How we work towards a smart environment

Let’s help the environment to help us. After all, it’s looked after us pretty well for hundreds of thousands of years. It’s the source of our precious resource – water.

Being smart about the environment means transforming behaviours by playing a leading role in reshaping how society values and uses water, and reducing our combined impact on the world around us.

Celebrate our achievements and our future

We’re already doing some fantastic things to preserve our shared environment:

• We’re reducing energy use across the business, working with colleagues, partners and suppliers to identify more opportunities to cut carbon. In 2011/12, we cut our operational carbon emissions by 3.7% to 485,273 tonnes of CO2e.
• We also generate our own power. In 2011/12, we generated 45.9GWh of renewable energy, which is enough to power the town of Wisbech – that’s around 11,500 homes – and by 2015 we aim to generate 86.8 GWh.
• We’ve reduced the ‘embodied’ carbon used in building assets such as water mains, sewers and pumping stations, by 32% since 2010.
• We’re taking many steps to adapt to and prepare for the challenges of a changing climate and to protect our customers and assets.
• We’re a founding sponsor of the University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership (CPSL) Collaboratory on Sustainable Water Stewardship. This brings together government departments, non-governmental organisations, regulatory bodies, trade unions, private companies and academics to encourage collective action and tackle the challenges of tomorrow.
• Run in partnership with Keep Britain Tidy, our RiverCare programme - part of our Biodiversity Action Plan -  means miles of beautiful waterside are adopted and treasured by community groups. In 2011/12, more than 800 volunteers across the region spent over 18,000 hours clearing litter, carrying out conservation work and conducting wildlife surveys.