How Thames Water proved that sewage is good news for greener energy production and wild birds

Generating positive media coverage for a water and sewerage company is no easy task, especially on sewage-related issues. That’s because sewage struggles to pass the ‘cornflakes test’ (would you want to read about it over breakfast?). 

So the in-house press team (Simon Evans, Amy Dutton and Becky Johnson) at the UK’s largest water and waste company, Thames Water, is constantly scheming to find quirky news angles for their stories.

One afternoon last December the team was tasked with promoting the company’s corporate responsibility (CR). Although the publication of the CR was important; the press team knew that this alone would not attract widespread media coverage! The main headlines of the report – best-ever water quality, maintaining best-ever sewage works compliance and hitting leakage targets three years running – were already well promoted in existing media activity. Some quick thinking was required.

StrategyThe team chose to promote, with a series of well-timed stories, Thames Water’s industry-leading green credentials, raising awareness of the company’s innovative climate and cost-conscious activities, which benefit the environment, the company’s bottom line and, most importantly, its 13 million customers.

The campaign was dubbed Green December. The team identified some fun, environmental news stories to promote the report, against the backdrop of the Copenhagen climate summit, to ensure it fitted with the national news agenda.

TacticsTwo stories were selected. The first half of Green December was all about poo – in particular “poo power”, the use of sewage sludge to generate electricity, saving Thames Water £15m in more carbon-intensive Grid energy in 2008/09.

The latter half of the month was devoted to Hoo – streetworks spoil from the company’s work to replace London’s Victorian water pipes being shipped to Hoo Island off the coast of Kent to create a haven for wild birds. This saves Thames Water £4m a year in landfill tax and helps cut the firm’s carbon emissions.

1. Poo Power: A press release titled: "Poo Power cuts Thames electricity bill by £15m" was issued to all media on December 7, highlighting:

· Thames Water had cut emissions by 5 per cent in the past two years, despite grid energy becoming more carbon-intensive.

· In 2008 14 per cent of the company’s total energy consumption was generated from sewage sludge/biogas. Expected to be at 18 per cent by 2010.

· Thames Water is the largest non-commercial generator of electricity inside the M25.

 2. Hoo Island: The press team gave the Hoo Island story exclusively to the Daily Telegraph, which ran the story on Boxing Day, titled: “Mountain of leftover soil from London roadworks creating new bird island at sea”.

The team then issued the following press release: “Roadworks soil builds Hoo-mongous bird island” to all media, highlighting:

· Thames Water is an industry leader in aggregates recycling - 80 per cent of the 1m tonnes-a-year of spoil it produces is recycled.

· This cuts cost of virgin aggregate for other projects; avoids 500,000 tonnes of carbon annually and saves £2m in landfill tax.

· Hoo Island: enhancing habitat for birds with spoil moved by barge, not road.

OutcomeIndependent evaluation of Green December, by Precise, found that ‘Poo Power’ generated 25 positive news items, driving the message that human waste is helping Thames Water cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020, with all items reporting that poo is a great source of power. Meanwhile the message that Thames Water looks after the environment was found to have been driven by both the poo and Hoo press releases.

Poo power also helped Thames Water draw a positive social media response, reaching 28,000 followers on Twitter.

The press team has continued to generate positive media coverage on Poo power. Inspired by this success, the press team has since designed – on a budget of zero pounds and zero pence – its own Poo power logo.

Media coverage included: · Press Association – Thames Water was celebrating a new kind of “bottom line”

· Daily Express – “Poo-wer supplies”

· The Sun – “Poo-wer supplies”

· Evening Standard and thisislondon.co.uk – “Poo power' saves water firm £15m”

· Daily Mirror and mirror.co.uk – “Poo power' saves water firm £15m”

· Channel 4 news online – “Poo power' saves water firm £15m”

· BBC News Online – “Poo power' cuts electricity bill”

· Metro - “’Poo power' saves Thames Water £15m and cuts greenhouse emissions”

· Sky News Online – ’’’Poo Power' Leaves Water Firm Feeling Flush”

· Yahoo – “’Poo Power' Leaves Water Firm Feeling Flush”

· MSN.com – “Poo Power' Leaves Water Firm Feeling Flush”

· BBC Radio Five Live

· LBC Radio

· BBC Radio Berkshire and Oxfordshire

· New York Times

The Hoo Island story led to the following positive news items:

· Daily Telegraph and telegraph.co.uk

· GMTV

· ITV London (the press team arranged for ITV to interview Thames Water waste manager Alan Young at a Victorian mains replacement site before visiting Hoo to see where our spoil is shipped)

· ITV Meridian

Budget: Zero (other than the in house teams wage)