Anglian Water is celebrating following their successful bid in Ofwat’s Innovation in Water Challenge along with Welsh Water, the @one Alliance (which includes Anglian Water, Balfour Beatty, Barhale, MMB, Sweco, Skanska and MWH Treatment) and lead partners Sweco and Skanska for their innovative project ‘Enabling Whole Life Carbon Design’.

Anglian Water is also already seeking proposals for the second round of Ofwat’s Innovation in Water Challenge (IWC).

The project is set to deliver the tools and processes required to support the cultural and behavioural changes necessary to deliver low whole life carbon and cost solutions and ultimately ‘zero carbon emissions’ as a water industry.

The companies involved have pledged to build on Anglian Water’s existing pioneering carbon database to enable whole life carbon reporting and to integrate data with cost models and engineering platforms. Additional elements of the project include:

• Creating a visual project environment, through colour palettes, to enable carbon and cost hot spotting that will support design teams to unlock further carbon and cost savings.
• Embedding whole life, carbon cost management into governance processes to support decision making, facilitated by digitalisation and visualisation.
• Sharing the methodology and whole life carbon database template with the rest of the UK Water Industry and its wider value chain.

This approach, a UK water industry first, will build upon the current PAS2080 carbon standard and its philosophy that reducing carbon reduces cost. It is set to support the industry in delivering its Public Interest Commitment to reach net zero carbon by 2030 and broader zero carbon emissions aspiration, which will enable the whole water sector and its value chain to make clear decisions, based on data insights and visualisations.

Above all, the project will enable the industry to move from carbon management to whole life carbon cost management.

Lindsey Taylor, Innovation Manager at Anglian Water, said:

“We are pleased and excited to receive funding for this project from Ofwat which will enable us to transform how we affect cultural and behavioural change to deliver zero carbon emissions as a sector. We look forward to working closely with our partners as we explore this opportunity which has been enabled through the innovation fund.”

Anglian Water is also actively partnering on several of the other successful winning projects including:

• The Organics Ammonia Recovery project, which will recover ammonia in wastewater and turn it into green hydrogen fuel – a first for the industry, led by Northumbrian Water.
• ‘Seagrass Seeds of Recovery, a project aimed at restoring seagrass and improve estuaries and coastal waters by increasing biodiversity and absorbing carbon and nitrogen emissions led by Affinity Water.
• ‘Sector Innovation Centre of Excellence (CoE) – a virtual innovation accelerator hub to promote collaboration in and beyond the water sector and drive transformational innovation, led by Northumbrian Water.

Anglian Water is also seeking proposals for the second round of Ofwat’s Innovation in Water Challenge (IWC) through their Water Innovation Network (WIN).

Suppliers from all sectors are being invited to partner with Anglian Water to submit project proposals. These should have a value of between £50,000 and £250,000 and aim to drive transformation in the water sector. The water company are encouraging people to put forward their ideas for project proposals via the WIN platform until Friday 5 August.

Click here for more information about Anglian Water's collaboration opportunity for the second round of Ofwat’s Innovation in Water Challenge.