Net-zero partnership - Melbourne Water & Severn Trent

Carbon

The partnership

Aarhus Vand (Denmark), Melbourne Water (Australia), and Severn Trent (UK) form a partnership to advance the future of environmentally friendly wastewater treatment. Partners will collaborate on developing technologies to reduce the carbon footprint of wastewater treatment sites to net-zero, sharing existing expertise, and establishing new international standards for measuring and reporting emissions.

Together, the three companies have committed to work together to reduce their carbon emissions by around a million tonnes and aim to lead the green transformation of the sector.
Water Innovation

The partners

Severn Trent has invested in a Resource Recovery and Innovation Centre which explores technologies to reduce and remove emissions - including Europe’s largest anaerobic treatment process that uses less air and energy and has less embedded carbon.

Melbourne Water works with harnessing biogas from wastewater treatment plants, generating power from water and gravity via mini-hydro throughout the water supply network as well as from the Australian sun via two large scale solar facilities.

Aarhus Vand focuses on turning wastewater into green energy, creating liveable cities through climate adaption, and the active reduction of nitrous oxide and methane emissions.
Mindeparken

Projects

Through this world leading collaboration the partners will build upon their experience, expertise, and innovation capacities on key complementary projects such as the transformation of one of Severn Trent’s sewage treatment facilities in the UK into a Net Zero hub, dedicated to researching and testing the latest carbon neutral wastewater treatment technologies at an industrial scale.

Further, the development of new techniques to measure and record nitrous oxide and methane releases from wastewater treatment sites, and establishing new, more accurate, international measurement standards based on this as well as identifying ways to enhance current wastewater treatment sites with green technology that optimises the performance and efficiency of facilities while reducing emissions to net zero.
Tangkrogen

Outcome

The intented outcome is to find potential for employment secondments between the three companies, so that talent and expertise can be shared and developed around the partnership and across the world - providing wellrounded international professional development and enabling the exchange of fresh ideas.

Also, maximising the use of renewable, sustainable resources at treatment facilities as well as creating a roadmap for the industry to achieve net zero most efficiently at the best value for customers through gathering and sharing information on the technical and economic feasibility of options to reduce emissions.

Partnership on cutting carbon emissions