When it comes to Net Zero, as with much in life, it’s fair to say that no organisation of any significant size can do it all alone. Most small ones would struggle, too.
Fortunately, we operate in a sector in which going it alone isn’t necessary.
Collaboration on the road to decarbonisation is something the water industry fully embraces and, by working together, and innovating together and with others, the sector’s 2030 Routemap for Net Zero is achievable, even if that date sometimes feels alarmingly close.
And if 2030 looms ominously, the 2027 aim we’ve set ourselves at Northumbrian Water might feel unrealistic to some.
But it’s not. And, having already cut our carbon emissions from 303,000 tonnes in 2008 to 56,000 in 2020, and embraced all the benefits of collaboration and innovation, it’s both ambitious and achievable.
Though, not “easy”.
Yes, we’ve come a long way, thanks in part to working with the right partners, building and nurturing relationships where we share our learning and experiences for the benefit of all. Whether this is as part of the sector-wide routemap or when working through a specific challenge, each piece of learning, each breakthrough has the potential to be shared, delivering wider carbon reductions. And, of course, we’re involved globally, as part of the United Nations’ Race To Zero campaign.
The water industry is at the forefront of collaboration, especially when it comes to the 2030 Routemap to Net Zero, which is a world first full sector plan.
I would estimate that more than 15,000 hours of people’s time has been put into this collaborative push, with weekly and monthly meetings, technical reviews and knowledge sharing all helping us move collectively towards our individual and joint targets.
The breadth of knowledge within our industry, and which is being harnessed for all – not in silos – is hugely encouraging and has been a major factor in the successes so far and those we aim to achieve to reach our goals.
We have supplemented this with outside technical contributions from experts covering energy, process emissions, transport, offsetting, embodied emissions and more. And I have no doubt these outside experts will have enhanced their experience and knowledge through working with us, and will take that to help other organisations and sectors they support.
With excellent support from Mott Macdonald and Ricardo, we pooled this collective knowledge to produce the industry routemap. The experience has catalysed and furthered in-sector collaboration and the potential broader benefits of this are huge.
We’ve led, followed and joined partners on a shared road to discovery.
As we were the first company to use 100 per cent of our sewage sludge to create green energy, our team have sat on AAD and Gas2Grid UK user groups, sharing our industry-leading experience, and have led and hosted Gas2Grid work that looks at operations and health and safety in this area.
Severn Trent are leading the innovation bid to tackle process emissions from sewage treatment, which is something we will all benefit from, and ourselves, Yorkshire and Anglian are working together through Innovate East to decarbonise our fleets.
So, in short, customers can be assured that we collaboratively pursue what is best for them and their environments.
Having mentioned collaboration and innovation, of course, I can’t avoid mentioning the success of Northumbrian Water’s Innovation Festivals – or, as our chief executive Heidi Mottram has said “they’re now the industry’s Innovation Festivals”, having been wholeheartedly embraced as the place to innovate. They thrive and are now adopted globally because of the collaborative spirit they embody, bringing people together from different organisations, sectors and walks of life, to tackle shared challenges.
Everyone brings their own perspective to the subject and, somewhere, among all that knowledge and experience, quite often there lies an answer that nobody involved would have happened upon had they been sat alone in a room. Or we find a spirit to join together in unprecedented ways. Just look at the development of the National Underground Asset Register, spawned at the 2018 festival.
It’s inevitable that carbon reduction and the path to net zero would feature heavily in the 2021 festival, which is a hybrid event following the success of 2020’s virtual activities.
There are no fewer than seven sprints being planned where people will collaborate on challenges that in some way tie in to carbon and sustainability issues.
We’ll be looking at how to drive carbon out of capital infrastructure delivery with ESH Stantec, using research and development to identify the most effective innovations for tackling net zero with Durham University, and bringing multiple utilities together to influence behaviour change for sustainability, with Smart Energy Water.
A sprint with National Energy Action, looking at tackling water poverty, and working with Capita to look at how smart data can drive lower water usage, will also both support the Net Zero push, as will the sprints with IBM, looking at how we can reduce emissions through balancing energy demand, and with Galliford Try, exploring asset optimisation.
That’s a lot of collaboration kicking off next month to supplement the inspiring work that is already underway. And the Net Zero clock is ticking.