Anglian Water’s head of innovation engagement, Lindsey Taylor, discusses the importance of strong, visible leadership, the potential for customers to shape future strategies and future roles for biofabrication and biomimicry in innovation.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced during your time in utilities?
I think it’s attitudes – thinking that the way we’ve always done something is best and the reluctance to try new things. When so much change is happening in the sector and the need to innovate is stronger than ever, change can be tough and human behaviours often revert to what’s easy or predictable.
What is your golden rule for overcoming challenges at work generally?
Be positive and inject energy in to overcoming it! You’ll never overcome a difficult challenge if your heart and head aren’t in it.
What’s the strangest place that working in the utilities sector has taken you?
I had the opportunity to spend time at Prague’s Central Wastewater treatment plant back in 2019, which sits between Prague’s zoo and one of its baroque castles – excellent views.
What do you think Utility Week Innovate readers would be surprised to learn about you?
I did classical ballet for 18 years – starting when I was three. I believe ballet and performing gave me some of the confidence I have today.
What do you think is the key to creating the conditions for innovation within the utilities sector?
Strong, visible leadership; this is fundamental in driving any kind of cultural change. Our sector needs a strong innovation vision they can get behind and strong role models to emulate.
Our leaders are fundamental in creating the right conditions for success and setting the KPIs that really drive an organisation to have to think differently.
Which other industry do you feel that utilities can learn most from when creating the conditions for innovation?
Throughout my career I’ve tried to bring in lots of approaches and innovations from the manufacturing and automotive sectors. I had the privilege of spending some time, during my role as standard products manager, with Red Bull F1 and learning how they create a fast-track innovation environment through encouraging ideas to come from anywhere – not just top down – alongside how they use data and simulation to create actionable intelligence.
I read once that the key to success and driving an innovative culture within an organisation is that no one should see themselves as the boss, but everyone should see themselves as a leader. I witnessed that here and is an ethos I’m trying to instil in Anglian Water.
Is there a standout innovation or collaboration project that you’ve worked on during your time in utilities – what made it special?
At the start of our carbon journey, I led a workshop with colleagues from across the organisation; designed to challenge the business to ask itself serious questions on how to reduce capital and operational carbon. An area which received substantial attention was considering the products we use frequently and creating an action plan to investigate if these could be manufactured using alternative, low carbon materials.
Across Anglian Water we install more than 5,000 small chamber covers each year, which create a high capital carbon impact as well as significant problems with theft of scrap metal; so, this was an obvious area for challenge. Following the workshop and working collaboratively with one of our supply chain partners, we created a recycled plastic cover and frame which was half the weight of a ductile iron cover; subsequently making the product quicker and safer to install. The recycled plastic material also meant that as well as having a lower capital carbon footprint the product had no scrap value, significantly reducing the risk of theft.
This innovation will always stick with me. It was one of the first times I really felt that as an organisation we used a carbon lens to challenge a traditional product – which people believed couldn’t be changed – it demonstrated to our teams that nothing was off the table when it came to innovation, no matter how small, and that supply chain collaboration is fundamental in driving the change needed in the sector.
What excites you most about the next 10 years in the utilities sector – any trends, tech or specific innovations?
With the recognition that to be truly net zero as a sector we need to reduce our capital carbon impact as well as our operational carbon footprint, the materials science world is very exciting. I’ve seen some incredible work in the biofabrication and biomimicry space and the growing of materials using microorganisms.
These are innovations we desperately need, and I can’t wait to see where this takes us as a sector over the next 10 years. Who knows, we could be growing all our own concrete and become a climate positive sector.
What is the most significant way you think the utilities sector of ten years’ time will differ from the one we see today?
I really think – and hope – that customers will play a greater part in defining our strategies and working with us to design the best solutions.
Getting customers, through digital tools, to help us deliver, for example, the best pipeline route, or the best natural capital solution that drives value for them, will mean that we are creating a much more sustainable future for ourselves, society and the environment.
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