16 May 2023

If you live in or know a resident in the Thames Water region Two Sides needs your help!

Two Sides has been flooded with complaints from the Thames Valley and London area about unsubstantiated anti-print and paper environmental claims made by Thames Water, encouraging customers to switch from paper-based to online billing. In a leaflet distributed with paper water bills, the water company claimed, “It’s good to go online Better for the planet”, they asked customers to “Scan to save trees” and “Activate your tree saving…online account”.

With 13.5 million customers receiving paper water bills, Thames Water’s misleading claims are damaging consumer and business decision-maker perceptions of paper’s environmental sustainability and threatening the livelihoods of people in the paper, printing and mail sector.

Two Sides has written to the company’s CEO urging Thames Water to stop using these types of deceptive environmental claims about paper. They have received no response from Thames Water and have reported them to the Advertising Standards Authority in breach of the Cap, Green Claims Code. Now, Two Sides are asking members receiving their water supply from Thames Water to amplify the urgency of their request with letters of your own.  

If you are a Thames Water customer, please download the template letter with graphics   Thames Water Sample Letter and post directly to the CEO, Sarah Betley, Thames Water. You may choose to personalise the letter with a sentence or two about how these types of claims harm your business We also ask you simply to copy the text into an email and send to [email protected].