Pollution Incident Reduction Plan

Our responsibility to the environment is integral to our company purpose, and central to this ambition is improving our pollutions performance.

We acknowledge our recent performance hasn’t been to the standard we or our customers expect, and our Pollution Incident Reduction Plan (PIRP), sets out the actions we are taking between 2023 and 2025 to improve our pollutions performance. 

 

We have already made significant changes to our business and invested in new technologies and ways of working that will lay the foundation to reduce pollutions over the next two years, but we also know it will take time to reach the results we want to achieve.  

 

While we are moving forward with urgency, we know the time it will take to yield the high level of results we seek is frustrating for our teams and customers, but we are determined to make good on our promises.

What have we been doing since the last PIRP was published? 

 

We’ve redesigned our business to bring in a new Director of Water Recycling and developed a new Quality and Environment directorate to ensure we run an improved, effective and efficient water recycling operation and fulfil our requirements for water quality and the wider environment. We’ve carried out a root and branch review of our performance, teams and culture, putting steps in place to ensure we have the right operational controls and processes to do the basics brilliantly. We have been learning and exploring how we can apply new technologies to different asset types alongside placing a firm emphasis on the prevention of pollutions in all that we do.  

 

A preventative approach 

 

We’re using predictive analytics, machine learning and innovative technology to ensure our data is accurate, transparent and allows us to monitor trends to support intelligent decision making. This will allow us to be proactive about actions we take regarding our assets. This is being implemented at pace, but we know it will take time to see the cumulative impact of this on our results.

 

As a result of the monitoring and telemetry we’ve put in place, we have a more comprehensive understanding of our pollutions performance across our network than ever before. This, in turn, is identifying pollutions that in previous decades may have been missed, whilst helping us to prevent others from occurring in the first place.

 

We are already seeing progress of this predictive technology. For example, the new systems are already achieving an 81% positive success rate in correctly identifying issues we need to respond to. We have also had one of our highest-ever level of self-reporting of pollution incidents in 2022 as a result of our improved monitoring and commitment from our teams on timely and transparent reporting.

 

Pollution Incident Reduction Plan 2023-2025

File icon Pollution Incident Reduction Plan

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