BBC publishes Annual Corporate Responsibility Report 2010/2011

The BBC has continued to succeed in its work with charities, outreach activities and plans to boost sustainability, its Corporate Responsibility Performance Report 2010/2011 shows today. 

Thanks to the generosity of the British public over £100m was raised for charitable causes during the previous financial year, benefiting thousands of charities across the UK and overseas including:

• BBC Children in Need which raised over £18m in its November appeal and £40m in total
• A record £74m raised as part of Comic Relief's Red Nose Day in March – the highest total in its 23 year history
• DEC appeals which, for example, helped raise £69m along with other broadcasters following the floods in Pakistan last August
• The BBC Performing Arts Fund which provided bursary schemes totalling £200,000 for budding talent in musical theatre

The BBC's outreach projects involved thousands of people, boosting skills and adding extra purpose to our programming including:

• 800 schools taking part in BBC News School Report's annual News Day, where young people make news reports. The BBC aims to work with at least 1,000 schools next year
• Launching the Olympic Dreams School Network which twins UK schools with international schools that were attended by Olympic athletes hoping to compete in London 2012
• Proms Plus which increased accessibility of classical music to people of all ages and backgrounds
• The First Click campaign to help digitally excluded people get online where 63,000 people got in touch to access a beginners course
• Supporting volunteering with 439 BBC staff working as volunteers with our charity partners and over 400 supporting School Report as volunteer mentors

To ensure our activities are as sustainable as possible the BBC has:

• Pioneered Albert, our carbon calculator which helps TV producers to manage and cut the carbon footprint of their programmes. The calculator is now being developed with industry via a BAFTA led consortia and will be formally launched as an industry-wide resource at the Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival next month
• Reduced CO2 missions from travel with a new "rail as default" policy which has helped cut domestic flights taken by BBC. Introduced cab-sharing, and increased video conferencing by 37%
• Beaten targets to reduce waste to landfill and almost doubled the reduction made last year by boosting recycling
• Implemented rainwater harvesting systems that produce all the water used for meetings in White City, and introduced water saving devices across BBC buildings
• Invested in energy efficient buildings as major projects to relocate staff progress including MediaCityUK in Salford and our new drama village under construction in Cardiff Bay

BBC Chief Operating Officer Caroline Thomson said: "The BBC makes great content first and foremost – but as Britain's main Public Service Broadcaster there is huge potential for us to add extra purpose to our programmes, whether it's inspiring young people to become the next generation of journalists, presenters or performers or simply letting people know how they can get online.

"We will continue to do as much as we can in the year ahead to ensure we operate our business in the most sustainable way, including sharing our knowledge with other broadcasters and producers." 

(Source : BBC Press Office)