Sustainability

4,500 free Automatic Meter Reading devices installed in 2021

As part of our commitment to help customers improve water efficiency, cut costs, and reduce their carbon footprint, Castle Water installed approximately 4,500 free AMR devices to eligible customers in 2021. The year-long project completed in December 2021, and saved customers over £2.67 million in installation costs, and a further £9 million per year in potential leakage costs.

AMR is a device that attaches to an existing water meter. Unlike other low-cost, mass produced utility smart meters, that are not suitable for the water industry, AMR is specialised technology, designed to work with water meters that are often fitted underground.

As the name suggests, once installed, AMR takes regular meter readings automatically and submits them directly to the water retailer, eliminating the need for manual intervention.

Read how AMR cut £40k from Castle Water customer’s annual water bill

Read how Castle Water saved its customer over £13,000 in leak costs

Water efficiency

Whether your business water use is high or low, we know efficiency matters to all our customers. We give free, practical advice to help our customers use less water to become more sustainable and reduce costs.

Use our guides and checklists to get started.

Our weekly blog is packed with tips and advice for businesses of all sizes and all industries.

We encourage all our customers to take and submit monthly meter readings to monitor their water consumption and keep bills up-to-date.

For customers that want to make a greater investment in their water management and efficiency, we provide a range of bespoke Additional Water Management Services.

Drought resilience through innovation

In 2021 Castle Water won Ofwat’s inaugural Water Breakthrough Challenge for innovation.

In partnership with RWE Renewables, Bristol Water, the University West of England, and water specialist Binnies, our pilot scheme aims to provide more flexible local water supplies, improve drought resilience, and incentivise business customers to save water.

As part of the project, we are investigating whether land owned by electricity firm RWE at Didcot power station can be used to supply treated water to us. Bristol Water will be using its extensive knowledge of water treatment to help aid and manage the process. If successful, this will be the first time public water has been provided outside land owned by water companies.

The funding has been provided as part of Ofwat’s £36million Water Innovation Challenge. This is the first of a series of Ofwat competitions to explore new projects with the potential to deliver long-lasting benefits for customers, society and the environment through innovative thinking.

The Water Breakthrough Challenge seeks solutions to the difficulties facing water and wastewater services today, such as achieving net zero, reducing leakage, and protecting natural ecosystems.

John Reynolds, CEO at Castle Water said,

This could reinvent the retail and wholesale market as we know it today, fit with our low carbon future and provide much-needed incentives for a step change in business water efficiency.

Environment

We are constantly looking at ways to reduce the environmental impacts of our activities and services, and strive to reduce or prevent pollution and waste, and to minimise our consumption of resources.

We seek to minimise the impact of our activities by reviewing our environmental policy and checking against current and planned future activities.

In 2021 we began operations to carbon balance our printing to lower our carbon footprint, working with the conservation charity World Land Trust.

Our online customer portal, MyAccount, minimises the use of paper-based communications and we use recycled materials whenever possible. In March 2022 we introduced paperless billing as the default option for our customers in Scotland. Customers in England can choose to opt-in to paperless billing on MyAccount.

Employees are encouraged to minimise emissions through car sharing, public transport or zero-emissions means of travelling to and from our offices, and we participate in the Cycle to Work Scheme. Employees with company vehicles can opt for hybrid or fully electric cars. All employees have convenient access to Electric Vehicle charging points at our Head Office car park in Blairgowrie, Scotland.

We operate a recycling scheme, and actively promote recycling for waste materials including packaging. We encourage our suppliers to develop and implement their own environmental policy, and aim to make extensive use of local service-providers to reduce the environmental impact of transport, encouraging suppliers to adopt sustainable practices through their own supply chains.

Local engagement

Castle Water’s choice of Blairgowrie in Highland Perthshire as the home of our business has made a big difference to life in this historic town. We are one of the region’s leading employers, providing training, skills development and career opportunities for hundreds of local people, and bringing stimulation and prosperity to many households and local businesses in Blairgowrie with the daily influx of staff from the wider Perthshire region.

Whether it’s advising local businesses on where their water actually comes from, or how to get a better deal on wastewater charges; supporting the annual Cateran Yomp in aid of the Soldiers’ Charity, sending out our own team to take on the testing trek through the Cairngorms; sponsoring the Ardblair Stones Viral Tour across Scotland to the May Highland Games; working with Blairgowrie High School on Summer Internship programmes and Business Writing Challenge; supporting local primary schools with educational water content and free reusable water bottles; Castle Water actively works to support our local community and is proud of the roots we have put down here.