Irish Water

IRISH WATER

Embedding Sustainability

Irish Water are rising to the challenge of climate breakdown and the biodiversity crisis, integrating and embedding sustainability, significantly improving the sustainability of water services

Throughout 2021 Irish Water continued to make big strides in improving water and wastewater services, reducing leakage, enhancing the service offered to customers and delivering high levels of connections for housing and development nationwide.

Investment of €851m in capital infrastructure projects during the year delivered major upgrades and construction of new water and wastewater treatment plants and networks, as well as the completion

of critical projects such as Cork Lower Harbour and the Vartry Water Treatment Plant. Irish Water also reached a significant milestone with the elimination of 60 per cent of raw sewage discharges in Ireland and is on track to remove most of the remainder by 2025.

Irish Water’s CEO, Niall Gleeson, says: “Irish Water remains committed to ensuring that all our customers have safe, clean drinking water and that all wastewater is treated and returned safely to the environment. The work we do is essential in order to support economic growth, housing and jobs and in 2021 we continued to support the delivery of the Government’s Housing for All programme, with over 32,000 offers of new housing connection made.”

SAFE AND RELIABLE Irish Water’s mission is to ensure that all its customers receive a safe, reliable and sustainable supply of drinking water and have their wastewater collected and safely returned to the environment. Its ability to take drinking water from the environment, and return treated wastewater requires a healthy and

sustainable functioning ecosystem, fundamentally supported by a diversity of plant and animal life.

Irish Water’s approach supports sustainable development, working with communities across the country, understanding their different needs, and building strong relationships that deliver impactful changes in economic growth, social inclusion and environmental stewardship.

Irish Water is playing its part in building a more sustainable future by implementing policies and strategies

OVER 450 WATER STEWARDS HAVE BEEN TRAINED TO DATE, WITH OVER 1,000 NEW WATER CONSERVATION PROJECTS PUT IN PLACE BY BUSINESSES”

aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), taking a proactive approach to sustainability across Ireland’s water and wastewater assets. The UN SDG’s have set an ambitious framework, with water having an individual goal within the SDGs. SDG 6 aims to “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”.

“Together with our stakeholders, the SDGs will continue to serve as a blueprint for how we behave as a responsible water utility and to focus resources for delivering the most

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On site collaboration - enginner, regional support and construction

significant and positive sustainability impacts,” states Niall Gleeson CEO.

CLIMATE ACTION As one of Ireland’s largest public sector energy consumers, energy efficiency improvement is a key mitigation measure of Irish Water’s climate change policy. Its sustainable energy

Lough Guitane Landscape, Kerry strategy takes a proactive, business-wide approach including concept design, new projects, retrofits and people.

“In 2021, we made significant progress on the journey to become a low carbon, sustainable water utility, achieving over 34 per cent improvement in energy efficiency performance against a 2009 baseline, saving 120,000T carbon,” Sean Laffey, Director Asset Management and Sustainability.

“Our strategy and energy management encompasses numerous Energy Action Plans and discrete energy projects, including energy efficient design, innovation, energy retrofits, renewable energy, lighting and heating, energy audits and planning, process optimisation, staff awareness and training.”

Irish Water is implementing Energy Efficient Design (EED) for all new and existing assets in collaboration with the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). “Our strategic agreement with SEAI helps to design for energy efficiency from concept, avoiding locking in inefficiencies whilst also helping to transform the industry at a national level,” explains Charlie Coakley, Sustainability Policy Lead.

Irish Water’s significant improvements in energy efficiency delinks its energy use from its carbon emissions; it is at the forefront in installing renewable energy sources, providing a low carbon, renewable and secure energy supply for its assets.

Plans for net zero carbon include further development of solar PV, hydro, wind and biogas across Irish Water’s asset base, which already boasts 20 PV solar sites undergoing statutory planning consultation.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY Irish Water continues to progress a number of initiatives taking a circular economy model for the management of sludges (organic matter that has been removed during the water treatment process), which provide a sustainable source of precious finite materials. “Our approach focusses on productive reuse and recycling of sludges as a product, providing an alternative or complement to current raw materials being used, thus entering the circular economy,” says Coakley.

