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At Pennon, we recognise the importance of our role in the communities we serve. We work in partnership to seek opportunities to contribute and deliver tangible benefits as well as building rewarding relationships that help us and our partners meet our goals.

Our engagement is partnership-based, working with selected charities, as well as through Pennon’s volunteering and community outreach. In 2023/2024, we had more than 150 Colleague volunteering days, and supported more than 129 different with our community investment.

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Case study - Upstream Thinking

South West Water's Upstream Thinking is a multi-award-winning, landscape-scale catchment management project that applies natural solutions to improve water quality. It is delivered through unique partnerships between South West Water, environmental organizations, government agencies, experts, landowners, and farmers. The University of Exeter evaluates the change in water quality at the catchment scale.

The project aims to:

  1. Protect and improve river quality and critical water abstraction sources to provide clean, safe drinking water, reducing the need for treatment.
  2. Support farmers and the rural economy by installing waterside fencing, building ponds, improving farm tracks, increasing slurry storage, and planting trees and buffer strips to catch and filter water.
  3. Ensure a better future for farming, value for customers, improved wildlife habitats, restored wetlands, and future resilient water supplies.
  4. Change the way people think about water and the natural landscape.

Upstream Thinking is supported by Pennon's customers as part of its commitment to protect and enhance the environment in the drinking water catchments. The performance commitment incentivizes an increase in land under active improved catchment management.

The annual target for Upstream Thinking is 10,000 hectares of new land under active improved catchment management (50,000 more hectares over the five-year regulatory period). The Green Recovery program will deliver an additional 10,000 hectares by 2025.

In 2023/24, 11,854 hectares were added to Upstream Thinking, and 3,364 hectares were added to Green Recovery, resulting in an annual delivery of 15,218 hectares against a combined target of 13,000 hectares. Cumulatively, 126,733 hectares of new areas have been brought under active catchment management since April 2015, exceeding the target of 123,209 hectares for this plan period.

South West Water continues to expand its nature recovery program by extending Upstream Thinking into new catchments, planting 300,000 trees, and re-naturalising waterways for wildlife, working with nature to build resilience.

Our catchment management initiative, Upstream Thinking, applies natural solutions to reduce agricultural impact on biodiversity and water quality. It does so whilst supporting farmers and the rural economy in providing long-term resilience to climate change, by installing waterside fencing, building ponds, improving farm tracks, increasing slurry storage and planting trees and buffer strips to catch and filter water.

Read more on our social commitments in our Community Relations & Investment Policy

Business for Social Impact (B4SI)

We are working to better understand the impact we have through our community programmes, through the adoption of the well-established B4SI framework. In addition to providing consistency in how we measure our community activity, our aim is that through working with our community partners in applying the framework, we can better support projects and programmes that deliver the greatest impact aligned to our purpose. The full set of B4SI assured data can be found in our online ESG Databook.

Engaging with stakeholders and understanding their needs is crucial for Pennon Group to deliver long-term sustainable value. The Board places utmost importance on stakeholder interests in its decision-making process. Regular two-way dialogue and engagement help shape the Group's strategy, social purpose, and Board decisions while building trust and transparency. Pennon recognises the significant value in stakeholder relationships and reflects their needs and priorities in business plans and operations.

The priority is to build long-lasting relationships, providing clear communication routes into the business. For time-limited stakeholder relationships arising from local projects, the Community Liaison Team follows agreed procedures to identify stakeholders and develop appropriate communication approaches, actively engaging local communities early on. Engaging with all stakeholders is essential, particularly given national and global issues faced by the water sector.

The Group carefully considers decisions impacts on stakeholders and listens to their views, as companies face scrutiny around environmental impacts. Customer engagement is of particular interest, with the WaterShare+ panel and Bristol Water Challenge Group chairs regularly attending Board meetings to provide customer feedback during the PR24 process.

Overall, Pennon Group manages and balances relationships with various internal areas and external stakeholders, such as investors, customers, and Pension Trustees, through consistent stakeholder engagement and communication.

