Severn Trent achieves the highest award for environmental performance for four years running
12th July 2023
Severn Trent has been awarded the highest 4-star status in the Environmental Performance Assessment (EPA) for a fourth consecutive year, the first time this has been achieved.
The FTSE100 business has achieved the industry-leading status by the Environment Agency. The EPA is a tool to assess and compare the performance of water companies in England and reflects the company’s long-standing commitment to the environment.
In order to drive improvements in environmental standards, the assessment rightly tightens each year. Against increasingly stretching targets, Severn Trent said it was pleased to have achieved ‘green’ status on each of the seven metrics included in the 2022 assessment, maintaining the highest four-star status for a fourth consecutive year.
Liv Garfield, Chief Executive, Severn Trent said: “We’re pleased to once again be recognised as an industry leader when it comes to environmental performance, achieving the Environment Agency’s highest rating for the fourth year running. Whilst the recognition is pleasing, we will continue to keep improving our performance and make a positive difference to the environment around us - whether through delivering our bold Get River Positive pledges, improving the biodiversity of 10,000 hectares of land, or launching the world’s first carbon neutral wastewater treatment site.”
Severn Trent’s Get River Positive is a commitment to protect and improve the health of the region’s rivers. Central to the programme is its pledge that its operations will not be the reason for any stretch of river in its region to be classified as unhealthy by 2030.
Severn Trent is moving faster, in some cases 20 years ahead of targets set out by regulators and the Get River Positive pledges have made a difference across its region over the last 12 months, including:
- 10 River Rangers working in communities across the region who have carried out nearly 5,000 riverside inspections with partners, environment and community groups on the subject of river health
- Severn Trent is currently responsible for 16% of RNAGS (reasons for rivers not achieving good ecological health) in our region - this reduced by one third in the first year of Get River Positive
- Monitoring is providing 300 million data records for how storm overflows are performing
- More than £278,000 granted to regional community projects benefiting rivers
- Continued investment of £100m a year in rivers in the region
Visit www.getriverpositive.co.uk for more information and to sign up for the newsletter for regular progress updates, and read the full Get River Positive report.
Notes to editors
EPA measures
Water companies are measured against discharge permit compliance, pollution incidents, serious pollution incidents, self-reporting of pollution incidents, the Supply Demand Balance Index and the Water Industry National Environment Programme (WINEP).