Reflecting on water successes

The Water Industry Awards in 2022 was a touching reminder that at the heart of the industry are passionate people working tirelessly to innovate, improve and deliver essential services to the customers and communities they serve.  After two years of Covid-19 distancing and uncertainty, bringing people back together to celebrate the achievements of the sector and people was overdue. As entries flood in for the 2023 awards, we look back at some of the winners from last year.

Anglian went home on the night with four gongs including Net Zero Initiative for its sustainability linked green bond. The £300 million issuance was the first of its kind in the world to be directly linked to interim carbon targets. It was immediately oversubscribed with orders peaking at £1.6 billon, which indicates how great investor appetite is. The company has issued further green bonds to finance its pipeline resilience programme.

The company also won Drinking Water Initiative of the Year for its Slug it Out programme, the largest catchment scale trial related to metaldehyde compliance. Farmers were incentivised not to use the substance found in some slug pellets, which is not ordinarily treated during water processing. Working at catchment level mitigated the need for capital expenditure at a time when finding efficiencies that simultaneously benefit the environment have never been so essential.

Affinity Water, together with Skewb, won the Water Efficiency Initiative award for its SOS – Save Our Streams campaign. Engaging communities to raise awareness of how water consumption directly impacts the environment. In its first year the campaign saved more than one billion litres of water and was continued with renewed focus on saving money. Judges applauded efforts to engage with young people in genuinely innovative ways to save water.

Customers are at the heart of everything the sector does. Recognising breakthroughs that help companies go above and beyond for those people, the Customer Initiative of the Year went to South Staffs for proactive customer operations centre that transformed company culture. Judges were impressed by the determination of South Staffs to heighten the customer experience, which generated a sustained improvement in satisfaction. South Staffs was the only company in the sector to raise its C-Mex score in 2022.

Everflow, the challenger brand that keeps going from strength to strength, took home retailer of the year. Judges praised the company’s action on water efficiency and achieving carbon net zero. It has since set out plans to become a multi-utility provider with a pivot into waste services.

Isle Utilities was named Consultancy of the Year – a highly competitive category – in part for its involvement with the Ofwat Innovation Fund, which is changing the water sector one project at a time. The fund, premiered at PR19 and set to continue into the next AMP, aligns with Isle’s mission to accelerate innovation in the sector.

Why not celebrate the successes of your team and your organisation by taking part in this year’s awards including three new categories: Energy in Water Award, Engineering Consultancy of the Year and Leakage Initiative award. The deadline for entries is next Friday (3 March).

You can find information on entering and more details about the ceremony, which takes place in Birmingham in June, here.