Everflow buys offsets to become carbon neutral

Everflow, the water and technology company, has claimed to have become the first UK water company to offer carbon neutral water supplies to retail customers.

The company has offset the carbon for water it supplies between 2021-23 through a carbon credits initiative from Earthly for its company and supply chain emissions.

Everflow said, like water wholesalers, it was working towards achieving net zero by 2040 by minimising its carbon emissions as much as possible and offsetting the unavoidable ones through carbon removal projects. The company has engaged with the Science Based Targets Initiatives to set achievable milestone target dates for reaching its goal.

“We’re committed to doing everything we can to protect and secure the environment for future generations, and we’ve implemented a number of schemes and initiatives to ensure this,” said chief executive Josh Gill.

“That includes taking measures to offset our whole supply chain, as well as our customers’ supply chains, through buying carbon credits to offset all emissions produced in the process – from getting water from reservoirs, treating it and it going back into the sea.”

The company has also joined the Octopus employee electric vehicle scheme for staff who want to move away from a fossil fuel car.

“We’re also taking a good look at the areas of our business that generate the most emissions and following our new action plan to minimise our carbon footprint as we grow the business,” Gill added.

Clare Galland, Everflow’s environmental and regulatory affairs manager explained the business has committed to offsetting the emissions from its customers’ supplies as well as inhouse.

“We’ve done this by buying certified carbon credits from THG Eco, which means that our customer contracts are fully carbon neutral from 2021 to 2023 inclusive, and our own business is carbon neutral from 2020 until the end of 2023.

“We use a lot of third parties for services such as meter reading, debt collection and changes of tenancy. Therefore, a further part of our commitment to achieving net zero by 2040 will focus on supporting our suppliers and partners to join us on our journey by reducing their own emissions,” she said.

The company said it is due to publish its carbon footprint reports for 2020 and 2021 shortly along with an associated high level carbon reduction plan for this year. It will set science based targets for achieving net zero.