Managing our carbon emissions

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges for humanity. That’s why we’re:

• Committed to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions
• Transforming the way we create and use energy.
• Helping protect our world and water supply for future generations.  

Last year, our net scope one and two market-based emissions were nearly 73% lower than in 1990. During the same period our customer numbers increased by nearly four million.

We’ve achieved this drop by:  

• Implementing innovative heat recovery and energy efficiency initiatives  
• Reducing our use of fossil fuels  
• Buying certified renewable energy to power our sites sustainable

In 2024/25 we self-generated and used 475.3GWh of renewable energy, covering 25.8% of our own energy needs.

Our carbon management journey 

Since setting our carbon reduction goal in 2019, there have been significant changes which impact the net zero challenge. These include:

• Changes to our understanding of the levels of Nitrous Oxide emitted. This includes levels associated with the wastewater treatment process
• Increased operational emissions due to changes in reporting scope boundaries
• Additional carbon impacts associated with increases in treatment standards
• Government guidance to consider phasing of non-statutory commitments including Net Zero. This reflects concerns around affordability, deliverability and financeability of Price Review 2024 plans

These developments have been reflected in our AMP8 plan submitted to Ofwat. They do not change our desire to achieve Net Zero. We're reviewing our route map to understand the challenges and opportunities they present.  We will publish an updated overview of our net zero goals when complete.