To us, sustainability means caring about the long-term impacts of our work and helping our customers do the same. Sustainability is integrated throughout our business, and our plan, ‘Focus on Five’, contains five pillars that help us mitigate the impacts of climate change and increase our value to the communities we serve:
We work to minimise our and your impact on the environment in all we do.
Here are some examples of how:
- By recycling at least 90% of the waste from our work
- By trialling and using renewable energy
- By reducing the carbon footprint associated with chemical usage
- By trialling and using lower-carbon fuels
- By using sludge dewatering techniques to reduce unnecessary trips
- By reusing water to lower consumption
- By planning our work around bird nesting seasons
- By reusing healthy reeds as much as possible
Our day job is to manage water using nature-based solutions. But we aim to go much further than that. We want the regions we work in to benefit from our wider skills and resources too.
Here are some examples of how:
We pay our people to volunteer for two days each year to add value to the communities we serve. For example, some of our team chose to do beach cleans for the Marine Conservation Society in Longniddry, East Lothian, and Langland Bay in Gower.
We donated a rainwater harvesting tank to Fatfield Academy in Washington.
The 1,300-litre tank will provide a sustainable water supply for the gardening club and wildlife areas. The rainwater will be collected from the roof to conserve potable water.
By utilising our grounds maintenance skills, we created a beautiful outdoor area for the 1st Fatfield Scouts to use and built raised beds containing vegetables that the Beavers group take turns nurturing.
‘Back on the Map’ devotes itself to enhancing the quality of life of people living and visiting Hendon and the East End of Sunderland. Some of our people helped find a water source for a community garden, provided seeds, and delivered an educational workshop on creating a wildflower area.
