Yarra Valley Water has been added to the global alliance of the world’s most successful and innovative water and wastewater utilities.
Other Australasian members include Water Corporation, Queensland Urban Utilities, South East Water and Watercare.
To become a member the Leading Utilities of the World, organisations must be nominated by an existing member and demonstrate outstanding innovation in at least three areas, such as energy efficiency, drought and water scarcity and new business development.
Members benefit from opportunities to collaborate on projects and to learn from some of the world’s best water utilities about innovation benefitting customers and the environment.
Yarra Valley Water Managing Director Pat McCafferty said the utility was looking forward to collaborating with other members and turning new methods of innovation into improvements for customers and the local environment.
“We are strong believers in collaboration, learning from others and providing industry leadership,” he said.
“The challenges faced in the water sector globally such as climate change and population growth call for a new way of doing business.
“No single water utility has all the answers, but we look forward to working alongside other utilities to solve the challenges we all face.
Six areas underpinned Yarra Valley Water’s induction into the network, including being an environmentally restorative water utility, building resilience to sustain Melbourne’s liveability, delivering ongoing bill reductions to customers and aiming to become fully digital.
Providing greater community value and sustaining a high performing organisational culture were also key to the utility’s nomination.
Yarra Valley Water has also been making strides towards its goal of producing 100 per cent of its own renewable energy by 2025.
Last month, the utility was one of 13 water authorities that signed a landmark energy agreement designed to reduce carbon emissions.
In addition to minimising greenhouse gas emissions, the agreement also aims to maintain affordable water bills for customers.
Yarra Valley Water Work has also recently completed the installation of solar panels which will provide almost a third of its power, while the utility’s flagship waste to energy plant at Wollert has been operating for almost two years and generated approximately 7,900,000 kWh of clean energy.
For more information visit the Yarra Valley Water website.
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