Kelda named Yorkshire’s most responsible business

Kelda Group plc – owner of Yorkshire Water - was today (Sunday, April 3) named Yorkshire’s most socially responsible business and one of the top 50 in the UK.

The company, which over the past three years has donated more than 650 free water coolers to local primary schools, has climbed from 86th to 43rd in Business in the Community’s annual Corporate Responsibility Index – the highest ranking of any Yorkshire-based business.

The national index, which was launched in 2002, is the UK’s most comprehensive and robust measure of a company’s total contribution to society.

Pam Lee, Business in the Community’s Regional Director, said:

“Kelda has not rested on its laurels. Not content with achieving a commendable rating in last year’s index, the company has put continuous improvement at the heart of its responsible business practice and turned in a first class performance.”

She added: “It’s little surprise that Business in the Community is congratulating Kelda only months after the company was named Utility of the Year, an award that recognises a truly responsible approach to customers, employees, suppliers and other stakeholders.”

Yorkshire Water’s Corporate Affairs Manager Richard Sears said:

“We are delighted to be ranked among the top 50 companies in the UK for the way we conduct our day-to-day business. Our whole approach to corporate social responsibility is founded on the principle that the interests of the environment, customers and society at large are best served through the efficient, effective and proper operation of our business.”

“Our Cool Schools campaign is an excellent example of how we are prepared to go above and beyond our primary role of water and sewerage provider and fulfil our wider responsibility to society,” he added.

The company’s Cool Schools campaign was launched in 2002 in response to concerns raised by local health experts that dehydration was having a damaging effect on children’s mental and physical wellbeing.

Since its launch, more than 650 mains-fed water coolers have been given free to more than 350 primary schools in a bid to give the children ready access to a safe and plentiful supply of water throughout the academic day.

As well as providing free water coolers, Yorkshire Water has also developed teaching resource materials and a fun website and employed a performer who tours schools giving interactive dance performances to reinforce the campaign’s key messages.

Health experts claim children are suffering from headaches, fatigue, irritability and poor concentration because schools are failing to provide them with adequate access to drinking water. They say it is also causing short and long term kidney and urinary tract infections.

Almost 250,000 children are so far estimated to have benefited from Yorkshire Water’s initiative, with teachers reporting a significant improvement in the behaviour, physical and academic performance of their pupils.

John Flockton, the headteacher of Newhall Park Primary School in Bierley, Bradford, where the campaign was launched, said:

“We think it’s a fantastic initiative. We have four coolers for children and one for staff. We have volunteer monitors who take their turn in break times or before school to fill up 20 or 30 bottles. Children have noticed the benefits of drinking water and are saying ‘I feel better, it’s nice, it’s tasty. This creates an atmosphere much more conducive to learning’”

Mary Cooper, a community dietician with the South Leeds Primary Care Trust, said:

“Two years ago I would be having hour-long conversations with schools about drinking water but now I go into schools and it’s the norm that they provide drinking water for children. Yorkshire Water has played a big part in that.”