4 July 20239 January 2024

Focused on the future – ours, yours & the planet’s

By Sam Wright, Group Shared Services Director

Energy Assets is developing and delivering a low carbon strategy that supports the sustainability performance both of the Group and our growing customer base.

As the UK transitions towards Net Zero, we recognise that market requirements and customer needs are changing, and our business model is adapting to enable us to thrive in an economy undergoing structural change.

One of the clearest indicators of this strategy is EA Net Zero – a business launched earlier this year to drive opportunities for our customers through EV charging, AI-driven energy analytics and renewables integration in network design and construction. We aim for EA Net Zero to be an innovative partner for a low carbon future, helping to create value for business operations, sustainability and people across Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) metrics.

A future-proofed sustainability strategy

Across our Group activities, all our assets or other business activities are aligned with ESG-related opportunities, whether that’s future-proofing construction and metering assets ready for any transition to a hydrogen blend or, promoting low carbon alternatives and helping reduce consumption.

Our low carbon strategy is founded on four priorities:

1. Group-wide environmental performance, measuring our progress in more granular detail than ever before. For example, by refurbishing meters, regulators, modules, loggers, spools and valves where we can, we prevented 45.692 metric tonnes of waste going to landfill during 2022-23.

 2. Supporting our customers on their own sustainability journey through EA Net Zero, going beyond the current EV charging portfolio and AI-informed energy efficiency software to generate value in areas such as renewables.

3. Delivery of energy reduction and monitoring solutions from EA Metering & Data, leveraging advanced metering. In the last financial year alone, we helped organisations reduce their total energy by 5.6GWh for power and 32GWh for gas – saving £3.75m and £5.44m respectively.

4. Provision of smarter utility systems, through EA Networks, by integrating renewables via smart cabinets to enable excess solar power to be shared across communities or exported to the grid. We’re also helping manage capacity on constrained sites to keep the lights on as demand for electrification grows.

Leading by example

Our entire vehicle fleet is currently in transition to electric or plug-in hybrid cars, with a 57.8% reduction in emissions achieved in FY2022-23. EV charging points have been installed at all our offices and we’ve incentivised ‘at home’ charging for fleet drivers, while big data analytics is shaping our work flows to reduce field engineer mileage.

At the same time, our real estate energy efficiency drive has enabled us to cut our own CO2 emissions from electricity and gas consumption by 39% YoY, with the annual carbon intensity per employee dropping from 6.3tCO2e (tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent) to 5.46tCO2e.

All this is made possible by the adoption of standard cross-industry metrics covering, among other things, scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions. We’re also working in partnership with our supply chain to encourage wider adoption of sustainable best practices.

As a result, whether it’s meeting our own objectives or those of our customers, we’re determined to play our part in enabling a low carbon economy.

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