Your environment

Your environment

Our customers quite rightly value the environment and expect us to play a part in making it better, supporting the wildlife that lives within it. They also want us to prepare for future challenges, such as population growth and climate change.

We are committed to reducing the impact of our essential operations and continue to implement more sustainable ways of pumping, treating and distributing millions of litres of water every single day. This includes only using 100 per cent renewable energy and increasing our own solar generation which has drastically reduced our carbon emissions as we use enough electricity each day to power 13,000 homes!

Other commitments we have made include attaining The Wildlife Trusts’ Biodiversity Benchmark at a number of our sites as well as an ongoing trial of electric vehicles.

Our environmental policy details how we assess the effect of our activities on the environment.

Preventing plastic pollution

We are working alongside other UK water companies to help achieve the industry’s Public Interest Commitments, one of which is to prevent the equivalent of 4 billion plastic bottles ending up as waste by 2030.

As part of this commitment we opened a water station to the public in the reception area of our Redhill head office, ready to hydrate the local residents in the town. We have also supported the opening of other water stations in towns across our supply area, including Dorking and Leatherhead and will continue to look for opportunities to do so.

As a company we will continually look for ways to reduce our single plastic use for example we have already removed single use plastic cups at drinking stations, worked with caterers to remove single use soup cups, reduced magazine subscriptions across the Company, provided all staff with re-usable water bottles and introduced re-usable sampling bottles in our laboratory.

Our local approach

Throughout the catchments and landholdings where we operate, we have been working with local partners to protect and improve the environment. Our Bough Beech estate, sat in the heart of the Eden catchment, is home to a variety of local businesses, interest networks and wildlife, and is at the forefront of this work. 
 
Working with our neighbour and partner, the Commonwork Trust at Bore Place, where our shared purpose centres around people and nature, we have embarked on a programme to provide nature-based learning, managed access to the estate and improved conservation management. This is in part supported by Defra’s Farming in Protected Landscapes funding, which complements our investment into estate facilities and will provide a local amenity space at Bough Beech Nature Reserve.
 
Elsewhere on the estate, we are exploring opportunities with our joint users and working to help with their ambitions where possible. This is important to support the resilience and growth of the local rural economy. Our joint users and catchment partners include farming families and enterprises that depend on the Eden catchment. 
 
Building on our estate management and wider catchment projects, we believe working with agricultural partners across the Eden will provide an invaluable network to the farming community and help us address catchment pressures together. Working with Bore Place and the South East Rivers Trust we have shared our resources and funding to secure a Farm Cluster Officer who can facilitate the needs of the Lower Eden Farm Cluster as they establish. This will centre around the Cluster’s core principles of (1) food security and agricultural support, (2) water management and (3) landscape and nature recovery. 

Looking ahead to our next regulatory period (2025-2030), we will embark on a project as part of the Water Industry National Environment Programme to define a series of nature-based solutions and interventions we can take on with partners across the Eden catchment to achieve a more sustained river flow and better water quality. We are working towards continued sustainable abstraction from the River Eden in the face of a changing climate, whilst supporting a growing population and contributing to measures that alleviates soil erosion and supports improved agricultural productivity across the local area.

Community fund for natural flood management in the Upper Darent Catchment

Under the Water Industry National Environment Programme (WINEP), we have agreed to work with local stakeholders to help improve the Upper Darent water body in Kent to help meet the Water Framework Directive objectives.

We are making available a community fund for the benefit of any non-profit organisation / a project with a close link to natural flood management or river restoration in the Upper Darent catchment area. All you need to do is complete this form and we will review each application carefully before deciding if we are to award any funds. You can apply for an amount up to £5,000 so well worth submitting an application!