Breaking Waves

Wave has announced its ambition to become a net-zero emissions water retailer by 2030, the first to set such a target on a separate basis from its group companies. In doing so, Wave is playing its part in the wider movement to decarbonise the water industry.

The commitment forms part of Wave’s overarching Social and Sustainability Promise which includes other ambitious environment targets such as achieving zero waste to landfill, achieving the Waterwise Checkmark within Wave offices and working with customers to save 3,800 Olympic swimming pools of water.  

Matt Hobbs chairs Wave’s Environment Working Group and will be taking the lead on delivering net zero, said, “Although Wave’s impact on the environment is relatively small, we have a clear duty and obligation to set an example for our employees and our customers. I’m very proud to be setting some clear markers in the sand around our environmental ambitions and really excited to be leading the group who will be ensuring we deliver on these commitments”.

Wave will be publishing an annual report on our Social and Sustainability Promise and progress against our various commitments, including net-zero, with the first due in Spring/Summer 2022.

What’s the rest of the industry doing?

The Water Industry uses around 3% of the UK's electricity demand and contributes around 1% of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions, with such a large impact it’s been vital that the industry takes a lead role in decarbonisation and the race to net-zero.

The table below shows all the major water companies and their current timescales for becoming net zero, all of whom have committed to delivering early on the government’s ambition for a net zero economy by 2050.

They’re planning to achieve this by continuing to purchase energy from renewable sources and offsetting activities, such as planting trees as well as moving to electric powered vehicles. More innovative solutions also include generating clean energy from their sewage works (power from poo, Figure 1) and even floating solar panels on top of reservoirs (Figure 2).

Could you inspire a young student and raise their aspirations for when they leave school?

The Boys' Network is a mentoring initiative of M10, a north-east based charity. It’s designed to raise the aspirations of boys aged 14-16 and prepare them for the world of work across 10 months. 
The idea was hatched by Stephen Riley (pictured) back in 2018 and there are now over 120 volunteers providing regular mentoring to students from 12 schools. The initiative is currently covering all secondary schools in North Tyneside and the plan is to widen the net to 18 schools by September 2022 and spread throughout the North of England by 2025.

Stephen has received funding from Sage for The Boys’ Network that will help with the expansion of the initiative and is appealing for men in businesses to get involved.

Wave’s Director of HR, Jane Austin is a trustee of M10 and champions this initiative, “I’d really encourage people to consider sparing a little of their time each month – it doesn’t matter what job you do or what stage you’re at in your career, you really can make a difference to these young boys' lives.”

Getting involved is simple

Public Sector Framework Manager, Bill Humphray, is one of nine current volunteer mentors from Wave, delivering the 10 month programme.

“I was introduced to this initiative after Jane shared a great promotional video. It provided a background to the programme and explained what was involved. Signing up was simple, I completed an application form, had a DBS check and was then invited to have an informal, online interview with Stephen Riley. 

I talked about my work experience, my interests and most importantly why I wanted to be involved. I saw The Boys’ Network as a perfect opportunity to give something back for all of the personal development, work experience, and general life lessons I had gained through my employers over the past 35 years. Sharing my experiences and helping to deliver the M10 structured mentoring programme really appealed to me, it would be an absolute pleasure, and I couldn’t think of a better way to spend an hour once a month for ten months. 

Each mentor is provided a course handbook and a code of practice for engaging with the students. The sessions are run online via Zoom and you’re assigned to one school and one student for all 10 sessions. At the beginning of each one, Stephen and the group of mentors have a 10 minute welcome meeting and then the students join the call. By following this format, I can see the progress week on week as well as the confidence growing and the bond between us developing. The content of the course makes for great discussion and learning and includes Self Awareness, Resilience, Motivation, Empathy, Social Skills, Team Work, Time Management, Budget Management, Change and Interview Skills. I do feel a real sense of achievement once I come off the call each month, so I would highly recommend getting involved.”

Want to find out more?

If you'd like further details about The Boys’ Network or how to get involved please contact Stephen Riley via:

Social media: linkedin.com/in/stephen-riley-m10-missions/

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 07512 902899 

In our last edition we had just kicked off our first social value, corporate volunteering event and we're delighted to say the day was a huge success. As a business, we’re driven by our values and dedicated to doing good for our people, our planet, our customers, and their communities so look out for more events coming your way in 2022!

A successful volunteering event

After more than 18 months of working from home, limited contact with peers and colleagues and few options to attend events, we were delighted with the success of the day.

Not only did representatives from eight local, public sector authorities turn up to support us, seeing everyone, chatting, laughing and building relationships the old fashioned way was fantastic. These connections really matter and the feedback we received highlighted just how much everyone enjoyed themselves.

Nicola Shelley, Managing Director, NEPO: “The NEPO Team and our Member Authorities all thoroughly enjoyed it. It is fantastic to be working in partnership with an organisation that has such a strong commitment to making a difference in both what you do as an organisation for your team but also the wider community.”

Sustaining the local environment

One of the goals of last year’s United Nations Climate Conference, (COP26), was to adapt to protect communities and natural habitats. On a small scale this is something everyone contributed to on the day, and we plan to create plenty more opportunities to allow our people and our business water customers to get involved in the future. As well as bulb planting and path maintenance, one of the main ways we achieved this was by removing litter and debris from the waterway, helping to create a better environment for the local wildlife. The difference our team of volunteers made was really brought to life by the team at the Canal and River Trust who were on hand to teach us about the Barrage, its significance and why it is so important to the local area.

Let’s do it together

It’s our mission to make a positive difference to the environment and society, and work in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable way. But that’s not enough, we also want to support our customers with their sustainably and efficiency goals. So, whether you’re interested in saving water, reducing carbon emissions, or volunteering in our local communities, look out for ways you can get involved with Wave.

As part of our social and sustainability promise, we’ve recently launched Alaya, our new purpose platform. It comes with dedicated assistance to help our positive social impact grow. It also matches our individual skills to charities who need specific support, records water and carbon savings we achieve from participating in set challenges and measures the impact of what we do to help us understand what we’re achieving. 

Alaya helps our employees to:

• Support causes they care about
• Carry out volunteering for non-profits
• Donate money or goods
• Share their skills to benefit good causes, globally
• Support their wellbeing
• Make a positive impact on society
• Help us be a more sustainable business

Using Alaya will enable us to really help the causes we care about through sustainability and wellbeing challenges, volunteering opportunities and fundraising initiatives. We know that collectively, we can make a positive impact, not only locally but nationally and internationally, and through Alaya, we now have a way to demonstrate the ways we’re delivering on our commitment.