Everflow becomes the first retailer to offer customers carbon neutral water

Everflow Water has staked a claim to be the first water retailer to become carbon neutral.

The company has launched a new scheme to provide 100% carbon neutral water supplies to its customers, in a bid to achieve net zero by 2040. A range of initiatives are involved, including:

• quantifying its own emissions, by submitting data to environmental expert, Earthly, to calculate Everflow’s carbon emissions for last year;

• minimising its own emissions, including through moving to electric vehicles for staff in partnership with the Octopus employee EV scheme, and offsetting the rest; and

• offsetting emissions from customer supplies (covering the whole cycle, from abstraction to discharge) by buying certified carbon credits.

Environmental and regulatory affairs manager Clare Galland said the result is that “customer contracts are fully carbon neutral from 2021 to 2023 inclusive, and our own business is carbon neutral from 2020 until the end of 2023.”

Galland added: “We use a lot of third parties for services such as meter reading, debt collection and changes of tenancy. Therefore, a further part of our commitment to achieving net zero by 2040 will focus on supporting our suppliers and partners to join us on our journey by reducing their own emissions.”

Chief executive, Josh Gill, said: “We’re committed to doing everything we can to protect and secure the environment for future generations.”