| Invested through |
|
|---|---|
| Asset Classes | Corporate bonds & Impact bonds |
| Impact strategy | Impact Equities and Bonds |
| ISIN code | XS2291328735, XS2771661357 |
| Industry group | Utilities |
| Aligned with SDGs |
United Utilities (UU) is the largest listed water company in the United Kingdom. The company manages the regulated water and wastewater network in the North West England. The combined area has about 7 million people. And the population is expected to grow significantly in the coming 25 years. UU serves around 3 million of them.
The company is also involved in property management. The company offers a range of value-added services, such as leak detection and repair, waste digestion and wastewater system optimization, on-site engineering and water efficiency advisory services, as well as CCTV and drainage, emergency and contingency water supply, network rehabilitation, network modelling, environmental- and standpipe services.
Investment rationale
United Utilities Water's (UU) sustainability bonds finance measures reducing abstraction and leakage from distribution networks, improvements to river water quality and improving the natural environment, anaerobic digestion for energy recovery and recycling of biosolds to land and helping vulnerable customers and those with financial difficulties. An example of a project financed is the West Cumbria project (£70m in FY19), where new infrastructure was implemented to allow UU to transfer water around the region more efficiently to avoid depletion of individual water sources. The projects was implemented to allow a stop of abstraction from 2 water sources (Ennerdale Water and Rover Ehen) to protect species in the area that rely on those water sources 150,000 customers needed to be linked to a new network of pipelines. In addition, UU's Windermere catchment strategy (£13.4m in FY19) has helped to reduce phosphorus entering England’s largest lake through improved storm water storage and enhanced treatment at two wastewater treatment works.
Alignment with Triodos Transitions:
98% of the impact bond's proceeds is aligned with the Resource Transition and 2% with the Societal Transition. The contribution to the Resource Transition comes from 67% of proceeds allocated to the impact objective Pollution Prevention & Control, 30% of proceeds allocated to Sustainable Water & Wastewater Management , and 2% of proceeds allocated to Green Buildings. The contribution to the Societal Transition comes from 2% of proceeds allocated to the impact objective Affordable Basic Infrastructure: Water.