Interview with Canadian Water & Wastewater Association

Challenge THREE:

Supply chain management

The supply chain is at the heart of driving a sustainable business model for water companies and reaching that crucial net zero target. It’s here that the cloud and real-time analytics is playing a key role in delivering critical end-to-end visibility to allow utility leaders to make smarter, more informed purchasing and planning choices.

But delivering supply chain sustainability is not a responsibility that water companies need to shoulder alone. Success is driven through collaboration, not just with suppliers but partners too – regardless of their type or size. As such, many have opted into flexible and scalable networks which gather end-to-end data to support in-depth supply chain insight and measurement. This approach means it is possible to work with suppliers to assess and reduce the collective carbon footprint, innovate, and adopt circular business models, reduce waste, and drive social responsibility across the supply chain. central data source that can improve Environmental and Social Governance (ESG) transparency and sustainable business performance, while also promoting trust in robust and auditable ESG reporting.

Moreover, by drawing insights from a central data source, water companies can take a proactive, rather than reactive approach, to science-based targets. With real-time analysis and the cloud, utilities can integrate and acquire sustainability and ESG data, and build models that offer resilience against global volatility and uncertainty, and support current and future strategies across business divisions, from finance, HR, real estate to operations.

According to the UK government, between 2025 and 2050 Britain will need more than 3.4 billion additional litres of water per day to meet future demand for public water supply. Emerging technology such as analytics, AI, IoT, machine learning and smart metering have enormous potential to reduce utilities’ water footprint and reach net-zero. To achieve this, water utilities need to engage technology partners with specific industry expertise and the digital solutions to match. This is not a challenge that water utilities companies can answer in isolation but requires collaboration and innovation, where technology can be harnessed to support an encompassing sustainability strategy.

Challenge FOUR:

Measurement and onwards strategy

Water utility companies have goals in both Capital Carbon, emissions associated with the creation of an asset, and Operational Carbon, emissions during the in-use operation of a building, which are continuously monitored and reported. However, customers, regulators, investors, and employees want transparency in sustainability and for clear targets to be set, monitored, and actioned.

Measurement is the foundation of net zero success, so monitoring progress and gaining actionable insights from dependable sustainability data is crucial. As such, water companies should seek to draw insights from a