Water retailer Water Plus has received a ‘Gold for water management’ and three ‘Silver international environment awards’ for its work helping organisations to increase water efficiency and lower impacts on the environment.
It’s the second year in a row the UK’s largest water retailer, which is based in Stoke-on-Trent, has been recognised in the International Green Apple Environment Awards – which this year saw competition from more than 500 other nominations from across the UK.
It won Gold in the Water Efficiency category – and Silver in the Partnerships category, along with the carbon reduction and for supporting habitats and biodiversity in the UK – and further afield – categories. It makes 8 awards, since September 2022, for the water retailer, including two National Sustainability Awards.
Andy Hughes, Water Plus Chief Executive, said: “We’re delighted to receive our first Gold in the Green Apple Environment Awards, recognising our work to help organisations and raise awareness around the opportunities and savings – from looking closer at water use, to taking steps to cut waste to limit risks to how businesses and other organisations operate.
“Our technical water expertise and customer information and support is helping cut water waste across England and Scotland and identifying issues early that may cause disruption, which also help keep running costs low. Plus, less water waste means less carbon created, so less Scope 3 emissions, helping towards environmental targets and Net Zero.
“We’re committed to making sustainability and minimising our environmental impact core to our business, our people and our customers. From helping sites install water reduction approaches and extra tracking, along with highlighting how water efficiency helps organisations, to increasing tree-planting in the UK to give a boost to biodiversity and increase green canopies for communities, we’ll continue taking action and helping towards sustainability goals.”
The work between the Water Plus Advanced Services team and organisations in the UK – including installing data loggers on water meters in the last year, which feed information into a smart online portal, has resulted in around £4 million of additional water waste being stopped in the space of just 17 months.
Through its engagement with organisations around water use and continually gaining efficiency, Water Plus has also increased its market performance on meter reading-related activity.
The company, which have also become Green World Ambassadors this year to encourage more action by organisations to reduce impacts on the environment, was in the top three water retailers in market performance (MPS) scores at the start of this financial year – and in latest figures published for October 2022.** Boosting the amount of meter reads in the market data help to update customer bills on actual water use, reduces bills based on estimated use and help organisations to budget and, in some cases, save energy where less hot water is used.
The Green Apple Awards are run by The Green Organisation – an international, independent, non-profit, non-political environment group that began in 1994 to recognise, reward and promote environmental best practice around the world.
