Environmental Awareness Index

We want people in England and Wales to have reliable water and sewerage services, while being able to play their part in taking care of the environment. That’s why a large part of our People and the Environment work involves helping people to make the connection between their water use and the water environment.

In order to measure the success of our efforts and that of the wider sector, we created an Environmental Awareness Index in February 2022 to track changes in awareness and behaviour over time.

What our latest index shows

• Awareness of the impact of personal water use has increased by 12%. However the overall awareness index score has not changed from 55 out of 100.
• Although 86% of people are aware that what they rinse down the sink and flush down the toilet affects the environment, this has fallen from 91%.
• People in Wales have greater awareness of the environmental impact of their water use (93%) compared to those in England (86%).
• More people feel confident that they know how to reduce their personal water use by around 5 litres a day (69%, up from 57% in February 2022).
• However, there has been a significant increase in the number of people who said they would only reduce personal water use if it saved them money (from 23% to 32%).

Overall, our Environmental Awareness Index provides a reminder of the distance we still have to travel when it comes to informing customers about the environmental impact of their use of water services at home. It’s vital the sector rises to this challenge as people and communities have a key role to play in protecting these essential services and the environment.