2020 was a chaotic year for all of us, marking the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, it also brought significant change to the water industry – the UK’s regional wholesale water companies agreed plans to deliver a net zero water supply to customers by 2030.

The world’s first sector-wide commitment, it aims to hit net zero operational emissions two decades before the UK government’s Paris Agreement aligned target of 2050. If they achieve this goal, the water industry will save 10 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

To give a sense of the size of the problem, MIT suggest imagining the scale of a tonne of CO2 as a cube that is almost as tall, wide, and long as a telephone pole – which also weighs a tonne. In 2022, the world emitted 37million tonnes.

Water companies currently produce almost a third of UK industrial and waste process emissions, so they’ve identified significant changes to improve sustainability in the industry. These include a 10 point plan for decarbonisation, as well as recommendations for governments and regulators on supporting the development of green skills and ways to protect the environment.