Water Plus has been ranked in the top 50% of companies across the world for its approach around Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

The EcoVadis sustainability rating looks at the integration of CSR principles in an organisation. 

This focuses on 21 issues, which are grouped into 4 themes: Environment (ENV), Labour Practices & Human Rights (LAB), Fair Business Practices (FBP), and Sustainable Procurement (SUP). It’s the third year the water retailer has secured an EcoVadis rating. EcoVadis is the world’s largest and most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings, with a global network of more than 65,000 rated companies

As well as regularly encouraging their employees to recycle and reduce water waste - whether they’re at home or in work - Water Plus has also been helping organisations of all sizes increase water efficiency and lower operating costs - including identifying and helping businesses repair underground leaks in the last 12 months.

Barry McGovaney, Sustainability Lead and Technology and Innovation Manager at Water Plus, said:

“Whilst we’ve been working with our customers to help support them around the impacts of Coronavirus, we’ve also been looking at how we can work with others around the impacts we all have on our environment.

“We’ve carried out research – recently and in the past - to raise awareness around water waste and help organisations towards their green goals and we’ve been working behind the scenes and looking at innovative technologies that work with natural resources, including water and heat energy. We’ll continue to review and seek out new technology to help deliver our water management and waste reduction services for our customers – so they can receive the benefits and rewards from these too.

“And we’ll be building on what we’ve already achieved to help customers towards their sustainability goals, as well as continue to work towards reducing the impact we can all have on the environment too. We’ll be doing more around this – and saying more on this area - later this year.”

The retailer is increasing the amount of water use data its customers can see and track through data loggers on water meters, installing more than 1,100 since the start of 2019, helping to highlight water waste through leaks and encourage closer scrutiny of water use and proactive water management. The data loggers feed information on water use into an online smart portal, which customers can access too to see how their water use alters day and night across sites.

“As we know data is an important tool for businesses – and as part of enhancements to our online customer portals – we updated how information on water use is displayed on the AMR portal in the last year, giving greater detail and data analysis - making it even easier to use and saving time for organisations,” Barry added..

In 2021, the retailer is also supporting The National Trust’s Plant a tree fund, creating 2,023 square metres of woodland and supporting their goal of putting an extra 20 million trees into the soil to help provide spaces for people to enjoy, remove pollutants from the air and provide homes for birds, insects, mammals. This sees 220 trees being planted by The National Trust from November 2021.

In 2020, Water Plus provided funding for 150 trees to be planted – by providing saplings to schools and communities.

Examples of savings on water use and where water waste occurs include:

• A business was alerted in October to an ongoing constant leak at its main offices after arranging the installation of an Automatic Meter Reader (AMR) data logger on its water meter. The leak at the site was wasting around 650 litres an hour – at a cost of £50 a day and wouldn’t have been seen on a water bill as it would have been part of the overall consumption. Although small, the leak, which has been repaired by the business, would have cost nearly £20,000 in a year, as well as cause damage.

• During this year’s national lockdown, in January 2021, a gym chain had five sites losing more than 1,000 litres an hour – with a total of 9,800 litres an hour across those sites. This would cost around £700 a day for the supply of that water – around £248,000 if they ran for a year.

• A gym chain was also alerted to leaks at 14 sites after water use continued in March 2020 when the buildings were closed due to the first national lockdown. Automatic Meter Reader (AMR) data loggers, on their water meters, measured the water loss as 13.35 cubic metres an hour (13,000 litres of water) across the 14 sites – at a cost of around £960 a day. If these were not repaired, it could have cost the business around £350,000 over a year - for 320,000 litres a day (320 cubic metres).