ACHIEVING NET ZERO IN THE WATER INDUSTRY
A world fi rst sector-wide commitment was made by the UK water industry in November 2020 that water companies would deliver a net zero water supply to customers by 2030. This target is 20 years earlier than the UK Government target of 2050. The hope is that this commitment will set the standard for other sectors across the UK and around the world.
“Water UK and STOWA [the Foundation for Applied Water Research for the Dutch Water Authorities] are driving carbon reduction across the global water industry,” states Dr Mikkel Holmen Andersen, CTO at Unisense, Denmark, “not the UN.”
But how will the water industry achieve net zero by 2030? To put this into perspective, in the UK, the water industry uses 2% of national energy consumption and yet produces a massive one third of total national Greenhouse Gases (GHG) from its operations. The good news is that water companies have come together to tackle these emissions. Firstly, to produce a baseline of their GHG emissions using the same tool, then forecast a business-as-usual trajectory compared with the net zero option, to create a gap analysis to plan actions and measures. Water company net zero plans were published in July 2021. They have all committed to using the ‘emission reduction hierarchy’ which prioritises emission reduction over using renewables and lastly using carbon offsetting where needed to achieve net zero (Box 1). The UK water regulator, OFWAT, requires mandatory standardised reporting of operational carbon by 2022, and capital (embedded) carbon by 2023 by water companies.
The fi rst step is to understand where GHG emissions are coming from (box 2). Sensors and remote monitoring are used to measure GHGs. This monitoring data can then be used in software to predict and model emissions, which in turn can optimise performance to minimise emissions and reduce energy use (and save money which helps to make the business case).
“We are focusing on what we can control or infl uence, measures within our business plan, resilience to climate change, taking care of sensitive environments and embedding carbon culture into the company DNA,” says Dr Iris Soler, Head of Environmental Quality & Compliance at Southern Water, “We are also looking at how we can infl uence actions and behaviours through education and awareness campaigns to improve customers water consumption and water effi ciency”. Dr Soler says that water consumption has increased signifi cantly during the Covid 19 pandemic and needs to be brought back down to pre-Covid levels.
So where do water industry GHG emissions typically originate from? Both drinking water and wastewater activities consume much grid electricity which (depending on the mix of power sources) generates carbon dioxide i.e. indirect emissions produced by the energy providers. “In general, larger wastewater treatment works have greater process effi ciencies due to economies of scale”, points out by Dr Steve Palmer, Process Engineer and Stantec; “the power demand and GHG emissions per population equivalent are less for larger wastewater treatment plant”. However, Mikkel Holmen Andersen, of Unisense says that larger wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) have higher emissions overall and more to gain by
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Box 1: Emission reduction hierarchy with examples of measures the water industry (and other industries) can take to achieve net zero
Purchase 100% renewal electricity, use low emission vehicles, Process effi ciency, water effi ciency, energy effi ciency, Tackle leakage, install smart networks
Renewable power generation on site (solar & wind), energy effi ciency & energy storage – together can meet up to 80% of water sector’s demand Biomethane (‘biogas’) from sewage to inject into national gas grid
Natural sequestration – grassland & peatland restoration, tree planting, carbon offsetting schemes
Box 2: Three types of GHG emissions classifi ed under the GHG Protocol corporate standard; an international standard for reporting a company-wide GHG inventory.
1. Scope 1: Direct emissions from the reporting company’s operations 2. Scope 2: Indirect emissions from upstream activities 3. Scope 3: Indirect activities from downstream activities
Figure 1: GHG Protocol scopes and emissions across the supply chain (from WRI/WBCSD Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard)
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