Congratulations to our GEM Award Winners 2025.
Last week (6 November 2025), we celebrated together, with our suppliers at our GEM Awards.
Open exclusively to our suppliers, the GEM Awards highlight the innovative and impactful contributions our suppliers make across the business.
We welcomed 160 people to the event from a range of large and small businesses across our supply areas. The awards support us in building strong relationships with our partners.
We wanted to make sure the night benefitted the local economy as much as possible, so we held the event at The Biscuit Factory in Newcastle, a local independent art gallery. We also worked with other local suppliers in the region including Big Purple for the sound and lighting, Yorkshire Rose events for the decoration and NE Trophies, who provided the sustainable bamboo trophies for our winners.
We held an exciting raffle and auction on the night too, raising £3,710 for Cancer Research and WaterAid, to go towards the vital work both charities do.
The winners and runners-up were:
A customer focused approach is a key pillar of our values.
We love our customers and we make sure they are at the heart of everything we do. We are looking for a supplier who delivers world class customer service and an unrivalled customer experience while delivering excellent outcomes for NWG.
WINNER:
CK Delta for Early Warning System: Proactively Elevating Customer Experience through AI.
JOINT RUNNERS-UP:
Mott MacDonald Bentley for Valley Gardens.
Experientia Consultancy Services for Smart from the Start - Unlocking your Customer Super Powers.
Part of our plan is to be leading in innovation within the water sector and beyond.
As such we place a high value on creativity and innovation, and we encourage our suppliers to partner with us to find innovative solutions that drive efficiencies, improve customer experience or simply add value to what we do.
Creativity can come in many forms from new product development to the creative use of technology, and if it helps us to work smarter then it definitely fits under this category!
WINNER:
Stantec and Aureos IDEC for Smart Networks - Tyneside.
RUNNER-UP:
Waterwhelm Limited for Driving Innovation through Net Water Positivity and Resource Recovery.
We place great importance on health, safety and wellbeing.
It is embedded in everything we do. We are looking for a project, organisation, initiative or simply an action that goes beyond standard practice - something that demonstrates exceptional commitment to health, safety and wellbeing.
WINNER:
Jacobs for One Million Lives.
JOINT RUNNERS-UP:
Mott MacDonald Bentley for MMB 2024 Company Health, Safety and Wellbeing Seminar.
Stonbury Ltd for The OPEN Programme.
One of our values is ‘we are one team’.
We place great importance on working together while promoting co-operation to achieve our objectives. By working well as a team we can come up with smarter ways of working and improved performance and outputs.
We are looking for a team who have demonstrated excellent team performance while living our values to achieve an excellent outcome.
WINNER:
Durham Wildlife Trust, Essex and Suffolk Rivers Trust, with Catchment Delivery Partners, Environmental Stakeholders and NWG for The Bluespaces Programme – AMP7 Success and a New Plan for AMP8.
RUNNER-UP:
Esh Construction, NWG Jet Aire, Clearway, EDS, Greenspark, Pipetek, Butler Brothers, Mantank and Bell Ingram for Working Together - Project Delivery and Outcomes.
NWL and its Supply Chain take pride in achieving excellent business results.
This award is for a supplier that has delivered exceptional results to NWL by going above and beyond the standard scope of their contract. We are looking for suppliers that have supported our corporate goals or wider business strategies in addition to completing their standard supplied goods or services.
WINNER:
Esh-Stantec for Sewerage Rehab Pollution 24/25.
RUNNER-UP:
United Living Water for Lead Renewal in the Water Supply Sector.
Social Value plays a vital role in ensuring NWG can achieve its vision.
NWG have committed to working with ethical suppliers who help to achieve our 7 Impact Initiatives as part of our Responsible Procurement Strategy.
NWG prides itself on making a positive impact in the communities in which we operate. Social Value delivery by our suppliers is a key part of the working relationship and a great way to benefit our communities. We are looking for suppliers who can demonstrate tangible social value outputs relating to the works on the contracts they have with NWG.
WINNER:
Mott MacDonald Bentley for Built In, Not Bolted On: Creating Lasting Value.
RUNNER-UP:
Farrans Construction for Project Pipeline: County Durham and Tees Valley.
We place great importance on the legacy impact we create through the works and services we provide.
We are looking for suppliers who can demonstrate how they have created a positive lasting impact which has enhanced our brand and reputation within the wider communities which we serve.
WINNER:
D.G Walton for Kielder Water Lakeside Way.
RUNNER-UP:
Esh Stantec for Stanghow Road Lingdale: Speed Limit Reduction.
One of the key drivers to delivering affordable, reliable and resilient services is to have high performing projects and programmes which deliver to agreed milestones while providing notable outputs, benefits or efficiencies.
The projects or programmes could come from any area of our business activity from IS programmes, investment projects, water efficiency projects or working smarter initiatives (to name a few!).
WINNER:
Esh Stantec for WINEP Durham Transfer.
RUNNER-UP:
Galliford Try, MMB, Esh Stantec, IDS and Capital Delivery for AMP7 WINEP Programme.
This Award specifically recognises the challenges and outstanding achievements of Small Enterprises who support us to achieve our vision of being national leader.
We are particularly looking for those who have made strides in improving their company through implementing best practice. To be considered for this category the supplier needs to have fewer than 50 employees and a turnover of less than £10m per annum.
WINNER:
Murray Event Services Ltd for Innovation Festival Support.
JOINT RUNNERS-UP:
ACEDA Limited for Reliable, Dependable, Consistent and Competent!
Mr Baker the Baker for Mr Baker, the Baker.
We will achieve a net zero carbon emission position in 2027, three years ahead of the PIC ambition and will be the first water company in England to meet this ambition.
We are looking for suppliers who have contributed/supported our journey to net zero through reducing, replacing, removing, or offsetting carbon on capital projects/programmes or through the works/goods/services you provide to NWL.
WINNER:
Potts Print Ltd for Doing the Right Thing Today will Make for a Better Tomorrow.
RUNNER-UP:
Stantec, Jacobs, Esh Stantec, MMB, Avove, Galliford Try for Carbon Steering Group and the Five Point Plan.
Having recently launched our TIDE Strategy (Together for Inclusion, Diversity and Equity), NWL are committed to working towards a more diverse workforce which reflects all customers throughout our regions.
Diversity helps our success and ability to innovate, with different people bringing skills and thinking to improve what we do and how we do it. We are looking for suppliers who reflect NWL’s D&I commitments within their own company strategies and are actively working towards/on the way to achieving an equal, diverse and inclusive workforce.
WINNER:
Esh Construction for Building Bridges: Supporting Armed Forces Personnel Through Inclusive Employment.
RUNNER-UP:
Mott MacDonald Bentley for Innovate and Inspire – Women in MMB Committee.
NWL are committed to investing in our people and developing their skills by attracting the best people to come and work for us, helping them to develop their potential and in turn they help us to deliver the very best service for our customers.
This means we constantly invest in the skills, training and experience of our employees. Through apprenticeships, research partnerships, sponsored PhD placements, NGO relationships and much more we invest heavily in our greatest asset – our people.
It is important that together, we maximise the sector’s investment in skills and ensure we develop a sustainable and skilled workforce for the future. Therefore, we are looking for an outstanding, early careers, individual from our supply chain who you have identified is “one to watch” for the future.
WINNER:
Laura Harvey - Mott MacDonald Bentley.
RUNNER-UP:
Amelia Bewick - Turner and Townsend.