 I'd like to start by asking you about the benefits of net zero and particularly why did Anglian Water set a net zero goal? What are the benefits and why is that goal important to you? Well, it's important to us because I suppose we're in the front line of the impact of changing the climate. We're in one of the driest parts of the country in Anglian Water's region. We're also at significant risk of flood and we're trying to serve an increasing population just in the next five years alone. I think the population of the area we serve goes up by about six percent and those pressures combined with the fact that we're also one of the most energy intensive industry meant that it really wasn't an option for us to ignore ignore this and it wasn't really an option not to take a leadership position on it as well and as a company we've got a purpose, a very clear purpose, which is to ensure and bring environmental and social prosperity to the region we serve through our commitment to love every drop and you can see as a result of that we really did have to be in the vanguard of setting a really ambitious net zero target. So in the process of being in that vanguard and you've got that target what are some of the actions that you're taking the positive actions you're taking to make that goal a reality? Well this is something we've been doing for for many years and in the last five years alone we've saved something like 400 000 tons of carbon and we've made a commitment along with other companies in the water industry to achieving net zero by 2030 and it's demonstrated to us not only the importance of having our own plan next 2030 but also the opportunities that come from working with others and you know the much higher level of innovation you get when you when you genuinely collaborate on what ultimately is a common challenge. So we've adopted that as a sector it's something we're all working on but then each company has its own route map to net zero by 2030 and in hours we're really focusing on sort of three level hierarchy you know how can we ultimately reduce the emissions as the very first thing we can do and how can we decarbonise the supply of power and there's lots of opportunities there as well for renewables and then ultimately if we do have to offset residual emissions how do we do that in a way that delivers maximum local benefit as opposed to something we can have real confidence in. Excellent then if we take it from the other side we think about some of the challenges you've encountered in that impressive pathway of action what have some been some of the most significant hurdles you've encountered? Well one of the very big challenges for us is on regarding process emissions and this is particularly process emissions from our water recycling operations and this is because I think the science around process emissions probably wasn't as well understood the baselines weren't as clear and so we're having to do a lot of work as a company and back across the whole sector on understanding how to really track what the current level of process emissions are in order to you know then look at what changes we need to make in order to reduce process emissions on that journey to net zero so that's a particular a particular challenge but there are other challenges you know particularly I think about renewables lots of issues associated with planning permissions particularly for onshore wind which was in the very early days something we saw a lot of opportunity for and you know really these are things that we've really got to unlock to get the pace necessary to hit net zero by 2030 so if you were to kind of cast your mind back to kicking off on this journey what do you know now that you wish you'd known then? That's a great question I think it would have been much better for us to have had a more insight into how other sectors and other parts of the supply chain are actually decarbonizing and some of their some of the strategies that they've been employing I think that would have helped us because in some places we kind of feel we started this you know from a from our own perspective but I think there was there was probably more going on than we realized so I think that would have been helpful I think perhaps a better understanding of the trajectory around grid decarbonization would also have been helpful that's been a changing situation but probably a fuller picture of that at the outset would have helped and also improved understanding of that sort of tipping point between you know where where carbon saves you money and where it actually starts to cost you more that probably would have been probably would have been helpful as well. If you were at an event at a discussion with a spoke to a CEO of a business who was just they just set their net zero target or they're just about to and they're just like we really want to go for this but if there's so much where do we start what what do we do first and what what learning point what insight would you want to set to share with the company sort of at the beginning of the journey in that way? Well I think there's something there's something very helpful about being in a group of organizations traveling on the path together I mean I have to think about some of the early work that we were doing in CLG it was always very helpful to be talking to other organizations who've kind of got the importance of this but also were open to sharing ideas because you know we don't sit here as a company with the font of all knowledge in this area and sometimes other organizations in different sectors give insight which makes you think very differently so that that is always helpful so communities of interest on the journey. What's been the secret for Anglian Water is to you know unlocking that success in terms of being able to tap into the the inventive energy in your supply chain? Well I think it starts with having a deeper relationship with you know your partners really I mean I think it's a purely a transactional thing and you see them once in a blue moon it's quite difficult to get any sort of change going on in your supply chain so I think you have to think about a longer term deeper relationship I think once you've got that then you need to think about it from the perspective of what makes the partners in the supply and you and the supplier successful and you know where we've got examples where we've been out you know our supply chain have then been able to go out and sell products and services to other organizations off the back of their own carbon credentials which have been on that journey to help us so it's about thinking about it as opportunity as opposed to a burden as well. I'm just kind of the last few few questions and very much thinking about them current moment we're in so we're coming up to COP26 I mentioned earlier big event in Glasgow this November what outcomes or what signals are you hoping that might materialize from that event? Well I suppose at the first level I mean it's making sure everybody's signed up to a budget in the same way this country has you know that's blindingly obvious again but that's important so we need to make sure and use that event to continue that and continue pushing that and driving that momentum. I think the other thing is that I've always thought that it's really important that we don't just have conversations in silos so I would like to think that particularly adaptation and the need to build resilience is also being talked about and certainly that at COP26 as one of things we're going to be contributing is quite a lot of the experience around how do you build resilience how do you think about what's already entrained and what's already going to be happening because that's really important so we mustn't think about these things in just silos which the nature of these things sometimes that's what can happen. I think the other one for me would be thinking about the financing of it and how do we continue to think about the frameworks which might help to unlock investment in projects that deliver towards net zero and we've certainly seen as a company huge opportunities coming out of our drive to reduce capital carbon for example I think we've got to about a a billion pounds worth of bonds that we've issued green bonds all linked into essentially our credentials of delivering low carbon infrastructure which has opened up you know better value finance basically so there is certainly I mean people talk about this wall of green finance absolutely is and it's growing and it's global and countries and organizations that see it will be that you know and can can lean into that will be the first to get opportunities from it