External certification
We have held our ISO14001:2015 environmental accreditation for our Environmental Management System since April 2011, and we were successfully recertified in August 2024.
Our ISO14001 covers:
External certification of our management systems provides the business with an independent view of the suitability, adequacy and effectiveness of our systems and identifies improvement opportunities.
This robust framework leads to better management of risks and continuous improvement of processes, adding value for our customers and decreasing the risk of outcomes that could damage our reputation.
In addition, we hold the Carbon Trust’s Route to Net Zero Standard.
Assurance programmes
Our ongoing assurance programme across our Environmental Management System helps to support colleagues across the business with issues on sites and managing their risks and compliance obligations, as well as driving efficiencies.
First line assurance is carried out by our operational teams every week. This allows timely interventions to be made and helps the teams improve on day-to-day performance.
Our Standards and Assurance teams then analyse for trends and build this into focused assurance visits and improvement activities. Key facts:
*(based on cat 1-3 pollutions submitted to OFWAT for our PR19 Fast track plan, 2010-11 there were 37.3 pollution incidents per 10,000km of sewer network, compared to 27.41 in 2018-19)
Our Environmental Management System
We have an Environmental Management System second line assurance plan to focus on specific areas of risk, legal and process compliance.
This has delivered improvements on key operational activities contributing to a reduction in pollution events, raising asset performance and informing investment for legal compliance. During AMP7 (2020 - 2025) we will have completed over 100 audits across our operational areas.
We're determined to be an industry leader in everything we do. That requires constant evaluation and innovation.
Part of that process involves benchmarking against other organisations, how they perform, and what we can learn from others to push ourselves further.
Spreading standards and assurance knowledge amongst our teams
Training, competence, knowledge retention and understanding are important to our overall company goals and are key in ensuring effective operational control, helping to build trust and customer satisfaction. We have an interactive e-learning for our Environmental Management System.
This uses role-based modules to help our employees with no experience of environmental management to understand the risks and opportunities we have within our business, and how each of them can contribute to environmental management. We also educate our employees on the importance of operating within a management system and how the work they carry out fits within a framework.
We continue to update our e-learning modules based on legal and regulatory requirements, emerging environmental risks and current environmental issues.