Yorkshire Water, one of the ten largest water companies in the world, is keenly aware that it is on the front line in facing the threats posed by climate change, such as flooding and water scarcity. To mitigate these impacts and safeguard its future success, the company is improving the energy efficiency of its assets and generating energy from a variety of renewable sources.
Within the cost-benefit analysis tool that Yorkshire Water uses to prioritise capital projects, the company has developed an industry-leading system to calculate operational and embedded carbon, such as that from energy use, sludge management, transport, construction and supply chain activities. Using the ‘shadow price of carbon’, this helps the company take climate impacts into account in its investment decisions.
In one such project, Yorkshire Water worked with Laing O’Rourke, one of its contract partners, to reduce the climate impact of one of its largest capital schemes by considering the carbon costs of potential materials and transport. This allowed project leaders to make decisions that greatly reduced the overall footprint of the project, including sourcing concrete from a local supplier and building a more conveniently located gate to minimise travel costs and emissions.
To avoid volatile energy prices, Yorkshire Water has begun generating its own renewable energy. To date, the company has installed seven wind turbines, three hydroelectric turbines and 18 combined heat and power (CHP) plants across its sites.
