Our approach to sustainability
Our approach to sustainability is targeted, systematic and collaborative. It rests on strong, well-established foundations. We are working to embed sustainability more widely and deeply in our culture, business decisions, processes and governance
Safety
At bp, safety comes first and is foundational to everything we do. We want to improve our safety performance and work towards the goal we set in 2021 to eliminate fatalities, life-changing injuries and tier 1 process safety events.
Operating management system (OMS)
Our OMS provides a single framework for delivering safe, reliable and compliant operations. It brings together bp requirements on health, safety, security, environment, social performance and operational reliability, as well as related areas such as maintenance, working with contractors and organizational learning, into a common management system.
Ethics and compliance
Our code of conduct sets the standards and expectations for how we do the right thing and empowers us to speak up without fear of retaliation. It is the foundation of ‘Who we are’ and puts safety first.
Together with our Safety Leadership Principles and OMS, it helps us make safe and ethical decisions, act responsibly, comply with applicable laws and deliver our sustainability frame.
Our code applies to all bp employees, officers and board members. Our regular mandatory training and communications help employees understand how to apply it and how to raise questions or concerns. All bp employees are required to confirm annually that they have read and understand our code and act in accordance with its principles. We expect and encourage all our contractors and their employees to act in ways that are consistent with our code.
Speaking up
Everyone who works for bp has a responsibility to speak up if they become aware of something that is unsafe, unlawful or inconsistent with our code of conduct. We encourage people to speak up and we do not tolerate retaliation of any kind and consider it to be misconduct.
Concerns or enquiries can be raised through multiple speak up channels. These include line managers, senior leaders, contacts in our people, culture & communications, ethics & compliance and legal teams, works councils, or our confidential global helpline, OpenTalk. This helpline is available 24/7 in more than 75 languages, by phone or internet, to employees, the wider workforce, communities, business partners and other stakeholders who want to raise a concern.
We take potential misconduct seriously and thoroughly review and respond to it, including conducting investigations where appropriate.
Anti-bribery and corruption
We operate in parts of the world where bribery and corruption present a high risk, so it is important to inform our employees, contractors, suppliers, and others, that our commitment to ethical and compliant operations is unwavering.
Our code explicitly prohibits engaging in any form of bribery or corruption and includes an expectation that we work to ensure our business partners comply with our requirements.
Our group-wide anti-bribery and corruption, anti-money laundering and anti-tax evasion policies and procedures all include measures and guidance to assess and mitigate risks, understand relevant laws and report concerns. We provide appropriate training for employees in locations or roles assessed to be at a higher risk of bribery and corruption.
Our people
We have more than 87,800 employees around the world, and they are crucial to delivering our purpose and strategy. We focus on providing the support and skills they need to thrive and help bp succeed.
We aim to provide our people with the skills they need for their current roles and for the energy transition and we are working to build skills forecasts and implement capability plans across bp, including those for our transition growth engines such as hydrogen, offshore wind, digital and our electric vehicle charging business, bp pulse.
Diversity, equity and inclusion
Our focus on DE&I can help us become the first-choice integrated energy company for the world’s best and brightest talent – a bp that reflects our customers and sources products and services from an increasingly diverse supplier base.
We are making progress on our global framework for action and all bp entities have now set DE&I actions plans, based on the three pillars of our global framework: transparency, accountability and talent.
Incentivization and performance management
We are advocating for policies that support net zero, incentivizing our workforce, assessing our alignment with trade associations and helping corporates achieve their decarbonization goals. We are also taking steps to increase the transparency of our disclosures.
Our annual bonus for all eligible employees, including the bp leadership team, has been linked to a sustainability measure since 2019 and the bonus scorecard against which our employees are measured incentivizes them through three themes: safety and sustainability, operational performance and financial performance. For 2024 our sustainability measure is now linked to our operated carbon emissions. This measure covers the same Scope 1 and 2 emissions reported under aim 1 (net zero operations).
Our group leaders’ incentive plan is also directly linked to progress on aim 1 (net zero operations), and for group leaders two social measures are included – on employee engagement and improved ethnic minority representation in our senior-level leader population and above.
Policies and practices
Our policies and practices set out expectations for how we manage environmental and social performance before, during and after our activities. They already include environmental and social requirements, which form the foundation for many of our sustainability aims.
Supplier expectations
We want to work with suppliers who strive for sustainability in their supply chains. We try to develop and strengthen relationships with suppliers who are committed to and act in accordance with our code of conduct.
Governance
The board is responsible for setting the strategy and for monitoring bp’s management and operations as we work to deliver against our targets and aims.
The board-level safety & sustainability committee oversees effective implementation of the sustainability frame and management of health, safety, environmental, social and human rights risks.
Our executive-level group sustainability committee is chaired by our EVP, strategy, sustainability & ventures. The committee provides oversight, challenge and support in the implementation of our sustainability frame and oversight of the management sustainability risks and opportunities, including those related to climate change.
