How Southern is transforming with an ex-EA executive

Toby Willison joined Southern Water from the Environment Agency in November as director of environment and corporate affairs. He talks to Utility Week about the company’s ambitions for a holistic approach to improving the environment.

There was a fair amount of controversy when Southern announced Willison would be joining its ranks last year, especially when the company was being prosecuted by the Environment Agency for historic misreporting offences.

Concerns were raised that the relationship with the regulator had become too close, but Willison believes that a “close yet challenging” relationship is the best one. He says his 18 years with the EA, including as director of operations and acting chief executive showed him the best outcomes came from mutual understanding and shared objectives and priorities.

“I’ve worked with every water company and I could see that Southern was on the cusp of transforming its performance. Chief executive Ian MacAulay put in a whole new leadership team and a great vision for the company. The building blocks are in place to drive the company forward and I wanted to be part of that.”

Willison says Southern’s plan to create a resilient future for the south east also means protecting the environment, in particular the chalk streams at risk of over-abstraction. The company is increasingly turning to nature-based solutions as it faces the dual issues of climate change and population growth.

Interventions such as creating wetlands, planting trees, creating river margins, and withdrawing land from agricultural use can increase the ability of the natural environment to store water, taking pressure of the system whilst also improving its quality.

“We’re really enthusiastic about looking at nature-based solutions that fulfil multiple benefits. They give great value for the environment and provide resilience to our assets and amenity value for communities,” Willison says.

“Infrastructure businesses, including the water industry, haven’t been very good at incorporating all those benefits into our decision making. Our approach won’t just look at the monetary benefits but all the different benefits from an investment.

“Customers, shareholders and investors want efficiency and value for money, and you get a lot of that from thinking more creatively about solutions, which is one of the things I wanted to bring to Southern.”

Willison notes the shift towards a greater focus on ESG including Ofwat’s encouragement for companies to deliver public value through investment: “We believe it’s the right way forward for the business, customers and the environment. But it won’t happen overnight. There’s going to be a blend to deliver those multiple benefits, which is what people expect and what the environment needs.”

Sustainable urban drainage systems can reduce the use of combined sewer overflows (CSOs), whilst improved management of agricultural land can reduce run off and take pressure of drainage systems. Replacing all CSOs would cost over £100 billion and take more than 25 years. A holistic approach to the problem, supported by legislation, could stop this from becoming a necessity.

“We as a company and industry think we can be part of the solution, but that solution won’t be digging up every road in the country to replace the sewer system. We need to identify where the pressures are in each area to understand what can be done.”

Helping customers to lower their water consumption has a vital role to play in easing population pressure and reducing the amount of carbon-intensive work done to pump and treat water.

“The more we can do to help people understand their actions have consequences on the environment the better. This is a responsibility for the industry but also needs a national message because it’s as true of water as it is of energy and plastic consumption,” he adds.

“We don’t need everyone living an austere life but being aware of consequences means people can alter their behaviours a little bit.”

Another project close to Willison’s heart is the restoration of kelp bed forests along the south coast: “Kelp is magnificent! It sequesters more carbon than trees do, it takes up huge amounts of nutrients, it is the breeding ground of loads of species of fish and seahorses – it’s a wonderful environment. If you could regenerate the kelp forests it would have all the carbon, nutrient, biodiversity benefits and moderate wave action to potentially have flood risk and erosion benefits.”

Bottom trawling on the Sussex coastline led to the degradation of kelp beds but recently passed by-laws prohibiting this in certain parts of the country is a major step towards their restoration. Southern is working with stakeholders including the local authorities to understand what needs to happen to regenerate these areas, including a novel use of wastewater treatment works.

“One way we could get involved is with kelplets – baby kelp. They need a lot of nutrients to get them growing so we’re exploring if we could grow these at wastewater treatment works where there are a lot of those nutrients. Imagine one of our works having a bed to grow kelp that is fed by materials from the processes to get the young plants growing.”

Restoring kelp forests is an area the company is looking at to make an investment from its newly established £5 million environment fund.

Southern has, of course, made environmental headlines for the wrong reasons in recent years, but Willison said this is not the driving force for the company’s efforts to improve. He feels changes made by MacAulay since those times have transformed the organisation.

“That’s really beginning to show in our confidence, ambition and in the things we are doing,” he says.

“We are not impelled to do the right thing; we want to do it. It’s good for our customers, for the environment and the local economy. There are reputational benefits which are then good for shareholders. We want to be the best company that we can be and believe we’ve got the vision, values, purpose and the people to drive that.”