Community Impact
bp has been backing Britain for over 100 years and is investing to produce the home-grown energy the country needs today while developing lower carbon forms of energy for the future. We are equally committed to using our skills and resources to support and inspire communities in the places we operate, as well as people right across the UK.
Our projects create significant economic value and local jobs, with a ripple effect multiplied through our supply chains. Alongside this, through a range of social investments and charity donations, we also work with a variety of organisations to make a positive impact on society.
Investing in education and skills for a just transition
We’ve been enabling outreach in education, with a particular emphasis on Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM), for more than 50 years to inspire the next generation and help develop home-grown talent with the skills to work in the energy sector and support the energy transition.
In 2022, 1 in 4 primary schools and half of all secondary schools in the UK used free materials developed and provided by bp and we supported 1,000 teachers as a founding member of the Science Museum’s STEM Academy. For decades, we’ve also funded the bp Student Tutoring Scheme, which has provided positive role models in further and higher education for generations of young people across Aberdeen and the north-east of Scotland.
Alongside this, we’ve committed to invest up to £40 million with our partners in Teesside to support the development of skills and wider community regeneration, including a new scholarship programme in partnership with the Clean Energy Education Hub at Redcar and Cleveland College.
For more information on the initiatives we are helping to deliver across the UK to build the workforce of the future visit:
Fostering a more diverse and representative society and workforce
We want to give everyone the opportunity to succeed, wherever they start in life. We’re helping to break down barriers to social mobility by supporting growth across Britain in a way that changes lives and aims to benefit generations to come.
We partner with organisations that can help us achieve our ambitions, including Ambitious About Autism, The Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers, and The Forage - which facilitates work experience for candidates from under-represented groups.
We also play an important role in our communities by promoting greater diversity, equity and inclusion across our workforce, our customers and our supply chain. For example, in 2022 through our work with Minority Supplier Development UK, we quadrupled our spend with certified diverse suppliers, from £2.98 million to £13 million. We are also actively looking at how we provide opportunities at bp, such as through apprenticeships for students who meet social mobility criteria.
To see more examples of our social mobility and diversity support visit:
bp has a long history of directly supporting community organisations and charities as well as arts, culture, and sporting organisations through charitable donations, partnership programmes and sharing our expertise.
Recently we’ve stepped up our support for fuel and food poverty charities and innovation programmes. In 2022, we donated more than £14 million to help some of the most vulnerable people in the UK, with plans for a similar level of support this year.
We’re also committed to supporting transformational programmes for local communities. For 20 years we’ve supported Future Woodlands Scotland. This year we committed £10 million to their new Urban Forestry Fund to create greener cities, towns and urban areas across Scotland.
Established in 1998, the River Dee Trust is a community-based charitable organization based in Scotland. Its work is guided by the principle of better understanding and improving the River Dee so that it is looked after for this and future generations.
The Save The Spring programme was launched by the River Dee Trust in October 2023, in partnership with the Dee District Salmon Fishery Board and The Atlantic Salmon Trust.
The 20-year programme targets conservation and habitat restoration across the Dee and its tributaries from its source high in the Cairngorms, through the communities along its banks, and in Aberdeen City and the Port of Aberdeen.
As part of a five-year partnership, bp is funding a new River Restoration Coordinator role that will enable the Trust to drive forward its ambitious Save The Spring programme.
The new position will enable the organization to progress its ambitions and urgently address the need to increase biodiversity to benefit all wildlife including the river’s iconic spring-run Atlantic salmon that is now facing the threat of extinction.
In addition, bp colleagues participated in a volunteer day on the upper Dee in March. 19 volunteers attended the tree-planting day which took place along the River Dee on the Abergeldie Estate. Over the course of the day the volunteers planted 800 trees including alder and rowan as well as willow, aspen and birch.
For more information on the Save The Spring programme click here – tell me more