Anglian Water Services Ltd

Anglian Water supply water and water recycling services to more than six million domestic and business customers in the east of England and Hartlepool. Our infrastructure includes 112,833 km of water and sewage pipes supplying an area of 27,500 square km.

The Anglian Water region is one of the driest and fastest growing in the UK. Our region is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, temperature rise, the potential reduction in summer rainfall, lower available summer rainfall, lower available water resources, increased flood risk and rising sea levels. The ecological sensitivity of many of the wetland sites in the East of England adds a further challenge. The impact of hotter, drier summers, combined with a growing population, will increase demand for water. Coastal and low lying assets face an increased risk of flooding.

Our strategic direction statement highlighted adaptation priorities from immediate flood risks to ensuring future capital investment is designed to be resilient to the impacts of climate change for the next 40 years and beyond.

Our goals and aspirations for carbon mitigation recognise that future years will see additional pressures on our business with potential increases in GHG emissions through serving a growing population and meeting tighter quality standards. With a continued focus on energy optimisation, innovation in design and commissioning of new generation assets, we have set a challenging objective of mitigating against future potential increases in operational carbon emissions.

Our medium-term goals are to reduce our gross operational carbon emissions by 10% in real terms from a 2020 baseline by 2025 and to reduce capital carbon emissions by 65% against a 2010 baseline by 2025. We also expect to report a reduction in emissions during this period in line with a decreasing grid electricity emission factor as forecast by Defra/BEIS. 

In April 2019 AW and other water companies in England launched a Public Interest Commitment, this reinforced the implicit social contract that had always existed between them and their customers. The Public Interest Commitment included a commitment for the water sector to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2030.  A water sector routemap to net zero carbon emissions to 2030 was produced, and in July 2021 Anglian Water, along with other English water companies, will publish our own specific routemap to Net Zero Carbon by 2030.

The inventory report and any GHG assertions are expected to be verified by a Programme-approved, third-party verifier. The level of assurance is reported in a separate Assurance Statement provided to the directors of the certification entity.