Call for water sector ‘environmental contract’

Water companies should make environmental commitments that mirror social contracts, the All Party Parliamentary (APPG) Water Group heard last week as part of discussions on the sector’s role in reaching net zero.

Ian Barker, director at Institute of Water and Water Policy International’s founder and managing director, told the virtual APPG Water that an “explicit commitment and environmental contract” would send a strong positive message to customers and communities.

He said culture, mindset and reputation may be helped by such a pledge to complement the public interest commitments and social contracts companies have made.

Water UK’s roadmap to net zero was shared as part of the meeting and household water consumption was noted as a significant contributor to energy and carbon usage.

Barker highlighted the limited understanding billpayers have of water usage and its connection to energy consumption.

He said achieving net-zero carbon required a cultural change from within water companies to constantly work to reduce emissions and make the targets integral to everything they do.

“Net zero is a tremendous ambition, but it doesn’t exist in isolation. It needs to be embedded in everything a company does, and to act as a catalyst to drive other improvements for the benefits for customers and the environment,” Barker said.

Ambitions to lower consumption and leakage, for example, he said should be revisited in the context of reaching net zero and the wider benefits that can be gained by reducing demand.

Paul Horton, chief executive of Future Water Association, echoed the need to address consumption but suggested a catchment-wide approach when considering the implications for abstraction. He said in the context of the upcoming environment bill the sector should be looking for “a better approach than PCC targets” to address demand issues.

The Environment Bill is at the report stage in the House of Commons. Reductions to abstraction, leakage, chemical runoff from agriculture and cutting pollutants in waterways will all be reassessed under the bill and an inclusion for water labelling is anticipated.