Statement Reaffirming Support for Business Roundtable’s Corporate Purpose

This year in particular has shown that businesses can’t operate in isolation. We can’t just be focused on efficient production, sales growth and bottom line results. We must contribute more than jobs, products and returns to society, and people — rightfully — expect us to step up even more when times are tough. We need to help our communities and customers. Support our partners and suppliers. Look after our employees. Deliver for our investors. Care for our planet. And importantly — as best we can — we should strive to serve all our stakeholders in a thoughtful and balanced way.

A year has now passed since we signed the Business Roundtable’s Statement on the Purpose of the Corporation. This Statement was significant because big businesses were for the first time collectively recognizing our wider stakeholder responsibilities. I am pleased to reaffirm bp’s support for this important initiative.

I am new to my job, but the first thing my team and I did was to update our purpose — to reimagine energy for people and our planet — because it is foundational to all that we do.

From there we built a new ambition to become a net zero company by 2050 or sooner, and to help the world reach net zero. We outlined a new strategy to transition from an international oil company to an integrated energy company.

This reinvention of bp is all guided by our purpose. It comes down to the fact that employees are happier when their personal purpose aligns with their company’s.

Not just that — but it attracts new talent. And partnerships. And new support.

Reaching net zero and helping the world get there is a huge undertaking — but I am confident we can pull it off because of the power of purpose. This will motivate staff, support stakeholders and hopefully engage investors who want, not just reliable returns and growth, but an opportunity to contribute to sustainability.

Even during this cruel pandemic we have followed our purpose. With so many of the vulnerable hit so hard — we have tried to help the communities where we live and work when they need it the most. After all — they have looked after us in the past, and it is right that we strive to look after them now.

So, as we reflect a year on from the ground-breaking Statement on the Purpose of the Corporation — we wholeheartedly reaffirm our support — aware that it is has never been more relevant.