“We view water sludge as a valuable resource particularly in the context of the circular economy model. This model is in direct contrast to the current linear model of ‘take, make, consume, dispose’, with landfill being the primary end point.”

In 2021 Irish Water reached a key milestone with almost 90 per cent of water sludge going to circular economy outlets, from a starting point in 2016 of 70 per cent going to landfill. “We are well on our way to reach our target of zero waste to landfill by 2030. We have plans to install nature-based solutions, such as innovative sustainable, lowcarbon, sludge reed beds and integrated constructed wetlands, at a further 30 sites, biodiversity enhancement on 60 sites and 30 ha of woodland planting in 2022 to help achieve our sustainability

IRISH WATER

target of net positive biodiversity by 2030,” notes Coakley.

NATURAL CAPITAL Protection of ecosystem is fundamental to Irish Water in order to provide a safe, secure and sustainable water supply. Irish Water’s assets are located within a range of habitats including species-rich grassland, woodland, scrub and wetlands, and its infrastructure interacts directly with freshwater, estuarine and marine habitats through abstraction of water or discharge of wastewater.

To celebrate World Environment Day on Saturday, June 5, 2021, Irish Water launched its Biodiversity Action Plan which sets out a national programme of measures to protect and enhance Ireland’s biodiversity. In 2021, Irish Water planted 18,500 native trees at Lough Guitane in Co. Kerry. These trees form a riparian woodland along the shores of Lough Guitane, protecting the source of drinking water for Killarney whilst also providing carbon sequestration. Irish Water also implemented Biodiversity Management Plans and Enhancement Measures for 140 sites nationally. WATER STEWARDSHIP Water conservation and water stewardship for business is becoming very important in Irish Water’s drive to become a more sustainable utility. It is working in partnership with businesses to safeguard our water supply now and into the future with the Irish Water Certified Water Stewardship Programme providing water stewardship training for business customers.

The innovative programme is the first of its kind globally. It is an international best practice certification, accredited by the European Water Stewardship Standard (EWS). The initiative is being implemented with the endorsement of key business stakeholder groups including Chambers Ireland, Ibec, IDA Ireland, Origin Green, BIM and Enterprise Ireland.

The specialised training provides business owners with the knowledge and expertise to lower water consumption and reduce operating costs while protecting the environment. Small changes such as identifying water waste on site, setting a baseline for water use, raising awareness amongst staff and customers or upgrading to water efficient devices can help to save water and money. Over 450 water stewards have been trained to date, with over 1,000 new water conservation projects put in place by businesses.

CLEAN COASTS Irish Water partnered with An Taisce on the ‘Think Before You Flush’ awareness campaign about problems caused in our marine environment and wastewater systems by the thousands of unsuitable items that are flushed down toilets every day, causing blockages in our homes and businesses, leading to sewer overflows in our communities and plastic pollution in rivers, beaches and the ocean.

Operated by An Taisce’s Clean Coasts programme in partnership with Irish Water, the campaign is promoted across the country. As part of the 2021 campaign, 5 national events and 30 regional activities were run throughout the year. Many events were modified as a result of the ongoing pandemic, with the majority being delivered online and through social media.

Another important sponsorship for Irish Water is the An Taisce Green Schools programme, which aims to inform tomorrow’s water advocates today. Across Irish Water staff from many functions contribute to the programme, speaking directly to children who are the future engineers, scientists and communicators, teaching them about water as something that needs to be conserved and protected. In total 269,802 students, 29,185 staff and 752 schools participated in the Water theme last year, with a focus on online and virtual and engagement.

Sustainability is at the core of everything we do at Irish Water as we progress on our journey to becoming a low carbon, sustainable public water utility. We are committed to the provision of safe, clean water services to a growing economy and population in a sustainable manner, for now and into the future and we aim to enhance and protect the environment an while supporting the social and economic development of the communities we operate in.

Ballymore Eustace Biodiversity