SES Water to pursue demand-led pathway to net zero

SES Water has opted to pursue a demand-led pathway to net zero carbon by 2030.

Last week, the company published its 2030 net zero route map, which set out the five strategic areas SES Water will focus on to reduce its annual emissions by 2,400 tonnes by 2030. These were:

• water efficiency – reducing how much water is abstracted from the environment, driving down leakage and helping customers to use less water;

• wnergy efficiency – reducing how much energy is used to deliver each litre of water by improving and monitoring the control of energy use;

• renewables – continuing to purchase renewable energy, as well as generating more directly on the company’s own land;

• vehicles – increasing the number of ‘emission free miles’ that staff travel to carry out their jobs by reducing unnecessary journeys and switching to electric vehicles; and

• fossil fuels – eliminating use of fossil fuels, replacing them with alternative sources and new technology.

Chief executive, Ian Cain, said: “Our routemap will focus on managing demand for water so that we need and use less of it and, in turn, emit less carbon. We believe that is the most collaborative way to work with our customers and local communities to deliver net zero carbon emissions by 2030 – some 20 years before the economy is expected to as a whole.”

Energy and carbon manager Henrietta Stock said: “We currently emit 2,550 tonnes of carbon per year in the delivery of water, which is 89% lower than ten years ago because of changes we have made to how we source and use energy. This has included investing in more efficient pumping equipment, installing solar generation at our sites, increasing the proportion of electric vehicles in our fleet and ensuring 100% of the electricity we purchase is from green sources.

“We expect to see significant change between now and 2030, including regulatory transformation and technology innovation, which may lead us to change the specifics of our approach, always aiming to keep our routemap focused on the most sustainable, resilient and lowest cost path to net zero.”