Atkins, a member of the SNC-Lavalin Group, is working with one of the UK’s leading water companies to improve and enhance its practices and processes related to climate change governance and resilience.
Pennon Group, which owns South West Water and Bristol Water, has appointed Atkins to support the Group to implement the recommendations set down by the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).
It is now mandatory in the UK for listed companies to assess and disclose their material impacts due to climate change and the transition to a Net Zero climate resilient economy. The TCFD provides a framework for companies to disclose their climate-related practices across the four areas of; governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets.
Atkins will work with Pennon Group to enhance their practices, systems, and capacity across these four areas, in support of the Group’s ambition to be a leader in the UK water sector in relation to climate change and climate-related financial disclosures.
Key services being provided by Atkins include:
- Developing a roadmap to enhance Pennon’s TCFD alignment
- Enhancing the Group’s assessment of transitional and physical climate risks and opportunities, including considering impacts across water, wastewater, drainage, energy, natural capital, customers, and supply chain.
- Climate scenario analysis and assessment of resilience of the Group’s business and strategy
- Enhancing climate considerations in Group policies, strategies, operational and financial models
- Developing recommendations to enhance the Group’s processes, systems, metrics and targets to support climate resilience
Francis Heil, principal engineer for climate change and resilience at Atkins said: “The appointment by Pennon Group is a great opportunity for Atkins to demonstrate our innovative approach in enhancing organisational capacity related to climate change resilience and Net Zero.
“Our team will draw extensive expertise from across Atkins’ Environment and Infrastructure Practice, and enables us once again to contribute to climate action in a truly meaningful way, while at the same time supporting the ambition of our client to become a leader in their sector on climate-related financial disclosures.”
Chris Tregenna Pennon Group Treasurer, said: “Following Atkins’ support in delivering South West Water’s Climate Adaptation Report in 2020-2021, and Pennon’s initial climate scenario analysis in our 2021 TCFD disclosures, we had confidence in appointing Atkins again to help us ensure we meet our 2022 TCFD obligations.
“Atkins showed a strong and proven record in delivering climate change and TCFD related projects with UK infrastructure companies, as well as International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and we look forward to continuing our collaboration through the current programme of work on Pennon Group’s TCFD disclosures.”
