Public utilities provide essential services, are part of critical national infrastructure and also have wider social, environmental and economic impacts.
Our agenda shaping research sets out what sustainability and public purpose mean for utilities and what the public interest in sectors such as energy, water and comms looks like in practice.
Our analysis identifies how businesses, policy makers and regulators in utilities can mainstream sustainability for a more resilient future. We share leading insights into trust and legitimacy, risk and opportunity, metrics and culture, what all this means for future policy and regulation, and how a focus on principles can help guide system change through radical uncertainty.
Related Projects
Sustainability Principles
Sustainability is increasingly being recognised as a key to resilience and survival - for people and planet. The Sustainability Principles Project will run from Summer 2021 to the end of 2022 and looks at sustainability in the round, including social, environmental and economic aspects. In this phase, the project is limited to the essential services of energy, water and comms.
Fair for the Future
The Fair for the Future project was set up in 2018 to help utilities better address the politics around fairness and the environment. Focused on the energy, water and communications sectors, this major project has explored how companies can maintain a social contract with society through disruptive change and what a focus on corporate purpose means for companies, policy makers and regulators.
