BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2008/09

"Building and sustaining good relationships with colleagues and suppliers is vital to the smooth running of an efficient operation. And doing the same with audiences is what makes us effective." Caroline Thomson, Chief Operating Officer

Audiences are at the heart of what the BBC does. We consider them in all our editorial decisions, of course – aiming to offer programmes and services that appeal to them and which suit their viewing, listening and other media needs. But they are not our only stakeholders. We also have responsibilities towards those who work for us and those with whom we collaborate and partner in running our business.

So we have to marry up what is best overall with three, often very distinct, sets of expectations.

Audiences

Our range of responsibilities to audiences and licence fee payers includes making sure that we run our business in a clear, transparent and efficient way. Each year we report on how we are doing in our Annual Report, and further information on how the BBC is run can be found on the About the BBC website. But we also have a more immediate impact on people – especially those with whom we come into contact over the year at our events and recordings.

BBC Outreach

We have a wide range of outreach activities that aim to extend our role beyond linear broadcast, where we try to involve audiences in active participation, such as community volunteering, taking part in opportunities to shape BBC output, or using our content to help with learning.

Our BBC Big Screens in 17 different towns and cities across the UK are each customised to reflect life in its host community, with content often produced by local people in partnership with community, arts, education and media organisations. In July we ran the Silk Screens project in the lead up to the Beijing Olympics. Four of our Big Screens hosted simultaneous live events featuring local performers and films made by members of the British Chinese community which were shared across all Big Screens, reaching a live audience of 35,000 and eventually over two million people via the BBC website and regional broadcasts.

In March, School Report from BBC News worked with over 500 schools across the UK, encouraging and enabling over 10,000 11–14 year old students to write and publish their own news reports. The project aims to improve young people's representation and stimulate their political interest. It also produces content for the broader audience, with widespread coverage across regional stations as well as nationally, including reports on the One, Six and Ten O'Clock News broadcasts.

The BBC plays a unique role in supporting the voluntary sector, both through its corporate charities and supporting others. The BBC does not make cash donations to charities but supports fundraising through broadcast appeals. A network of independent Appeals Advisory Committees informs the BBC's management on its charity policy and practice.

The BBC's two major TV broadcast appeals of the year both managed to break fundraising records despite the current economic climate. In November BBC Children in Need raised over £20million during the broadcast appeal itself, while in March Red Nose Day raised over £59million for Comic Relief.

Last year we provided charities with services with a cash equivalent value of £330,000 (2008: £296,000). In addition to broadcast appeals, BBC commercial businesses donated £1,400 to charities during the year (2008: £180,000).

Environment

The environmental impact of our business is particularly important to us. In 2008 we launched a five year environment action plan with ambitious targets for reductions in energy, transport, water and waste.'Choose to make a difference' is the theme of our staff awareness campaign to encourage change behaviour. In addition, we introduced a number of initiatives including 100% recycled office paper, automatic PC switch-off, and promoting video conferencing to cut down on our air miles.

For more details on how well we performed against these targets this year, see our Corporate Responsibility Report.

Our environment targets – by 31 March 2013

Area	Target
Energy	20% reduction in energy consumed per person.
Transport	20% reduction in CO2 emissions per person.
Water	25% reduction in water used per person.
Waste	20% reduction in waste per person and to recycle 75% of waste.

Business in the Community

During the year, we once again took part in Business in the Community's (BitC) Corporate Responsibility Index, improving our ranking from Gold to Platinum.

The Index is the UK's leading voluntary corporate responsibility benchmark, and our score reflects the high standards we aim to achieve in managing our business responsibly. Last year we committed to improve how we manage our environmental impact and to externally verify our Corporate Responsibility Report. Both these areas were successfully addressed, together with continuing improvements in other areas like workplace management and social inclusion.

Find out more about the BitC CR Index.