Sustainable communities

Sustainable communities policy

Our policy for sustainable communities is to enhance and protect the communities we serve to make them places that people want to live, work and invest in, now and in the future.

Sustainable communities should meet the diverse needs of existing and future residents, (are) be sensitive to their environment and contribute to a high quality of life. They should be safe and inclusive, planned, built and run well, and offer equality of opportunity and good service for all.

It is our policy to support the communities in which we operate by utilising our significant resources notably our assets and employees where appropriate. Also, through our community involvement programme, health and environmental campaigning, education programme, biodiversity and environmental work.

Long term community partnerships and initiatives will bring about sustainable change through tackling real and lasting change in our communities to help them improve their quality of life in a sustainable manner. 

Sustainable communities action plan

• Where appropriate provide seed corn support for projects which can lever substantial additional support and investment and lead to self sustaining projects.

• Work to ensure that local people lead the creation of sustainable communities and benefit from developments in their communities.

• Work in partnership with Sunderland City Council and others on the Sunderland Academy Model to rebuild and improve secondary schools and to add value to the quality of education and learning opportunities in Sunderland.

• Promote the message, through a wide range of campaigns and programs, that water is precious – for life, for health, for wealth and for the environment.

• Influence behaviour by increasing awareness and understanding of water’s health benefits. Conduct research into people’s behaviour towards drinking water and develop campaigns and initiatives for the benefit of customers and communities.

• Continue campaigns aimed at schools that promote easier access to water throughout the day to promote the benefits of drinking water, which include helping to improve concentration levels. 

• Promote the benefits of drinking water throughout the working day through our ‘Chill Out’ campaign which gives local business the opportunity to purchase bottle free water coolers.

• Create awareness of the effects of putting fats, oils and grease into drains and sewers, which causes blockages and is a criminal offence which also wastes energy and resources.

• Ensure that communities are aware of the hazards and blockages that can be caused by flushing inappropriate items down the toilet, instead of putting them into the bin.

• Promote the importance of using water wisely creating awareness of the effects that water usage has on the environment.

• Consult communities about planned activities/initiatives explaining the reasons for our actions and the associated benefits of these initiatives, ensuring that community concerns are responded to in an appropriate manner, for example we issue material as part of our capital investment programme.

• Continue with our ‘Good Moves’ initiative which involves using our redundant property assets for the benefit of the communities that we serve, by providing sustainable and affordable housing in rural areas.

• Support the development of sustainable houses on redundant sites in our operating areas, following on from the development of the affordable rural housing.

• Ensure that all written and spoken communications are in plain English, that they are not weighed down with jargon, acronyms and technical language which will only be understood by people who work in the sector.

• Continue to support community programmes, which bring about lasting change and strengthen community spirit, using locally based endowment funds to provide financial support.

Sustainable communities KPIs

• Promote the benefits of drinking water throughout the school day through our ‘Chill Out’ campaign which enables the instillation of bottle free water coolers. Install 40 water coolers in schools within our operating area in 2007/08.

• Work with Beyond Green, a consultancy that applies the principles of sustainable development to planning and regeneration, on the ‘Good Moves’ project to develop affordable rural housing, ensuring we use our property assets to the benefit of the communities that we serve. 

• Distribute requested customer campaign materials, for example Using Water Wisely within 10 working days of the received request during 2007/08.

• Ensure that Community foundation grants are awarded to a diverse range of community projects and groups, based on NW sponsorship criteria.

• Act as lead sponsor for Castle View School in Sunderland to support the education attainment of young people.

Sustainable communities case study

Seed corn funding from Northumbrian Water can help to bring about lasting change in the community.  To ensure that this is achieved projects which we support are assessed for their benefit and impact. Our criteria take into consideration: the level of community involvement; how the new project relates to initiatives or projects we already support; the benefits to the business and the potential that our involvement can create leverage of extra funding and support.

Water for health Easington

The 2001 census records showed that Easington has one of the worst health records in the country with 30.8% of the population reporting long-term illness.  It is also the local authority with the highest level of the population aged 16-74 being economically inactive and having a permanent sickness or disability (almost 1 in 6 - 16.3%).

In 2006 NWL reached an agreement with County Durham Primary Care Trust (PCT) giving them a 99 year lease on a redundant building at our Easington Waterworks.  We are working in partnership with the PCT, the District of Easington Council, the Neighbourhood Management Pathfinder and other stakeholders to refurbish the building which will reopen as a Healthy Living Centre in October 2007.

However our commitment goes beyond providing the building. 

There is a natural synergy between our own ‘water for health’ campaign and the Healthy Living agenda, so we are devising new ways for NWL to work at a strategic level with the partners of the Healthy Living Centre.  We have already contributed research, marketing and communications support to create awareness of the centre and understand local needs and have been involved in three events to promote healthy living, targeted at primary and secondary schools and day centres.  This activity is supported by sponsorship of an innovative swimming programme run by the Amateur Swimming Association to promote physical exercise and an arts programme run by Creative Partnerships to use arts based activities to change children’s attitudes to eating and drinking, supported by research from the Centre for Arts and Humanities in Health and Medicine at Durham University.

Our contribution to the work of the Healthy Living Centre is a unique approach to tackling the poor long term health of the residents in Easington.  

Good Moves

Like many companies Northumbrian Water  has assets that become redundant to its needs. These surplus assets were traditionally disposed of with little thought to their future use. Where appropriate we now use the disposal of these assets to support issues we are engaged in. These are

Water and energy efficiency
Biodiversity
Affordable rural housing
Helping to create sustainable communities
Good design

We have called this our Good Moves programme as it is a good move for us, a good move for the environment and a good move for the communities we serve. There are 2 major parts to the programme:

Redevelopment
We have developed a set of criteria and a process with Beyond Green ,our sustainability advisors. To assess sites and ensure that the redevelopment of them includes the principles of Good Moves we have just put the first 2 sites through this process and have selected 2 development partners who will work with us to deliver the schemes.

Affordable Rural Housing
We have evolved our relationship with the HRH The Prince of Wales's Affordable Rural housing initiative. Northumbrian Water  leads an industry wide project to promote affordable rural housing as a redevelopment option for water companies' sites. On our own land, we have identified and are working on 3 schemes with the first to be delivered late in 2008.

We have currently identified over 250 surplus assets within Northumbrian Water and while the majority will not be suitable for Good Moves, those that are will be brought forward over the coming years.

North East Enterprise Bond

Northumbrian Water’s contribution to the North East Enterprise Bond is a five year loan, which will help fund the purchase and running of a number of ‘Launch Pads' - dynamic, state of the art mobile vehicles that will tour the region to help trigger and encourage enterprise start-ups to make real, long-term change.  The bond works in partnership with creative enterprise promoters such as Big Ideas, People into Enterprise and Newcastle Education Business Partnership and they serve as a catalyst to help educate and inspire people in communities to consider setting up their own business or social enterprise. The bond also assists the ‘start ups’.  The previous Newcastle Employment Bond raised £2 million and helped more than 2,800 people, with 800 in new jobs or training as well as funding over 130 new enterprises.