Responsibility
Our responsibility commitments and our performance against them
Acting in a socially and environmentally responsible manner is embedded in our group strategy, and this year, we are reporting our corporate responsibility performance as part of our annual group performance reporting. For ease, our key corporate responsibility metrics have been pulled out below. For any further information please see our annual report.
Objective | Our commitment | How we are measuring our performance | 18/19 performance | 2020 target | More info - report page |
Ambition one: We will make our region the most water efficient in the UK | We will empower our customers to save up to 25Ml/d by 2020 | Water efficiency level achieved | TBC | 25Ml/d | Pages 40, 47, 66 |
Ambition one: We will make our region the most water efficient in the UK | We will improve understanding of services through education |
Number of customers we have educated between 2015 to 2020 | 171,469 | 700,000 (cumulative over AMP6) | Pages 22, 40, 52 |
Ambition two: We will play a leading role to help make our region's rivers even healthier |
We will work with landowners and partner organisations to reduce agricultural run-off in our region's rivers | Positive engagement with land managers in targeted areas by end of AMP6 | 85% | 80% (in 12 catchments) | Pages 34, 47 |
Ambition two: We will play a leading role to help make our region's rivers even healthier | We will do our fair share to achieve Water Framework Directive good ecological status in our region’s failing water bodies, where it is cost-effective to do so | Number of Water Framework Directive classification improvement points (as monitored by the Environment Agency) |
19 | 233 (cumulative over AMP6) | Page 48 |
Ambition two: We will play a leading role to help make our region's rivers even healthier | We will improve biodiversity in our region by improving at least 75 hectares of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (‘SSSI’) | Number of hectares improved from unfavourable or deteriorating condition using Natural England’s database of SSSIs | 9.86 | 75 | Page 21, 40, 47 |
We put our customers first | We provide a service to our customers that is good value for money | % of customers who rate our service value for money in an independent quarterly survey | 59% | 55% | Page 52 |
We put our customers first | We help our customers who are in genuine need and struggling to pay their bills | Number of customers we help each year through social tariffs and assistance schemes | 51,716 | 50,000 | Pages 18, 22, 24, 25, 37, 51 |
We are passionate about what we do | Our employees are passionate about what we do | Group % engagement score from our annual employee survey | 61% | - | Pages 30, 31 |
We act with integrity |
We involve our customers in our plans, and we’re honest about how they think we’re doing | We will invite the independent Water Forum to review and comment on our annual performance | Four meetings held this year | - | Page 39 |
We protect our environment | We do everything we can to prevent polluting the environment | Number of Environment Agency Category 1 & 2 incidents (calendar year metric) | 2 | 0 | Page 38 |
We protect our environment | We reduce our carbon footprint | % reduction in Group carbon emissions (scope 1 and 2 – our direct emissions and those from the energy we use) | 4.4% | 19% | Pages 40, 47 |
We are inspired to create an awesome company | No one is hurt or made unwell by what we do | Group – Total workforce % female | 0.17 0.15 |
- - |
Pages 43, 65 |
We are inspired to create an awesome company | We believe a diverse and inclusive workforce is a key factor in being a successful business | Group – Total workforce % BAME | 29.99% |
8.88% |
Pages 42, 50 108 |
Our suppliers support our values and ambitions | We are a responsible payer | % invoices paid to terms, including self bill (12 month financial year average) | 96% | 97% | Page 49 |