Affinity Water has published its plan to reduce operational emissions and achieve its Water UK commitment to achieve net zero operational carbon emissions by 2030, including making the goal “an explicit aspect” of its procurement processes for all of its supply chain from the beginning of 2022.

The water company said it will achieve Net Zero operational emissions by 2030 through:

• Reducing its carbon footprint (energy efficiency, demand reduction, fleet);
• Developing renewables (solar and wind);
• Sequestration - (planting new forests, restoring soils, chalk grassland restoration in the Chilterns, and regrowing seagrass forests in the estuaries of Essex); and
• Purchasing green electricity tariffs.

Affinity has also outlined additional plans it will develop to address whole life carbon (embedded emissions in infrastructure it builds), additional nature-based solutions and eliminating fossil fuel use.

The utility is already working with communities to help them save water and are working on innovative projects to make new homes water neutral. About 20% of a UK average energy bill is from energy used to heat water.

The company will also continue with innovative reverse auctions and engagement with farmers to promote better water sensitive farming which in turn creates carbon sinks.

Introducing the plan, Affinity Water said:

“The scientific consensus is clear and the situation we face in the South East is stark.”

"Additionally, the South East of England is already classified as a severely water stressed area. This means it gets less rainfall than other parts of the country. The Affinity Water area is one of the driest in the country.”

The National Water Resources Framework has identified that the company faces a deficit 76Ml/d due to climate change in the East and 111 Ml/d due to climate change in the South East. Affinity Water is working with regional planning groups to develop this evidence further and find shared solutions to provide resilient water supplies .

The water company attends to address the full scope of its emissions

• Scope 1 emissions - the direct emissions its activities create
• Scope 2 emissions – the indirect emissions from the production of electricity or heat it uses
• Scope 3 emissions - the indirect emissions from other activities it engages in, including emissions from some outsourced services and business associated travel. This does not include chemical manufacture, capital infrastructure and associated emissions (non-operational) or customer’s energy use to heat water for example.

Pointing out that a company’s scope 3 emissions are often far larger than its scope 1 and 2 emissions put together, Affinity commented:

“We may not have direct control over these emissions but will work with our supply chain and stakeholders to measure our impact and reduce these.”

“We’re committing to becoming carbon negative for all three scopes… by 2030. We also commit to reporting on non-operational scope 3 emissions by 2022/23.”

The plan sets out a number of actions Affinity Water will take to reduce its own carbon footprint in terms of reducing operational emissions and taking a whole life carbon approach.

Actions to reduce scope 1 and 2 operational emissions

Actions to reduce scope 1 and 2 operational emissions include:

• Reducing energy use by 7.5% by 2030, by replacing and refurbishing equipment and plant and using smart and AI controls and analytics. For example, in the last year the utility has assessed 155 pumps, focusing on pumps with a power rating over 100kW to gain maximum operational efficiency and reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 719t CO2e, equating to a 1% reduction of its total emissions.
• Shifting to a 100 percent supply of REGO (or Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin) backed renewable energy – Affinity Water will have power purchase agreements for green energy contracted for 100% of carbon emitting electricity consumed by all its pumping stations, buildings, and sites.
• Reducing or eliminating fossil fuel use in standby generation and replacing end-of-life gas heating with electric options (e.g. heat pumps).
• Generating 10% of its energy usage by 2030 from its own renewables like solar, wind or hydropower.
• Bringing forward electric vehicles to replace the existing fleet and reducing mileage through use of virtual meetings as much as possible.

Affinity said that using this approach will leave a minimal amount of carbon to offset from 2030. The water company will address this via a portfolio of natural capital solutions - including afforestation (planting new forest on land without trees) and reforestation, soil carbon sequestration, seagrass restoration, wetlands, wet woodlands, and chalk grasslands.

The water company will also develop a ‘blue carbon finance framework’, a seagrass nursery and trial seagrass restoration to capture carbon off the Essex coast as part of its Innovation in Water Challenge project.

Whole life carbon approach to address Scope 3 emissions

Affinity will take a whole life carbon approach to its investment programme to address its Scope 3 emissions to help reach net zero.

A large proportion of the emissions comes from the construction and operation of new infrastructure. The water company is developing its approach following PAS2080 – Carbon Management in Infrastructure. This includes the four principles to: build nothing, build less, build clever and build efficiently.

Affinity is partnering on the project ‘Enabling whole life carbon design’ which will develop an industry wide approach to using carbon in decision making by considering data and visualization, process and governance and people and culture.

In parallel to the project the company will develop and apply a reduce carbon, reduce costs approach to its investment and procurement programme. The plan says:

“We are applying a risk and value approach to our AMP7 investment programme. We will utilise operational and capital carbon assessments in our decision making tools to support our route to net zero. This will require additional carbon calculation tools and databases as well as improving skills within our teams and our supply chain.”

Affinity Water also intends to help customers reduce their carbon footprints through saving water, although this is not counted as part of the company’s emissions.

Of all the CO2 emissions in the UK, around 6% are from overall water use. Around 89% of this comes from heating water in homes and 20% of a typical household gas bill is due to heating water in the home.

Affinity Water is aiming to reduce water consumption per head by 130 million litres a day in 2025 from a 2020 baseline.

Progress to be publicly tracked in annual report

The water company said it will publicly track progress in its Annual Report, continue to improve ESG reporting to investors. Affinity Water has also committed to signing up to the Carbon Disclosure Project by 2025.

As part of its plans to work on carbon-related public policy issues, Affinity Water is advocating the use of market and pricing mechanisms so people and businesses can make more informed carbon decisions. The plan says:

“We already use market mechanisms but are trialling further refinements to market mechanisms to create a wider set of benefits – improving biodiversity, water quality, soil health and sequestering carbon through the same investment. “

We also want partners, local authorities, financial services companies, landowners, farmers, and environmental NGOs to work with us and invite potential partners to approach us.”

In addition to in-house training Affinity Water said it will also give specific training from the Institute of Civil Engineers for engineers and projects managers on infrastructure carbon assessment.

Supply chain partners asked to put own Net Zero plan in place by 2025

The water company said it will also be looking for supply chain involvement to reduce emissions, commenting:

“We will begin to implement new procurement processes and tools to enable and incentivise our suppliers to reduce their scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. We will work with our suppliers to implement consistent and accurate reporting and pursue effective steps to make progress against our targets.

“We will aim to support all our partners and ask that they have a Net Zero plan in line with our own by 2025 or sooner. This will be key to ensure that we do not export emissions to other countries and sectors where it is harder to decarbonize. Our data and communications suppliers are already aiming to achieve Net Zero by 2025 and we will work with those that are further ahead to help our wider supply chain.”

Affinity Water concludes:

“It won’t be easy for us to get to Net Zero by 2030. And even harder to reach net zero for embodied carbon. In particular, we need to move very quickly on scope 3 emissions and will report on our progress in our Annual Reports…..

“We launch this route map with our initial plan and a line of sight, but we have problems to solve and will work with our customers and stakeholders, including our supply chain, to achieve net zero. We will develop this conversation as we begin our business planning process for PR24 and beyond.”