Supporting Net Zero Week (1-7 July 2023)
It’s Net Zero Week (1-7 July) the UK’s National Awareness Week of why Net Zero is so important and what we can all do to achieve it
Every person, every home and every business have an important role to play in tackling climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Net Zero is the world’s answer to stopping climate change. On 27 June 2019, the UK became the first major economy in the world to pass laws to end our contribution to climate change. The legislation committed the nations of the UK to reduce all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. Net Zero means any remaining emissions would be offset by schemes to remove an equivalent amount of greenhouse gases. The EU and many other nations have now agreed to do the same, meaning Net Zero has been adopted as the best strategy to protect us and the natural world from rising global temperatures.
We all need to reduce our carbon emissions to combat the effects of climate change. Reaching Net Zero will require many new measures, innovative solutions, aggressive government policies and plenty of human effort both at work and at home.
At Avove, we’ve some great examples of how we are making a difference. One example is the innovative approach we have taken across the Vyrnwy Aqueduct Modernisation Programme, which was shortlisted in the Water Industry Awards 2023 – for the Net Zero Carbon Initiative of the Year.
The project highlights how our in-house teams successfully designed and implemented an innovative system to clean three parallel pipelines across an 18.6km stretch between Malpas and Tarporley – which carries water from Lake Vyrnwy to customers across the North West. This project marks the first time, globally, that air pig technology has been used to clean a water pipeline of this size.
The ‘pigs’ are traditionally propelled by water, but by applying a new and innovative method that uses air instead, the work requires less energy to operate and gives a significant reduction in time, cost and carbon footprint. Work has commenced on the project and our approach will result in a reduction in water usage from 9.4 million litres to 91 thousand litres, which means only one tanker movement will be required to bring and take away water to propel the pig instead of 1,400 tanker movements.
How our colleagues are making the difference
As a business, we aspire to have a fully de-carbonised fleet, only use renewable energy by December 2030, and be a Net Zero Carbon business by December 2050.
For Net Zero Week, we have launched Project Planet, which is our internal campaign to ensure that we leave the world a better place than how we found it, focusing on improving the impact we have on our environment.
We have asked all of our colleagues to get involved in Net Zero Week – whether it’s coming up with an initiative for Project Planet or just finding out more about Net Zero Week and what we can all do to improve the impact we make on the climate.
Our greatest pursuit to reach Net Zero requires us all to take on our fair share of tackling emissions to stop global warming.