Sustainable finance

Our approach

Our Sustainable Finance Framework, launched in January 2019, underpins our commitment to aligning our financing with Yorkshire Water’s broader strategies surrounding our social and environmental responsibilities.

The Framework allows most of our operating and capital expenditure to be financed or refinanced via Sustainable debt. This is because what we do on a day-to-day basis has an impact on both the societies and environments we operate in.

This “whole business” approach incorporating both social and environmental elements is an industry first and aligns closely with our internal decision making framework and Six Capital approach to analysing impact.

The Framework was reviewed by DNV GL who agreed that it aligned with the Green Bond Principles, Social Bond Principles, Sustainable Bond Principles and the Green Loan Principles.

In April 2019, we issued our first public bond off the Framework, followed by further bond issues in November 2019, April 2021 and February 2023. The second party opinion on these bond issues was also provided by DNV GL.

We issued our first impact report in February 2021.