Royal award tops great year
CARING for the community and the environment has made Northumbrian Water an award winner.
The North East company recently received the royal seal of approval for its efforts, securing a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the rare Sustainable Development category.
The prestigious title was then rapidly followed by a Culture for Success Large Employer Award from Service Network – awards which reward firms that invest in the talent, passion and expertise of their own workforce while also promoting exceptional customer care.
The honours are the crowning glory of a triumphant 12 months for the company, which supplies water and waste water services to 2.6 million customers in the North East and water services to 1.8 million customers in Essex and Suffolk.
It is already the reigning Utility Company of the Year 2008/09 and scored a platinum rating in the Business in the Community Corporate Responsibility Index – the UK’s benchmark of responsible business practice.
Last year, Northumbrian Water achieved an Impact on Society Big Tick for its work in the marketplace, workplace, environment and community and its northern customer centre won North East Customer Centre of the Year (under 200 seats).
Managing director John Cuthbert said: “The awards are a great achievement and reflect the efforts being made by everyone right across the business.”
Environmental matters are at the heart of Northumbrian Water’s business. “We are an environmental business dealing with a scare resource,” he said.
“We make water available for use by people and businesses – and then clean it up again and return it to the environment.”
The company is driving environmental improvements which range from large, multi-million-pound investment to grassroots initiatives led by employee volunteers.
Work is nearing completion on a £33m project at the company’s Bran Sands treatment works at Teesport to convert sludge, the material left after sewage has been treated, into energy. The anaerobic digestion project will create enough power to make the treatment process self-sufficient with the 4KW excess meeting half of the Bran Sands site’s entire energy needs.
The Teesside investment will cut the company’s energy bill by about 10%.
“We’re now looking at a similar project on Tyneside,” said Mr Cuthbert, “which will help further reduce our carbon footprint. We have set ourselves a target as a company to cut carbon emissions by 50% by 2020. That will come about through big projects – and smaller initiatives.”
Environmental champions have volunteered throughout the business to encourage eco engagement across the workforce. “Lots of projects are working towards environmental improvement,” Mr Cuthbert said.
“We’re looking at managing our resources better out in the field to reduce the number of miles we travel, plus we’re increasing the amount of video conferencing we do – again to avoid unnecessary travelling.
“We continue to increase our recycling efforts and we’re working to reduce the amount of paper we use, with initiatives such as using technology to access documents online rather than printing them out and setting printers’ defaults to print on both side of the paper.”
He said: “It’s important that everyone feels they have a part to play – and the level of awareness of environmental issues is now high across the business.”
But it’s also about putting something back into the communities it serves.
Northumbrian Water supports charitable, environmental, sporting and cultural activities in its supply area, from Berwick to North Yorkshire and across to the Pennines. Its Just an hour scheme allows all employees to spend up to 15 hours a year supporting community and environmental projects.
Hundreds of staff are helping making a real difference right across the region.
Head of corporate responsibility Louise Hunter said: “Staff currently donate around 6,500 hours a year to volunteering – helping with everything from community clear-ups, working with local schools and creating beautiful gardens for local people.
“We’ve also forged some long-term partnerships where we continue to work on projects.
“Two examples are our involvement in the climate change garden at Nature’s World, Middlesbrough, or employee volunteering at the Bowes Museum at Barnard Castle, where staff give up their time to lend a hand – including helping fix the museum’s fountain.”
“The work goes beyond our own staff,” Mrs Hunter said. “Sometimes our suppliers will get involved too.”
With an impressive clutch of awards under its belt, Northumbrian Water doesn’t believe in resting on its laurels and continues to look at new ways to raise the bar in corporate social responsibility and environmental policy.
“We’re always learning,” she said. “And it’s so important to do things differently, be more innovative and more exciting.”
For Northumbrian Water weather data is crucial for its work in planning for the impact of climate change. The company realised it needed improved sources of weather data to understand the impact changing rainfall patterns are having on its vast sewerage network.
To get the greatest benefit for both the company and the community, Northumbrian Water is now working with scores of schools where junior meteorologists are helping provide key data.
It has joined the GLOBE international environmental educational programme set up by former US Vice-President Al Gore.
Weather stations are now operating at 85 schools in the North East where students collect scientific data on their local environment and make it accessible to everyone, including other schools, Northumbrian Water, the Met Office, scientists and NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) over the internet.
The programme is integrated into the national curriculum and provides practical opportunities to increase skills in science, geography, citizenship, maths and ICT.
“This is a great example of doing things differently which has a two-fold benefit – a benefit for us and a benefit for schools,” said Mrs Hunter.
“The awards we have won recently have been great recognition of our sustained high performance over a long period of time, both in terms of business performance and our work in the wider community.”
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