Running on tap water - SES Water partners with Run Reigate

23/08/21

Today, SES Water has announced its partnership with Run Reigate as the official water provider at the event, which will save 24,000 single-use plastic bottles from being given out on the day.

In this, the first year of the partnership, SES Water will provide 5,000 runners with high-quality water straight from its standpipes at drinking stations along the route, as well as from a 15,000-litre branded tanker near the finish line. Volunteers will provide thirsty participants with a much-need drink using bio-degradable cups.

The multi award-winning Run Reigate event takes place for the seventh time on Sunday 19 September and offers the opportunity to run a half marathon, 10k, 5k or kids’ race from Reigate’s Priory Park.

This is SES Water’s latest initiative as part of the water industry’s commitment to prevent the   equivalent of four billion plastic bottles ending up as waste by 2030.

The Company has already opened a water refill station in its Redhill head office for local residents to use, installed other water stations in towns across its supply area such as Dorking and Leatherhead, provided all its staff with re-usable water bottles and introduced re-usable glass sampling bottles in its laboratory. Last year, in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, SES Water also gave thousands of water bottles to East Surrey Hospital to keep its wonderful NHS workers hydrated.

SES Water Wholesale Director, Tom Kelly, said: “We’re especially proud to be partnering with Run Reigate for the first time this year. As a local company we take an active part in improving the areas we are privileged to serve, tackling environmental challenges like climate change. By providing thousands of litres of our top-quality tap water to the runners for free at this year’s event, we will prevent 24,000 plastic bottles from being given out – laid end to end that’s five kilometres of single use plastic being saved, which is phenomenal.”

Run Reigate Event Director, David Kelly, said: “Removing thousands of plastic water bottles is the next step on our journey to making the event more sustainable, and we are hugely grateful to have the support, knowledge and experience of SES Water in this area.  As we are both responsible local companies committed to our communities and the environment, this is a great partnership with exciting opportunities ahead”.

Heath Cabinet Member for Environment at Surrey County Council, Marisa Heath, said:

“We are so pleased to see this initiative which demonstrates a real commitment to reducing single use plastic within Surrey and aligns to our work on tackling climate change and increasing sustainability across the county.  We have to work with businesses to achieve our environmental goals and so we are really pleased to see that SES is so committed to taking action itself and we really support its work to get rid of plastic bottles for Run Reigate but also the wider provision of water refill stations across the county which is good for all our residents.”