Operational Results – Tallinna Vesi – aastaaruanne 2022

03

Sustainable business

To ensure the best quality of service for our customers, besides legislative requirements, we delivered all contractual levels of service agreed between the parties to the Services Agreement signed with the City of Tallinn.

In addition, the activity of the Company and its management systems fully complied with all applicable quality, environmental, occupational safety and working environment standards and systems.

Uninterrupted services

Our role is to ensure the availability of high-quality water services to our customers and community 24 hours a day and 365 days a year.

We make continuous efforts to provide uninterrupted services to our customers and minimise the duration of unplanned interruptions. In 2022, we had no unplanned interruptions lasting longer than 12 hours. We gave an advance notice to customers affected by a planned interruption in 99.8% of the cases. Average duration of interruptions in 2022 was 3 hours and 10 minutes.

To minimise the effect of water interruptions on customers, we continued the additional valve installation project also in 2022. Both the preventive maintenance and timely investments into the infrastructure are made to secure sustainable infrastructure and continuity of the service. In 2022, investments in our main infrastructure in water treatment amounted to €1,954 thousand and €3,829 thousand was invested in wastewater treatment. The total level of investments in water and wastewater network was €10,574 thousand and the cost of new connection points was €3,154 thousand.

Drinking water quality

The quality of drinking water is subject to strict legal requirements. To secure high-quality drinking water, we perform maintenance on our pipelines, monitor the quality of water leaving the Water Treatment Plant and water pumping stations and take regular samples from the consumer’s taps. Water quality is inspected by following the Drinking Water Monitoring Programme approved by the Health Board. The quality of drinking water in Tallinn remains high – water samples taken from customers’ taps during 2022 were 99.84% compliant with all requirements. In 2022, we took a total of 3,086 samples across the service area.

Water	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018
Compliance of water quality at the consumer’s taps	99,84%	99,61%	99,71%	99,04%	99,93%
Leakages in the water network	16,02%	15,00%	12,42%	12,97%	13,71%
Average duration of water interruption per property in hours	3 h 10 min	3 h 18 min	2 h 55 min	2 h 59 min	3 h 16 min

Environment

We provide our customers with pure drinking water and collect and treat wastewater which is then safely returned to the environment. We rely directly on natural water resources, which we highly appreciate and care for. Thus, we do our best to employ these resources sustainably and contribute to the well-being of the environment.

Environmental compliance

We are the most regulated water company in Estonia. We act in accordance with the requirements of the environmental permits issued to us and comply with the precepts issued by the Environmental Board. AS Tallinna Vesi has been granted 7 environmental protection permits, regulating the special use of water, emissions to air and waste management.

A more detailed overview of our environmental performance is provided in our Environmental Report. In 2022, the Company did not have any non-compliances with the requirements of environmental permits.

Climate impact reduction

Being the largest water company in Estonia, we use a lot of natural resources. In order for natural resources to be available also for generations to come, we must minimize our impact on the environment. Therefore, we have prepared a Climate Impact Reduction Plan and set ourselves ambitious goals:

The Company is carbon-neutral by 2040 at the latest.
By 2030, we have reduced direct and indirect (from purchased energy) greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% compared to 2020.
We only use electricity from renewable sources and have replaced natural gas with heat from renewable sources by 2030.
We produce at least 50% of all electricity and heat needed within the Company by 2030 at the latest.
We have reduced the heat and electricity consumption by at least 10% by 2030, compared to 2020.

Sustainable use of water

To provide a sustainable service, it is crucial to ensure the availability of sufficient quantity and quality of raw water. Tallinna Vesi supplies customers with drinking water extracted from both surface and ground water sources.

Ground water resources are limited and slowly recovering and therefore, about 10% of consumers use regional ground water and 90% of drinking water is produced from surface water. Lake Ülemiste has an extensive surface water catchment system, serving also as a source for additional water during dry periods.

In 2022, the Water Treatment Plant produced and pumped into the network an average of 70,200 m³ of water per day. A total of 2,732 thousand m³ of ground water was extracted in 2022. The average water consumption per capita is 94.9 litres per day in Tallinn and Saue (Tallinna Vesi’s main service area).

As part of our pursuit of a sustainable use of water, our actions are targeted to reducing leakages in the water network. In 2022, the level of leakages was 16.02%.

Effluent quality

The quality of effluent returned to the sea has a direct impact on the marine environment, and therefore, directly and/or indirectly constitutes an important aspect for all our stakeholders. The quality of effluent is established by legal acts and water permits. The concentration of pollutants in wastewater taken into the treatment plant and in the effluent leaving the plant are monitored to assess the efficiency of the treatment process and the quality of effluent.

In 2022, 46.54 million m³ of wastewater was treated and returned to the Baltic Sea. Compared to regulatory requirements, the treatment efficiency of the Wastewater Treatment Plant at Paljassaare outperformed all the parameters in 2022.

Our customers

We provide water supply and sewerage services to over 23,900 contractual customers and approximately 470,000 end consumers in Tallinn and surrounding areas. Over the years, our customer groups have remained relatively stable.

