Northumbrian Water has pledged to be a zero waste company by 2025 as part of its new business plan.
The water company has submitted its plans for the future of water and waste water services to the industry regulator OFWAT and will find out in the next few months whether or not they get the green light to bring them to life.
Among the new business plan proposals are a raft of ambitious and industry leading targets that focus on improving the environment in the region and creating a real step change in how the company carries out its environmental activities.
The plans, which will cover 2020 to 2025, will see Northumbrian Water:
Create Zero avoidable waste - NWG will deliver zero avoidable waste by 2025. This will mean eliminating, re-using or recycling 90% of waste from their operations, and working with partners to contribute to the circular economy in their regions.
Become Carbon Neutral - NWG will be carbon neutral by 2027. The company has already reduced operation emissions by 46% since 2009. As well as recycling 100% of their sewage sludge into energy through advanced anaerobic digestion, they will improve their energy efficiency, purchase zero-carbon electricity and make all new fleet vehicles zero emissions from 2024.
Have the best rivers and beaches in the country; we will continue to improve rivers and coastal waters to achieve our ambition to maintain the best rivers and beaches in the country, with a target of zero pollution incidents as a result of our assets and operations.
Wastewater Director Richard Warneford said: "We′ve set ourselves some truly ambitious goals here as part of our plan but we aim to go even further and ensure we go above and beyond to protect and improve the environment in everything we do as a company.
"Our ‘Improving the Water Environment′ scheme will see us invest £2m into environmental partnerships to enhance the areas of streams, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, beaches and coastline that our customers can access.
"We will also demonstrate leadership in catchment management, taking care of our water resources, and though our influence on the water environment ensure we provide habitats where wildlife can thrive and where we achieve a net gain in biodiversity."
To find out more about this and for more details on ‘Our Plan′ visit www.nwgourplan.co.uk and follow us on social media @Northumbrianh2O / @northumbrianwater #NWOurPlan