Natural Capital
We manage over 56,000 hectares of land in the North West Region. The land we own and manage brings many advantages beyond our business-as-usual activities, from the welfare value associated with recreation and tourism to climate regulation and removing carbon from the atmosphere. To optimise the use of this land to protect water quality and quantity we must understand the extent and condition of our natural assets. Natural capital accounting gives us a standardised way of valuing these natural assets.
As a water company nature is at the heart of our business and we are wholly reliant upon the environment beyond our own natural assets. To obtain a full picture of our impacts and dependencies on natural capital across the region, we commissioned a North West Regional Natural Capital Account in 2021. We worked in collaboration with representatives from local government, landowners, regulators, and NGOs. This provided some key insights into the value of the ecosystem services provided by the natural environment for the North West.
In 2024, we published our first Corporate Natural Capital Account, it captured the key benefits from natural assets on land we own, and the costs associated with maintaining these. This account will influence how we prioritise our investments and will feed into our annual disclosure reporting (Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures). Each natural capital account will be utilised to support future decision making and to monitor and track the value we deliver through our activities.
Natural capital value on our land reports
Corporate Natural Capital Account (2023)
Accounting for Nature – Corporate Natural Capital Account (2024)