South East Water

Does the core business genuinely avoid or reduce emissions, or build climate resilience? Share of revenue that is actually 'green'. Fossil-dependent models score low.

The company's core business is water supply — inherently energy-intensive and climate-exposed — and while it has invested in leakage reduction, smart metering, flood-protection of 92 sites, and a Power Purchase Agreement covering ~40% of energy needs, it has not yet executed the switch to renewable energy at scale, and Ofwat-verified progress on its own operational GHG trajectory is not publicly quantified in audited form.

Credible, science-based targets (SBTi), a real net-zero plan with progress to date, and CDP disclosure — not just a dated press release.

South East Water states a commitment to operational carbon net zero by 2030 and aligns with the UK water industry's sector ambition, and Ofwat's PR24 final determination also requires it to work toward net zero by 2050; however, no SBTi-validated target has been found, no CDP disclosure score is publicly recorded for the UK entity, and the net-zero routemap lacks independently verified annual milestones.

Operational footprint, labour and social practices, and governance quality across the company's own operations and supply chain.

Ofwat's 2024 performance report noted South East Water moved from 'lagging behind' to 'average' in service delivery, and PR24 sets stretching targets on leakage (−13%), demand (−8%) and biodiversity; however, the proposed £22.5m fine for supply failures affecting 286,000+ customers between 2020–2023, and a follow-on Ofwat investigation into further outages in late 2025/early 2026, indicate material social and governance deficiencies.

Quality of disclosure, independent third-party verification, and how much hard data backs the company's claims.

South East Water publishes a public performance portal and an annual financial report that references carbon ambitions and a net-zero routemap, but independently verified Scope 1/2 carbon data for the UK entity is not publicly accessible in disaggregated form, no CDP submission has been identified, and Ofwat's PR24 process found the company's business plan initially 'lacking ambition', requiring revision before a quality penalty was removed.

Controversies, litigation, pollution, fossil-fuel lobbying, conflict-zone involvement and governance scandals. Higher means cleaner.

Ofwat proposed a £22.46m fine in March 2026 — 8% of turnover, near the maximum permissible — for repeated supply interruptions across 2020–2023 affecting over 286,000 people, finding the company failed to maintain infrastructure resilience and conduct adequate root cause analysis; a second Ofwat investigation was simultaneously opened covering further outages in November–January 2025/26, and the company sought (unsuccessfully) a judicial review injunction to block the fine.