Mitigation - managing our carbon emissions

Mitigation means taking action now to reduce greenhouse gas sources and emissions from our business. It also means enhancing greenhouse gas sinks with the aim of reducing the extent of global warming and the rate of climate change.

The primary element of Anglian Water's mitigation strategy is called the Energy Initiative. The Energy Initiative aims to reduce energy costs by 20 per cent by 2010, as well as reducing our impact on the environment by reducing our carbon emissions.

We are one of the largest energy users in the East of England. This is a big cost to us as well as having an adverse effect on the environment through the resulting carbon emissions.

We have set a target to reduce our carbon emissions by 20 per cent by 2010 compared to the 2006/7 baseline of 748 GWh. This consists of:

• 6 per cent reduction in our energy consumption.
• 14 per cent reduction by generating our own electricity from wind and biogas - produced from the wastewater treatment process.

To achieve this we have initiatives focused on energy efficiency, renewable energy and transport.

Without strong and early mitigation, adaptation costs will be much greater. This is why Anglian Water has embarked on a business-wide energy programme now.