Kitchen Sink

Market regulator, Ofwat, has published an overview of developments during the business retail market’s sixth year of operation (2022-23).

In conversation with Matthew Power, Utilities Commercial Specialist.

The Self-Supply community met for a quarterly update briefing, hosted by Waterscan, on 14th September 2023.

In conversation with Waterscan’s Rebecca Gale, Account Director, and Esmond Bowerman, Sustainability Manager.

How long could your frontline services continue to operate without water? The chances are, you’ve got about 10 minutes before vulnerable members of society are put at risk.

How long could your pub or restaurant operate without water? The chances are, you’ve got about 10 minutes before your customers stop getting served.

What would happen if your business lost access to water? The chances are, within 30 minutes your facilities would grind to a halt, customers would begin to vanish, and your reputation would be tarnished.

Here are the 10 reasons why water will increasingly dominate the sustainability agenda.

Why water will increasingly dominate the sustainability agenda.

Eleanor Pendle’s experience at World Water Week 2023.

Highlights from the fifth day of World Water Week.

Our focus session for World Water Week’s fifth day is ‘Water in Communications: The Importance of Strategic Communication to Drive Change in Water’.

Highlights from the fourth day of World Water Week.

Our focus session for World Water Week’s fourth day is ‘Water in Business: Driving Change in the Boardroom’.

Highlights from the third day of World Water Week.

Our focus session for World Water Week’s third day is ‘UN 2023 Water Conference Talk Show: Keeping the momentum going’.

Highlights from the second day of World Water Week.

Our focus session for World Water Week’s second day is ‘Water in business: from commitments to transformation’.

World Water Week is the leading conference on global water issues, held every year since 1991.

If your organisation is not conserving water as an integral part of its race to net zero, its progress will, quite simply, be impeded. Why act now: The business case for water action.

You can’t manage what you don’t measure. What you don’t measure, you can’t improve. We’ve put together a 5 step guide to start measuring and reporting on water.

It seems that water has hardly been out of the news over the last few months, with recurrent themes of flooding and scarcity, water quality and increasing scrutiny over various aspects of the water market.

On 22nd June, Waterscan convened the first in a new annual conference, Water Matters.

Boots has been granted a Water and Sewerage Self-Supply licence (WSSL) by industry regulator, Ofwat. With 2,200 stores across the UK, Boots has partnered with Waterscan to facilitate the licence application and to manage the transition to Self-Supply.

The Strategic Panel is getting tough on getting smart.

Every five years, the UK’s 16 water companies have a statutory duty to produce a Water Resources Management Plan (WRMP).

In recognition of the proactive, expert support that it provides, Waterscan has been awarded the accolade of Sainsbury’s Strategic Partner for Sustainability.

The need for safe and effective water management has never received more airtime. And rightly so! Take a look at the latest in water.

At this tipping point, when water scarcity impacts our daily lives, it will be too late, far too late; especially for manufacturers, who rely on secure, consistent water supplies and effective, compliant effluent management to function.

Representatives from Ofwat, MOSL and The Water Report joined the Self-Supply community on Thursday 9th March 2023 for a briefing meeting focused on market performance and industry plans for pricing and resource management.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted in 2015, are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that, by 2030, all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

Each year, CDP opens its reporting platform from April to August in readiness for scoring in the autumn.

As understanding of the climate crisis grows, consumers, governments and providers of capital are responding with higher expectations of brands and companies to adapt accordingly, to safeguard natural resources and secure a resilient, future-proof business.

The opportunities arising from effective water stewardship are plentiful. In fact, acting on water has become the low-hanging fruit in adapting to climate change and it provides irrefutable operational and commercial benefits.

As with widely reported household bill increases, most businesses will also be receiving higher than planned for water bills from April 2023.

The annual reveal of Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) scores is always a highly anticipated and interesting event.

An Interview with Cllr Paulette Lappin, cabinet member – regulatory, compliance and corporate services & Jon Williams, environmental management (utilities) officer.

Deregulation deconstructed. The deregulation of the water industry in 2017 set out to accomplish a lot. Five years on, to what extent has it delivered?

Deregulation deconstructed. Protecting Britain’s water supplies for the long term was the underlying reason for deregulating the market. How easy is it now for customers to make good water management choices?

Deregulation deconstructed. Every business has a different view on what constitutes value for money. Market deregulation set out to enable customers to prioritise what’s important to them. Are customers achieving best value now?

Deregulation deconstructed. Every business has a different view on what constitutes value for money. Market deregulation set out to enable customers to prioritise what’s important to them. Are customers achieving best value now?

Deregulation deconstructed. The majority of businesses want the water market to deliver a reliable water supply without interruption above all else. Had the water market provided the reassurance they seek?

Deregulation deconstructed. Market deregulation gave customers choice over who supplies their water, at what cost, and with which added value options. Have UK businesses acted on this opportunity?

Following a lengthy period of consultation, reflect and number crunching, Ofwat has published the methodology for its price review, PR24, which sets out expectations of water companies for the period 2025-2030 and beyond.

The Self-Supply community convened for its final session of 2022 on Thursday 1st December.

Following a lengthy public consultation during 2022, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has secured…

It might not be immediately obvious, but there are a lot of greenhouse gases tied up in water.

Water market regulator Ofwat has published its annual State of the Market report which outlines its assessment of the market, five years on from deregulation.

