The UK water sector is driving forward and delivering change
Scottish Water and Binnies’ joint submission was shortlisted in the Asset Management Initiative of the Year category at the Water Industry Awards 2025. The awards showcase how the UK water sector is driving forward and delivering change, which the ‘Reliability Improvement and Real-Time Risk Management based on Asset Health’ initiative delivered for Scottish Water.
The project began when Scottish Water engaged Binnies UK to conduct an asset health target operating model maturity assessment. Chris Bates, Binnies Director of Operations and Maintenance Excellence, explained:
“The assessment helps organisations understand, from a reliability best practice point of view, how they measure up and puts a focus on what the next round of improvements could be. We focus through the assessment on targeted benefits aligned to each organisation’s objectives. For Scottish Water, that was largely:
- reducing costs – business process mapping streamlined operations, unlocking the platform’s potential and minimising expenses
- setting a strategy – organisational upskilling provided reliability training, enabling staff to address asset issues proactively
- improving efficiency – embedding reliability resources through a proof-of-concept led to safer operations and improved risk management by intervening earlier in the P-F curve.”
Scottish ater launched an initiative to develop organisational maturity in asset health management with low-cost, effective interventions
This initiative achieved significant improvements in asset management and fostered a culture of continuous improvement. The collaborative working between Scottish Water and Binnies has produced great results and it’s great to see this being recognised at these sector-wide awards. Binnies also sponsored the Natural Capital Initiative of the Year Award at the Water Industry Awards.
Mat Fairfax, Chief Operating Officer, shared: “Enhancing lives, communities and the environment underpins Binnies’ approach in all its work and the importance of enhancing natural capital value, and being able to provide sound economic business cases for biodiversity, environmental amenity and community benefit schemes is what inspires our teams. We are sure the submissions for the natural capital initiatives will provide fantastic examples.”