Our ESG strategy and Community Relations and Investment Policy actively promotes community involvement in our day-to-day business activities. The Pennon Sustainability Committee annually reviews the businesses’ community involvement, investment and relations performance on a formal basis. We monitor and report our community investment information in our Annual Report.

Community relations

We are integral to the communities across our region and we are committed to listening and engaging regularly to understand their needs, working together to ensure water for all and protecting our environment today and for future generations.

Our charitable donations and community funds support hundreds of amazing causes making a real difference to the lives of people and the places they love. Our education programme aims to inspire future champions across the region to learn about the value of water in fun and interactive ways. Our community outreach programme works directly in the communities we serve offering support to those who need a little extra help when it matters most and talking directly to customers about environmental challenges and how we can work together to secure the future we all want to see.

Over the past decade we have been working with local community partners to protect and restore our environment, including working with our local farming community to help create more sustainable farming practices and restoring the South West’s precious peatlands.

Our partnerships with charities also seek to provide health and recreational benefits to local communities using our lakes and reservoirs – helping us support the health and wellbeing in our region.

We are committed to delivering positive community relations and benefit, wherever practically possible and economically reasonable. Our businesses operate in the heart of local communities, and we work closely with our stakeholders on active local projects and initiatives, through holding timely community liaison meetings and community events as appropriate.

South West Water has implemented a comprehensive community engagement program across its region, with a focus on coastal communities. The main initiatives include:

  • A roadshow program providing local information, addressing customer concerns, and sharing upcoming plans in different communities.
  • Awareness campaigns like 'Water is Precious', 'Love Your Loo', and 'Think Sink!' through print, digital, and social media to promote behavioural change.
  • An education program delivering lessons on water cycle, sewer misuse, and water efficiency to over 4,000 primary school children this year.
  • The 'Awesome Water' program with 28 event days across the region, engaging over 55,000 people and sharing messages on sewage misuse, water efficiency, drought, and hosepipe bans.
  • The South West Water Neighbourhood Fund, running for three years, has provided over £100,000 to more than 50 charities and groups, and 22,000 individuals.
  • Bristol Water's 'Together for good' community lottery program, supporting local community projects with £500 grants.
  • Bi-annual Conservation and Recreation Forum and partnerships like Southwest Lakes Trust to promote access to recreational sites.

The initiatives cover a wide range of engagement activities, from local roadshows and school education to public events, community funding, and partnerships, aimed at raising awareness, promoting water conservation, and addressing local concerns.

Capturing community feedback

We capture community feedback, whether this is in the form of compliments, opportunities, complaints or grievances, via our reception, call centres, social media channels, customer service teams and the ‘contact us’ form on our company websites. The information collected is recorded and handled by our community relations and environment and sustainability teams and the relevant local site representative, to ensure the issues or opportunities are captured and any necessary action taken.

How we identify our stakeholders

Whether looking to build long-term relationships or deliver genuine engagement around shorter term projects, our process for stakeholder identification is the same.

  1. Determine the scope and boundaries of the project or issue, including the geographical area, where relevant.
  2. Analyse and identify individuals, organisations and businesses who may be impacted by the project or issue. Consider who might provide valuable insight or information around aspects of the project or issue or who can influence outcomes?
  3. Complete a desk-based study to research and build the stakeholder list
  4. Work with colleagues who already have connections into the local area or work in the specific sector of the business to expand further on the stakeholder list using their knowledge and networks
  5. Liaise with stakeholders with whom a relationship is already established to further develop the list
  6. Group the stakeholders into categories under agreed headings, for example regulators, community groups, landowners, businesses, public bodies and individuals, local residents, media, environmental organisations, statutory consultees, MP’s and decision makers.
  7. Stakeholder identification is an ongoing process. As a project evolves additional stakeholders will be identified. Ensure newly identified stakeholders are incorporated into the stakeholder mapping exercise and subsequent engagement plan.

Stakeholder analysis and mapping

Following stakeholder identification, analysis and mapping will lead to the development of an engagement strategy, outlining the communications approach and resource required to engage with each stakeholder group or individual. This plan will detail the frequency and route of contact for each stakeholder. Routes of communication can include newsletter updates, regular working groups, one to one meeting, public meetings, consultation events, schools talks and community events.