Climate change is one of the most pressing issues we face today. At Severn Trent Services, sustainability is central to our business and future success, and one way we intend to lower our carbon emissions is by using more sustainable transport.
Recently, Hannah and Sarah, helping us run a more sustainable business, tested the reliability of today’s more sustainable transport. In this ‘Severn Questions With…’ article, they tell us what happened.
1. Hannah and Sarah, what do you do at Severn Trent Services?
Hannah: As a sustainability manager, I manage our carbon emissions data and use this information to identify opportunities and focus areas for reducing emissions. For example, our recently published carbon reduction plan outlines our target to reduce business travel emissions.
Sarah: As an assurance and compliance manager, I help to ensure that everyone in our organisation complies with our policies, has the right accreditations and that we provide assurance to our customers.
2. How important is the work you do?
Hannah: Sustainability is key to our business strategy and everything we do. It’s essential to our people, our customers, and our suppliers. This year, we published our Carbon Reduction Plan, reaffirming our ambition to become operationally net zero by 2030. My role is to support the business in achieving its targets to reduce carbon emissions from our day-to-day operations, such as through business travel.
Sarah: Quality and security are critical to our operations, and if I can carry out my audits in an environmentally friendly vehicle, that’s got to be good.
3. Tell us about what you were tasked to do in testing sustainable travel
Hannah: One of our carbon reduction targets is to explore the feasibility of using Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) for our larger vehicles (HGVs) where electric vehicle (EV) technology is not viable.
We’ve identified one of our sites in North Yorkshire as an ideal location for installing our own HVO tank. Therefore, I needed to visit this site to find suitable locations for the tank.
To reduce travel emissions by car sharing, I spoke with Sarah, who also needed to audit the site as part of her role, and we decided to travel together.
We also wanted to see if we could travel from the Midlands to North Yorkshire in an all-electric car without running out of power.
4. What was your plan of attack to make sure you didn’t have ‘range anxiety’ during the journey?
Sarah: Ah, yes, ‘range anxiety’ is a real thing. People get anxious that they won’t have enough power to reach their destination. However, I checked various apps to locate EV chargers on the way. The apps were good, but finding the chargers at the motorway services was more challenging. I kept an eye on power levels throughout the journey, though, and there were no concerns.
5. Explain how the journey went
Hannah: We left the Midlands with 90% of the battery charged and arrived at a service station in North Yorkshire with 20% remaining. After 30 minutes of charging—while we grabbed some food—we set off again on our journey with full power. There were many chargers at the service station, even if they were slightly hidden.
Sarah: On the return leg, we stopped at a service station in the East Midlands, where the only fast charger was being used. With only 30% of the charge remaining, we headed to the next service station. After another 30 minutes of charging, we were back on the road with 79% power.
6. What did you learn from your electric trip?
Hannah: Even with two pairs of eyes, we struggled to find the location of charge points. The signposting could have been better. However, seeing so many fast charging points at some service stations was good, but the larger and busier services didn’t seem to have enough.
Sarah: A little bit of planning makes the journey easy and encourages you to take a break, which is a good thing for everyone’s safety.
Hannah: I agree. 30 minutes goes so quickly. It’s not the massive wait/inconvenience it’s sometimes made out to be, especially on a longer journey when you really should take a break from driving anyway.
7. Remind everyone why it’s so vital for us all to consider more sustainable methods of travel.
Hannah: Climate change! We’re already seeing its impacts firsthand in the water industry. In some areas where we operate, there are real water scarcity issues; in others, we’re experiencing problems with increased rainfall and flooding.
The more carbon emissions we emit through our daily activities, such as travel, the more we contribute directly to these issues. Using an electric vehicle (EV) instead of a fossil-fuelled car means no carbon emissions are emitted. On our journey, we saw that GRIDSERVE supplies 100% net zero energy for EV charging, meaning there are no downstream emissions from the electricity supplied to charge the vehicle.
Sustainability in 2025
Our commitment to sustainability continues to grow as we look towards the future. In 2025, we’re excited to announce the addition of more electric vehicles (EVs) to our fleet. This significant step underscores our dedication to reducing our carbon footprint and aligns with our broader strategy of embracing innovative, sustainable solutions.
To learn more about our sustainability plans, head to Sustainability at Severn Trent Services.