We have implemented a unique system of promises for providing a financial compensation to the customer for each promise we fail to deliver on. In 2022, we had two failures, which affected 2 customers.

The number of customer contacts generally serves as an indicator of the quality of customer service provided by the company. Starting from 2022, we register all dissatisfied customer contacts as complaints. In 2022, we received 1,215 of complaints.

Customer groups 2022

Private houses

Apartment associations

Commercial customers

Customer satisfaction

Systematic and regular feedback from our customers and consumers is instrumental for us. We ask our customers to rate our customer service on a monthly basis. The percentage of satisfied customers in 2022 was at 83%.

In addition to monthly surveys, we perform an annual customer satisfaction survey. According to that, the overall customer satisfaction increased to 84% in 2022. TRI*M index that measures the strength of customer relationship was at 59.

Community and public

The community we operate in and people whose lives our work impacts are of vital importance to us. Therefore, we consider it essential to actively engage in and support our community. Our aim is to distribute messages that help to improve the environmental awareness.

Sponsorship strategy

Our sponsorship focuses on the main service area of the Company – Tallinn and its surrounding areas – and projects closely linked to our main activities.
We support the same areas from year to year and try to involve our employees in the Company’s sponsorship activities.

Environmental education

We dedicate our efforts to educate the community on water-related environmental matters and to improve the environmental awareness of especially the young people. We produce and distribute educational materials for kindergartens and schools and hold water seminars. Once a year, we open our doors to all visitors, and guided tours of the water and wastewater treatment plant are available all year round.

The popularity of tap water among the population has steadily increased over the years. In 2022, the overall percentage of tap water drinkers among private house owners, commercial customers and end-consumers was 89%.

Local community

We support the community initiatives by providing tanks with refreshing drinking water for free at the events. Working along with the City of Tallinn, we set up public water taps both indoors and outdoors to improve the availability of tap water in public space. We have carefully chosen a few projects and organisations to donate to from year to year. We participate in charity projects and good causes.

Employees

We consider our people as our greatest asset, therefore, we offer an environment where people with passion and commitment can work together, not only towards the achievement of corporate goals, but also towards personal career goals. At the end of 2022, a total of 345 people worked in Tallinna Vesi and its subsidiary Watercom.

Considering variations within the team, it is essential to follow equality principles both in selecting and managing people. It is important for us to ensure that no one is discriminated against due to their age, gender, religion, cultural or ethnic origin, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, or any other circumstances.

Commitment within the team

Two-way interaction is of paramount importance in the teamwork and therefore, feedback from employees plays an important role in the company culture. In 2022, 90% of our employees participated in a pulse survey carried out to collect feedback. The employer’s overall satisfaction index was at 4.1 and the recommendation index eNPS was at +15.

Talent management and succession planning

Our employees are loyal to the Company. The person with the longest service has been with the Company for 58 years, the average length of service in the Company is 10.3 years. Considering the age profile in the Company it is of critical importance that we establish a systematic approach to succession planning. We believe it is advantageous to build teams with both new and experienced staff, to generate fresh and innovative ideas that are built on a solid base of practical experience.

In 2022, Tallinna Vesi continued with the scholarship program for students, awarding 4 scholarships to universities and 4 scholarships to trade schools. In 2022, we launched a scholarship program for employees of Tallinna Vesi studying at trade schools or universities, awarding 2 scholarships. We also continued with our succession program for apprentices and trainees. In 2022, we had 21 young people who did their traineeship at our Company and 3 of them were employed after the traineeship period.

Selection and recruitment of staff

We fully support the development of employees and offer career opportunities within the Company. We inspire our staff to develop and rotate between various teams, and a number of vacancies were namely filled with in-house applicants. In 2022, a successor was found within the Company for 27 positions, 5 specialists became managers.

We support the development of our employees through various training and development programs. In 2022, the highest number of trainings were on occupational safety, we also continued to develop our managers and started offering online IT courses.

All members of staff have the opportunity to receive annual performance related pay. As part of this, the discussion of the plans for professional development always constitutes a part of the annual performance review, conducted at the beginning of each calendar year with all employees (100%).

Occupational health and safety

Ensuring the continued health and safety is central to everything we do, and safety will never be compromised. We ensure a safe working environment, making sure that our facilities and equipment fulfil the relevant safety standards and legislation. In addition to the Working Environment Council of 8 members, the Company also has 8 working environment representatives elected by different units.

Our Health and Safety Team continuously monitors the compliance with safety requirements on emergency repair and construction sites. In 2022, a total of 471 safety audits were carried out and 93.5% of the audited sites met the safety requirements.

Total number of work accidents

Total number of work accidents

In 2022, 1 accident took place, which caused inability to work for more than 3 workdays. We are continuously encouraging our staff including our managers to report safety related observations to prevent work accidents and pay attention to obtaining information on dangerous occurrences, safety observations and near misses.

To improve the health and safety awareness, we organize informative meetings, prepare printed materials and safety videos, and organize health months once a year. We have created opportunities for employees to work out in the Company’s sports halls and gyms and starting from 2022, we offer our employees a health insurance provided by Confido.