Water firm pouring effort into reducing carbon footprint

SCOTTISH Water's carbon footprint for the year 2006-07 was 470,000 tonnes of equivalents – that's what the town of Perth, which has a population of 43,000 people, would emit in a year. Its electricity demand grew 10 per cent from 2002 to 2006 and a similar increase is expected in the 2006-2010 regulatory period. Scottish Water currently generates up to 5 per cent of its electricity demand from its own renewable schemes. It has the potential to double this within its core asset base, f

Its focus just now is to halt the increase of its carbon footprint and then start to reduce it. How it breaks down: 66 per cent of Scottish Water's footprint is grid electricity – of that:

waste water treatment works consume 45 per cent; the sewerage network uses 13 per cent; raw water pumping and water treatment works take 30 per cent; clean water pumping uses 9 per cent, while supporting assets and others consumes 3 per cent.

The remaining 34 per cent of the company's footprint is made up this way: 13 per cent natural gas; 9 per cent sludge; 6 per cent wastewater treatment process emissions; 3.5 per cent transport and travel; 2.2 per cent process skip waste, for example grit and screenings; and 0.3 per cent water treatment process emissions.

The reason the footprint has grown is simple. By investing billions of pounds to improve drinking water quality and clean up the environment, Scottish Water has needed more sophisticated systems which require more power, meaning greater carbon emissions.