Community Impact
Investing in the communities where we operate
For more than 50 years, we have invested our time, skills and money to seek to make meaningful contribution to communities where we operate. Our social investments are predominantly directed towards three main areas of action – building capability for the future, supporting resilient communities, and partnering on environmental sustainability projects.
Building capability
We believe that to be prepared for the jobs of tomorrow, young people will continue to need a strong foundation in STEM education and employability skills. We support initiatives for STEM educators that offer quality in-service training and free educational resources to build capability in the classroom. We also support employability initiatives for individuals to help develop the skills the energy sector needs to deliver energy to the world, today and tomorrow.
STEM resources for educators and students
Educators are key to encourage interest in STEM subjects, and we are backing programmes that offer them enhanced skills, tools and resources for their students. Programmes, such as the Science Museum Academy, and Energising Futures, make available educational training, development and resources. Together, they reached more than 11,000 educators in 2025 with an estimated total reach of well over 850,000 students.
Transition skills on Teesside
The Teesside Clean Energy Technician scholarship programme that we funded at Redcar & Cleveland College welcomed its second group of 20 students in autumn 2024 for the two-year engineering programme. This initiative is designed to help young people develop skills needed for the future.
Supporting resilient communities
We want to help give everyone the opportunity to succeed, whatever their start in life. That is why we are providing a wide range of opportunities, supporting programmes across the UK that are aimed at advancing social mobility and engaging local communities. Our social investments include activities that help to support local livelihoods and enterprise, drive positive health and wellbeing outcomes, and contribute to building thriving and resilient communities. In 2025, our work continued with UK charities dedicated to addressing food poverty and reducing waste. And, as part of our continued response to the UK’s cost of living crisis, we supported efforts to tackle fuel poverty.
Get into Retail with The King’s Trust
We partner with The King’s Trust on their flagship ‘Get into Retail’ programme that gives participants access to valuable work experience and employability training, providing placements to 32 individuals, with 24 progressing to employment with bp. The two-week course gives unemployed young people the opportunity to gain work experience in a store, alongside employability training delivered by The King’s Trust.
Volunteering and charitable giving
We have a long history of direct support through charitable donations, partnership programmes and sharing our time and expertise. In 2024, our employees volunteered 33,500 hours and donated nearly £1 million to charitable causes, including matched funding from the bp Foundation.
Tackling food poverty
Our partnership with The Felix Project started in 2022 and continues today as we support their efforts to redistribute good-quality surplus food to provide 2.9 million meals to some of London’s most vulnerable children and their families.
Working against fuel poverty with Scarf
Scarf’s home energy advice team (HEAT) delivers free, tailored advice to households and businesses across Scotland. bp’s funding towards home energy advisors over three years has helped to enable hundreds of households to cut bills and exit fuel poverty. In 2024-25, the team handled 669 enquiries and completed 534 home visits; 34% of households supported were living in fuel poverty and 25% of those households have been lifted out. Scarf generated £141,525 in financial benefits and made 1,126 referrals and practical interventions to improve household energy efficiency and affordability.
Partnering with the Fuel Bank Foundation
The Fuel Bank Foundation provides vital support to those with a prepayment of gas and/or electricity meter, or those who are off the gas grid and rely on alternative fuels by providing a crisis fuel top-up, intended to help get them warm again. Our partnership with the foundation has supported more than 15,000 households to access emergency fuel vouchers and debt advice. Many get support within 24 hours.
Partnering for environmental sustainability
Through our partnerships and programmes in different parts of the UK, we are providing funding in support of environmental sustainability projects. We have been investing in support of the UK’s biodiversity for decades, including our 20-year collaboration with Future Woodlands Scotland, which originated with the pioneering Scottish Forest Alliance. The Alliance successfully added 5,000 hectares of new or restored native woodland. Here are some of the projects we've supported.
Future Woodlands Scotland
In 2024, applications opened for the 2024 Urban Forestry Challenge Fund, which is part of a commitment to provide up to £10 million over 10 years to support the Urban Forestry Programme with our long-standing partner, Future Woodlands Scotland. Launched with funding from bp, the programme is now supported by JERA Nex bp. As part of its community investment for the planned Morven offshore wind project, the programme aims to address the need for more trees and green spaces in Scotland’s urban areas. bp continues to support the Future Woodlands Scotland Future Skills Programme. Launched in 2024/25, the programme tackles the urgent shortage of skilled workers needed to protect, restore and expand Scotland’s woodlands.
River Dee Trust
In 2023, bp developed a collaboration with the River Dee Trust in the northeast of Scotland. Our support – committed for five years – is funding a programme co-ordinator role for the first phase of the Trust’s new ‘Save the Spring’ programme, which was launched in October 2023, in partnership with the Dee District Salmon Fishery Board and The Atlantic Salmon Trust. In addition, bp’s employees have been involved in multiple volunteer activities, including removing invasive non-native plants from the riverbank near Aberdeen, as well as environmental sampling to help assess river health.
Tees River Trust
bp is supporting the Tees River Trust by providing funding towards a project intended to help restore the ecology of the Tees Estuary. The four-year project is set to see the reintroduction of native species like oysters, restoration of seagrass beds, and the creation of natural habitats for invertebrates and fish.