Interserve to cut water usage by 20% by 2016

Interserve has announced that it aims to reduce its water consumption by 20% in three years following the release of its 2020 sustainability programme, which looks at the stewardship of energy and natural resources.


Published today, the international support services and construction group’s sustainability programme sets out a number of targets that tackle areas of water, waste and energy reduction in an effort to put “sustainability at the forefront of our decision-making”.

Speaking to edie, Interserve’s head of sustainability Tim Haywood said that water featured highly on the agenda as the next war could well be fought over water rather than oil.

“Water scarcity is a very present danger for the well-being of the sustainability, the security and the resilience of companies and countries. We operate in the UK as a contractor, and have done for a long time, under most of the water utility companies and therefore have spent a lot of time building and perfecting the UK’s water infrastructure.

Haywood explained that because of the company’s work with water infrastructure it had been involved in desalination projects, water purification and leak rectification.

The programme, called SustainAbilities, sets out 48 targets phased between 2014 and 2020, which include reducing emisions from business travel by 30% by 2016, reducing emissions use at construction sites also by 30% by 2016 and increasing recycled content in materials by 50% by 2018.

Tony Juniper, one of the UK’s leading sustainability thinkers, was involved in the development of the plan in his capacity as a co-founder of The Robertsbridge Group, said: “Through the launch of their new SustainAbilities plan, Interserve is showing how sustainability can increasingly be linked to a company’s business strategy and financial performance”.

Leigh Stringer

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