The water industry was born for essential services. Today, it has an important role to play in climate action.

A few days after World Environment Day, I wanted to highlight the thoughts of key players from the water sector about “Net Zero CO2 emissions” in our activities. This is a major topic for our sector and it was at the heart of all discussions during the Global Water Summit last May. Let me recap the take-aways the @SUEZ team brought back from this Summit.

Providing universal access to water and sanitation has driven our industry for decades now. There is still a long way to go: more than 2 billion people in the world still have no access to water and 3.5 billion in the world live in areas where water is a potentially scarce resource for at least one month a year.

Climate change has added to the challenge and urgency: the need is to provide for growing demand with ever scarcer resources, while reducing the induced environmental footprint, notably CO2 and GHG emissions. The water industry has started to adapt with innovative solutions to limit emissions, but I believe we must still rise to the challenge. The water industry has a long way to go before reaching the net zero objective.

Technical and digital progress in the industry has made it possible to preserve resource thanks to predictive tools which integrate climate change issue, to implement wastewater treatment solutions and to recycle water resources, notably for industrial and agricultural consumption (70% of global consumption). We know how to build and operate wastewater treatment plants that are self-sufficient in energy and even produce their own energy, thereby limiting CO2 emissions. Technologically, we also know how to recover carbon molecules from wastewater to reuse them, thus reducing consumption of fossil fuels. However, potable water production, removal of micropollutants or desalination of sea water still require significant energy consumption and will require external solutions to reach net zero.

So how can we achieve net zero in our industry? This was the central topic of the Global Water Summit that took place last week in Madrid. The key water industry players agreed on the following observation: the water industry is late in setting Net Zero targets!

I believe our sector, which is so driven by an ecological purpose, can and must do more to cut emissions. Especially when considering that many other industrial or service sectors are already implementing ambitious plans to cut CO2 emissions. In France for example, the metals and mining sector, which reduced its emissions by 45% between 1990 and 2018, is now committed to reducing them by a further 31% by 2030 compared to 2015.

Net zero targets mean that water utilities need to think differently about energy efficiency, and asset performance. Achieving net zero emissions in the water industry is not merely a trendy topic, at least not for me. It's truly a must-have for operational excellence. It's a lever for competitiveness and a guarantee of the company’s appeal for young talents.

To decarbonize our industry, we must think globally and act locally. Water cycles and carbon cycles are strongly linked, so decarbonization of water means adopting a holistic approach to deal with our water footprint & carbon footprint together. It also means implementing circular principles, at the local and country level.

We need to work differently to reach net zero goals and act on as many technological levers as we have, making increasing use of green energy in our day-to-day operations, encouraging water reuse, improving water network performance, reducing leaks, implementing advanced sludge treatment to recycle carbon materials and producing energy from waste water.

Finally, I believe we cannot achieve decarbonization if we maintain a silo vision of the water sector. This requires integration of water & energy in a global approach to procurement, as we must not solve one problem by creating another. Concretely, this means that decarbonization should be a key selection criterion in public tenders. The UK for instance is leading here with the recent decision to integrate zero targets in asset management plans for water utilities. This exemplifies how a favorable regulatory framework can make a difference.

After the Global Water Summit, today on the World Environment Day more than ever, I feel that we must act now. At SUEZ, we are conscious of our responsibility as an industry leader and committed to walk the talk jointly with all our stakeholders.

Sabrina Soussan, CEO of SUEZ.