Case study: How Southern Water reduced pollution incidents by 34% with FYLD

About Southern Water

Southern Water, a UK water and wastewater services provider, manages a vast and complex network across the Southeast, providing critical life services for 4.6 million customers. 

This network includes 39,973 kilometres of sewer pipes, 3,476 wastewater pumping stations, and 367 treatment works. 

The infrastructure operates in some of the most environmentally sensitive areas, including 84 bathing water beaches, chalk streams, and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Challenges

Southern Water faced several critical challenges:

• Reactive operations: Traditional, paper-based systems relied on manual processes and delayed data reporting, limiting the ability to anticipate or respond proactively to pollution events.

• Regulatory pressures: Southern Water needed to adapt to evolving regulatory expectations by enhancing collaboration, accelerating evidence collection, improving pollution management, and maintaining transparency. I

• Safety risks: Limited visibility into field operations restricted managers' ability to proactively intervene, increasing potential hazards for fieldworkers, especially in remote or high-risk locations

• Environmental vulnerability: Sensitive areas like bathing water beaches and chalk streams required more robust safeguards against pollution impacts.

To overcome these challenges, Southern Water sought a modern, proactive solution to enhance pollution management, optimise operational workflows, and protect its workforce—all while fostering transparency and trust with regulators and communities.

The solution

Southern Water partnered with FYLD to deploy its AI-powered fieldwork execution platform, designed to transform operations by digitising critical workflows. The platform enabled Southern Water to improve the capture and management of pollution and safety data, empowering teams with real-time insights.

Key features of FYLD’s implementation included:

• AI-powered risk assessments that proactively identified hazards, notifying teams and managers to take corrective action.

• Real-time operational visibility through a dashboard that allowed managers to monitor and support field activities remotely.

• Streamlined pollution evidence capture with structured data, video, and photos, ensuring compliance and transparency with regulatory bodies.

• Enhanced collaboration capabilities that enabled supply chain partners and contractors to operate on a unified platform.

• Offline functionality to ensure uninterrupted operations in remote areas with poor connectivity.

Implementation and adoption

Southern Water’s leadership prioritised employee engagement during the platform rollout, ensuring teams understood the value of FYLD beyond its technical capabilities. Training sessions, co-delivered by Southern Water and FYLD, covered:

• Understanding risk: Helping teams differentiate hazards from risks and emphasising the importance of dynamic risk assessments.

• Leveraging AI insights: Familiarising fieldworkers with FYLD’s AI-driven tools to improve on-site decision-making.

• Practical application: Live sessions where teams conducted video risk assessments, completed evidence capture, and peer-reviewed their findings.

The platform’s user-friendly interface and offline capabilities ensured high adoption rates, even in remote locations with limited connectivity. 

Over two years, Southern Water completed 110,000 AI-powered site assessments, with over 70% of field activities receiving remote manager interventions.

FYLD’s impact

FYLD has played a crucial role in helping Southern Water achieve measurable improvements across environmental performance, safety, and operational efficiency:

1. Environmental performance:

• 34% reduction in pollution incidents in 2023: Southern Water achieved this milestone in 2023 through infrastructure upgrades, proactive workflows, and improved incident management supported by FYLD.

• Faster evidence capture: The time taken to gather and upload pollution data was reduced from 70 minutes to 20 minutes, enabling quicker responses and regulatory reporting.

• Enhanced collaboration: Supply chain partners integrated into FYLD, creating a unified platform for real-time incident management and better regulatory compliance.

2. Workforce safety:

• 50% reduction in incidents: AI-enabled risk assessments improved hazard identification, enabling teams to operate more safely.

• Real-time hazard alerts prompted timely interventions, reducing risks in high-stakes environments.

3. Operational efficiency:

• Increased response speeds: Pollution and safety response times decreased significantly, supported by FYLD’s live notifications and evidence-sharing features.

• Optimised decision-making: Remote visibility of field activities allowed managers to make timely, informed decisions, reducing delays in operational workflows.

A transformative partnership

Southern Water’s partnership with FYLD represents a step-change in operational resilience and environmental stewardship. 

By digitising processes and improving data capture, Southern Water is better equipped to meet regulatory demands, protect sensitive ecosystems, and ensure the safety of its workforce. 

The success of this partnership underscores the potential of AI-driven platforms in modernising the utilities sector and achieving sustainable outcomes.

Looking ahead

Southern Water plans to continue collaborating with FYLD to explore and identify high-value use cases for the platform. This ongoing partnership aims to further enhance operational efficiency, environmental performance, and safety outcomes.

Client testimonial

“Our collaboration with FYLD has been transformative, enabling us to significantly improve response times, enhance safety, and proactively manage environmental risks. The platform’s AI-driven capabilities have empowered our teams to make data-driven decisions in real time, fostering greater transparency and operational excellence.”

— Richard Martin, Head of Operational Control, Southern Water