The UK’s longest established water retailer has become carbon neutral, as it works towards its goal to be net zero by 2030. 

Business Stream today announced a new partnership with Ecologi, a leading climate action specialist, to offset the company’s carbon emissions on an annual basis to achieve carbon neutrality. 

Aligned with Business Stream’s vision to make a positive difference (MAPD), this partnership will support certified carbon offsetting projects that align with the company’s sustainability goals.  

The partnership will contribute to two carefully selected projects through Ecologi. A nature-based project to protect the Mataven Forest in Colombia which covers 1.86 million hectares and is home to more than 40,000 plant species and a society-based project contributing to the provision of more than 380,000 cookstoves in Kenya, which will help avoid 4.3 million tonnes of CO2 emissions and support the creation of over 1,000 jobs for the local community. 

These verified projects, certified by the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), reflect Business Stream’s commitment to driving social and environmental impact. 

Jo Dow, Chief Executive of Business Stream said: “The climate crisis is one of the biggest challenges facing us all and it’s really important to us that as a responsible business we take a pro-active approach to limiting our environmental impact. 

Our focus is on reducing our emissions and we’ve already made significant strides in doing so. We do however recognise that we can’t become net zero overnight so we wanted to identify other ways we can support our environmental ambitions as we work towards our 2030 goal. 

We’re excited to have partnered with Ecologi and are looking forward to tracking the impact of these projects.” 

Sean Earp, Senior Account Executive at Ecologi said: “We are proud to support Business Stream’s climate commitments and have their support in the delivery of projects that contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This partnership is a great example of how businesses can take meaningful climate action”. 

In recognition of its sustainability efforts, the retailer was awarded a Gold rating by global sustainability assessors, EcoVadis, in November 2022, placing it within the top 5% of companies measured across four key sustainability areas, the environment, labour and working conditions, sustainable procurement and ethics. 

Business Stream recently cut its carbon emissions by 50% in one year after rolling out a series of carefully planned measures to deliver environmental savings. The result, measured from April 2022 to April 2023, and externally verified, exceeded the retailer’s promise to cut emissions by 20% during the 12-month period.