Anglian Water has significantly reduced its carbon footprint with the help of Achilles’ Carbon Reduce scheme, bringing it closer to achieving its ambitious net zero goals.
The largest water and water recycling company in England and Wales has seen a 38% reduction in scope 1, 2 and mandatory scope 3 emissions since its base year, and a 63% reduction in capital carbon since 2010.
Following the Carbon Reduce programme (which helps organisations to benchmark, monitor and reduce their carbon emissions), it has also been placed in CPD’s leadership category, encouraged 46 of its main suppliers to join the scheme, and expanded its reporting to cover evolving ISO requirements.
Anglian Water supplies water and water recycling services to more than six million domestic and business customers. It began its work around decarbonisation in 2010, defying industry norms and setting out to halve emissions associated with its built assets by 2015.
With the support of supply chain sustainability specialist Achilles, and after submitting historical data dating back to 2007 – 2008, it became one of just 29 companies to achieve Carbon Reduce accreditation for 10 consecutive years.
David Riley, head of carbon neutrality at Anglian Water, explained: “We looked at emissions from extracting raw materials, transportation, fabrication and construction of infrastructure assets we build, as well as the operational carbon to run it all – to get a holistic view of our impact.”
After setting itself the goal of achieving net zero by 2030, it joined the Carbon Reduce scheme.
Achilles continues to guide Anglian Water through the two-step programme, which involves auditing the water company’s net zero progress and benchmarking this progress against worldwide standards.
The two organisations work together to ensure that the latest ISO standards are met, and have developed a decarbonisation roadmap focusing on three areas: reducing energy consumption, using renewable energy, and carbon offsetting for residual emissions.
Anglian Water also works closely with its suppliers, ensuring that they meet the latest ISO standards.
David commented: “It is absolutely vital to get the supply chain involved. As a standalone organisation, you can achieve so much but it’s only when you fully engage the supply chain you start to achieve much more significant reductions. Not only that, but we want to work with leading suppliers who are looking at their own emissions.”
Commenting on Anglian Water’s partnership with Achilles, he concluded: “It is really valuable to have expertise from the Achilles team on tap. I know that when we get in touch and ask a question – be it on renewable energy, certification, green energy, biogas or something else – that they will either go away and find the answer or find someone within the team who will be able to give an answer.”
Achilles representative added: “As the world’s population increases and the climate changes, businesses are under growing pressure to cut their carbon emissions. We’re committed to supporting them, and are delighted that Anglian Water is making good progress in its drive to achieve operational net zero by 2030.”
