Scottish Water is the publicly owned water and sewerage provider for Scotland, accountable to the Scottish Parliament.
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Scottish Water's operational emissions, audited to ISO 14064-1, fell from 462,000 tCO2e in 2006/07 to 220,000 tCO2e in 2024/25, and have been roughly flat for three years. It does not publish emissions from its capital programme of about £1bn a year. In 2025 it recorded 100,041 storm overflow events, with monitoring at 30% of sites. In 2024/25 waste water compliance was 96.7% and Category 3 pollution incidents rose to 199.
Scottish Water scores 46/100 (Making progress) on SINK's independent climate assessment, scored from public data only. Fees pay for the review, never the result. Last verified October 2026.
That places Scottish Water joint 235th of 847 companies scored, and 4th of 11 in Water & Sewerage.
Where Scottish Water sits among water & sewerage peers.
Among the 11 major water & sewerage brands we've scored, Scottish Water sits 4th of 11.
Its three lowest-scoring questions, and what the evidence didn't show.
The full reasoning is in the ten questions below.
No verified waste diversion rate, sludge reuse rate, or measurable circularity targets published.
2025 data: 100,041 overflow events, with monitoring on only 30% of sites.
A score changes when the evidence does. We use new published evidence at the next rescore. Evidence that isn't public can count through an evidence review.
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Get in touch →Strongest on Carbon Footprint — Operations and Transparency & Accountability (8/10, 7/10). Weakest on Carbon Footprint — Supply Chain and Resource Use & Waste (4/10, 4/10).
The 3 companies in the sector scoring nearest above Scottish Water.
Severn Trent's 2025/26 Scope 1 emissions were 384,205 tCO2e under a company-revised method for process emissions; under the industry-standard method they would be 526,222 tCO2e, and its assurer flagged an elevated reporting risk on the change.
See the breakdown →Pennon group Scope 1 and 2 emissions, assured by Jacobs, fell about 4% in 2025/26, mainly because more renewable electricity was bought for the Bristol Water region, and South West Water's electricity is backed by renewable energy certificates.
See the breakdown →United Utilities' 2025/26 market-based Scope 1 and 2 emissions were 539,041 tCO2e, including 239,498 tCO2e added by a 2026 industry update to process-emission factors.
See the breakdown →The formula and all 8 sources.
Same ten questions for every company. No private weighting.
SINK = (0.3 × Base + 0.7 × Performance) × Scale8 sources used in this assessment. All publicly available. Each row shows which of the ten questions it informed.
“Operational carbon reporting is audited externally by Achilles to ISO:14064-1.”
“was 220,434 tCO2e this compares to 224,980 tCO2e last year.”
“As a result, the total reported operational footprint for 2025/26 was 226,188 tCO2e.”
“Annual monitoring data is now available for 30% of all sites, compared to just 6% in previous years.”
“spilled wastewater 365 times on 124 different days in 2023”
“Both Sepa and Scottish Water said Eastfield was now operating in line with Sepa's rules, with further improvements to be made.”
“Climate change mitigation and adaptation are integral to the provision of essential water and wastewater services on a sustainable basis.”
“Scottish Water is a statutory corporation that provides water and sewerage services across Scotland.”
If you believe a source has been misread or a newer version exists, submit a challenge.
Scottish Water is the publicly owned water and sewerage provider for Scotland, accountable to the Scottish Parliament. It was formed in 2002 and is headquartered in Dunfermline. Its annual report and accounts for the year to 31 March 2026 report group revenue of £2,360.3m and an average of 5,076 employees, both including the Business Stream retail subsidiary.
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