Most media attention was focused on how best to manage household water use, so you could be forgiven for assuming that commercial…

Representatives from the water market regulator Ofwat, market operator MOSL, and the market’s Strategic Panel, joined the British businesses that have taken control of their water for the Self-Supply Users Forum on Thursday 8th September 2022.

The conference is being hailed as a watershed moment; a time to review progress on SDG6, the Sustainable Development Goal which is concerned with securing the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030.

In May 2022, Waterscan and J Sainsbury’s plc hosted a working lunch for energy and sustainability managers to demonstrate how the responsible retailer is approaching best-in-class water stewardship.

Take a look at Sainsbury’s water journey so far.

Five years since market deregulation, it is a transitional time for market governance as the new Strategic Panel reveals six priorities which aim to focus on pace of change, prioritise activities with greatest impacts and solve market frictions.

Defra’s environmental targets proposal to meet future water demand is a welcome step change.

Most British businesses, unless they Self-Supply or have a non-standard tariff agreement, were subjected to three cost hikes in April.

The UK government’s introduction of mandatory Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) reporting is a welcome evolution in corporate responsibility.

Operational resilience is the ability of an organisation and its infrastructure to avoid, cope and recover from disruption, and its ability to adapt to environmental pressures, demographic change, shifts in customer behaviour and the impacts of climate change.

The pressing need for more effective communication and collaboration flowed through all presentations and discussions, reflecting continued frustrations in the wider water market on…

Waterscan’s Strategic Director, Claire Yeates, has been appointed to the newly formed market Code Change Committee.

Traditional market structures and approaches are failing to deliver necessary improvements for water customers and the environment, reveals water market regulator Ofwat in its fourth State of the Market Report.

Waterscan and the Self-Supply community recognised for outstanding water management.

Waterscan and long-term customer Whitbread were delighted to be jointly awarded the Footprint Drinks Awards Sustainable Use of Water Award 2021.

On 22nd September 2021, Waterscan hosted an online meeting of public sector utility and sustainability professionals on mitigating risk and maximising control through water.

BT has achieved one million pounds in savings on its water bills since switching to self-supply in 2019.

On 14th April 2021, Waterscan and Whitbread co-hosted a virtual Tea at 3 event. This was for a privately invited group of senior sustainability, procurement and utilities managers from across the UK’s hospitality, leisure, retail, manufacturing and transport sectors.

Whitbread is the UK’s largest operator of hotels and restaurants. Here, we speak with Yvonne Mason, Environment Manager and Ross Greenhalgh, Energy Manager, about how the company has moved from effective water management to industry-leading stewardship, and most recently to resilience-based forward planning.

“If you want to make progress on global challenges, start with water”, advises the World Economic Forum.

Waterscan is delighted to announce that it has saved its non-household water customers £20 million since the market opened in 2017.

A working lunch with BT’s Utilities Commercial Specialist, Matt Power.

The water industry is the first sector in the UK to commit to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2030.

The UK’s number one dairy company, Arla has been granted a licence to self-supply water by market regulator Ofwat.

Working in partnership with Waterscan to self-supply water David Lloyd Leisure (DLL) is the first company within the UK’s health and leisure sector to be granted a self-supply licence from…

Sefton Council is expecting to improve its environmental performance and achieve significant efficiency savings by entering a Self-Supply water partnership.

Sainsbury’s has applied to water market regulator Ofwat for a Self-Supply licence.

Ofwat has granted water self-supply licences (WSSLs) to John Lewis PLC and Kellogg’s in a move that will see self-supply operable in two new commercial sectors: retail and food manufacturing.

Marston’s Brewery and Greene King have been judged as the two companies in the drinks sector that are making the biggest impact in the sustainable use of water, both with the support of Waterscan.

In August 2019, John Lewis PLC became the first UK retailer to apply to Ofwat for a water and sewerage Self-Supply licence.

Waterscan is working with Kellogg’s to lead the food manufacturing sector in driving water efficiency. Kellogg’s has applied for a water and sewerage self-supply licence for its Manchester site, the…

Developed by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, the Catchment Management Declaration is regarded by many as the potential to be a watershed moment in transforming sustainable water management across Britain.

Three more forward-thinking companies have been granted Self-Supply licences for water and sewerage services, bringing the number of organisations taking this revolutionary route to eight since the market opened just eighteen months ago.

Stonegate Pub Company and Heineken UK Ltd have applied for Self-Supply licences for water and sewerage services.

At Waterscan, we are very happy and excited to have been announced as the winners of the ‘Waste2Zero’ Best Product, Technology and Innovation Award 2018 in collaboration with Greene King, supporting water sustainability through the water Self-Supply innovation.

A year on, Greene King are experiencing the benefits of going Self-Supply.

Global textile, hygiene and facility services giant Elis (formerly Berendsen) has applied to Self-Supply water and wastewater services for its 32 sites across England in support of its work to enhance site level water efficiency.

Blackpool Council has been awarded a water Self-Supply licence by Ofwat.

Whitbread, the UK’s largest hotel, restaurant and coffee shop operator whose brands include Premier Inn, Costa, Beefeater and Brewers Fayre – has partnered with Waterscan…

Marston’s is the third company in England to be granted a licence by Ofwat to supply its own water and wastewater services.

CCEP is set to become the first manufacturer to take the innovative path of Self-Supply.

Whitbread becomes second to gain water Self-Supply licence in new water market.