A North East water company is the first in the UK to become carbon neutral.
Water supplier Everflow Water, which is based in Teesside, has launched a new scheme and is providing 100 per cent carbon neutral water supplies to its customers in a bid to achieve net zero by 2040.
Chief executive Josh Gill said: “We’re committed to doing everything we can to protect and secure the environment for future generations, and we’ve implemented a number of schemes and initiatives to ensure this.
“That includes taking measures to offset our whole supply chain, as well as our customers’ supply chains, through buying carbon credits to offset all emissions produced in the process – from getting water from reservoirs, treating it and it going back into the sea.
“Closer to home, in a recent survey, our employees told us that they’d like to convert to electric vehicles, so we’ve enabled this by partnering with the Octopus employee electric vehicle scheme.
“We’re also taking a good look at the areas of our business that generate the most emissions and following our new action plan to minimise our carbon footprint as we grow the business.”
As well as offsetting the carbon that is used on its behalf, Everflow is also encouraging customers, partners and suppliers to do their bit.
The firm has submitted its data to environmental experts Earthly to calculate Everflow’s carbon emissions for last year.
Environmental and regulatory affairs manager Clare Galland added: “As well as the work we do at Everflow, we’re committed to offsetting the emissions from our own customers’ supplies.
“We’ve done this by buying certified carbon credits from THG Eco, which means that our customer contracts are fully carbon neutral from 2021 to 2023 inclusive, and our own business is carbon neutral from 2020 until the end of 2023.
“We use a lot of third parties for services such as meter reading, debt collection and changes of tenancy. Therefore, a further part of our commitment to achieving net zero by 2040 will focus on supporting our suppliers and partners to join us on our journey by reducing their own emissions.
“We’ve already worked with a large property management firm on a bespoke water-saving plan and we’re keen to support more partners in this way.”
For more information about Everflow, visit www.everflowgroup.co.uk