can directly or indirectly cause the emissions of carbon. BT can credibly and demonstrably help a customer understand the role networked IT services plays in both producing and reducing carbon footprint.

"Importantly, when looking at clients'' carbon emissions, we explore both the required behavior change as well as any adjustments to their infrastructure. Many of our customers have yet to mobilise significantly in this area and can benefit from BT''s learning and capabilities to help them in their development of more sustainable business solutions."

BT is recognised as a business leader in the area of CSR and sustainability. It has been recognised as the world''s No.1 telco in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for the seventh consecutive year and has achieved a 60 per cent reduction of its UK carbon emissions from a 1996 baseline. The company has set a further target to reduce emissions by 80 per cent from the 1996 baseline by 2016. BT''s Group-wide Climate Change strategy has four key strands: reducing carbon emissions, influencing suppliers, influencing customers and engaging employees.