Definition

The operational margin is defined as the annual difference between the required production demand and the available treatment capacity, expressed as a percentage of the required production demand. Required production demand’ refers to the level of production needed to meet our reserve policy. The reserve policy stipulates that we maintain a 10% buffer on top of the clean treated‑water output (drinking‑water demand plus losses such as unbilled consumption, leakage, fire‑service use, etc.). The reporting unit is the number of clusters. The calculation of production needs and treatment capacity is based on millions of m3.

Measurement method

The indicator is calculated as follows:

The required production demand is calculated by adding the projected drinking-water output to the distribution loss. This figure is increased by 10 per cent to account for unexpected developments in demand. The projected drinking water output is calculated for each segment: large business customers, small business customers (including agricultural users), and domestic households.

After adjusting for wholesale deliveries (water supplied between water companies), this yields the required production demand.

Available treatment capacity is determined by correcting gross permit capacity for non-deployable (qualitative and quantitative constraints), deployable constraints and production losses.

Available treatment capacity minus maximum production capacity results in the operational gap.

Responsibilities and reporting

The Director of Asset Management reports on progress and results, which are discussed periodically with the Executive Board. The number of clusters with a positive ‘operational gap’ reported in the annual report reflects the situation as at 1 January 2025 and is therefore based on projects completed in the 2024 calendar year. In other words, if a project is completed in 2024, it contributes to the positive operational gap in 2025.

Definition

The total reserve is defined as the annual difference between maximum production capacity and required production demand, and equals the sum of the operational gap and the non-operational reserve, expressed as a percentage of the required production demand.

The non-operational reserve is defined as the annual difference between the nominal permitted capacity and the required production demand, expressed as a percentage of the required production demand.

The reporting unit is the number of clusters. The calculation of production capacity and production requirement is based on millions m3.

Measurement method

The indicator is calculated as follows:

The required production demand is calculated by adding the projected drinking-water output to the distribution loss. This figure is increased by 10 per cent to account for unexpected developments in demand. The projected drinking water output is calculated for each segment: large business customers, agricultural users, and domestic households.

After adjusting for wholesale deliveries (water supplied between water companies), this yields the required production demand.

The maximum production capacity is determined by adjusting the gross permitted capacity for non-deployable capacity (qualitative and quantitative constraints) and for production losses.

Maximum production capacity minus the required production demand yields the total reserve.

Responsibilities and reporting

The Director of Asset Management reports on progress and results, which are discussed periodically with the Executive Board. The number of clusters with a positive ‘operational gap’ reported in the annual report reflects the situation as at 1 January 2025 and is therefore based on projects completed in the 2024 calendar year. In other words, if a project within a cluster is completed in 2024, it enables that cluster to meet the operational gap requirement in 2025.

* The unexpected demand growth is intended to accommodate any unforeseen increase in demand. This can occur as a result of (A) prolonged increased supply due to extreme weather; (B) risks of deviation in forecast and (C) risks of failure of available treatment capacity due to critical incidents. This 10 per cent increase is consistent with the reserve policy and is in line with national principles (Vewin).

For large business customers, the forecast is based on actual consumption, including relevant individual developments provided by the Relationship Management team.

For agricultural customers, the forecast is based on actual consumption and indexed expectations derived from research into developments in the dairy farming sector.

For household customers, the forecast is based on actual household consumption including population trends.

Definition

The amount of greenhouse gas emitted caused by Vitens' operations.

Measurement method

Greenhouse gas emissions of Vitens (in tonnes CO2eq) = the total greenhouse gases emitted by Vitens in the reporting year. Vitens maintains a process description for preparing greenhouse gas emissions. The assumptions and methodology are described in section 3.2.1.

Responsibilities and reporting

The Director of Asset Management reports annually on greenhouse gas emissions in the departmental report.

Definition

Average drinking water consumption per person per day, in litres.

Measurement method

The calculation is as follows: total billed drinking water consumption by households in litres over the past 48 months ÷ average number of residents in the supply area over the past 48 months ÷ number of days. We use a 48‑month average to prevent differences between individual years, including weather-related variations, from having a disproportionate impact.

Responsibilities and reporting

The owner of the Water Conservation Programme reports quarterly on the KPI’s progress in the organisation-wide management report.

Definition

A disruption affecting a business-critical application or the underlying generic infrastructure (AD, network, database cluster, storage). This priority applies when the disruption blocks the execution of the primary business process (production and distribution, billing, customers, and laboratory), typically affecting more than fifty users.

Measurement method

The number of Prio1 incidents recorded in JIRA (work management tool).

Responsibilities and reporting

The Director of Digitalisation provides quarterly updates on the progress of the metric in the departmental report.

Definition

A (cybersecurity) security incident is a single event or a series of unwanted, deliberate, unlawful and/or malicious events that have, or could have, a negative impact on the organisation, its business processes, assets, resources or employees, and that pose a threat to the availability, integrity or confidentiality of information, systems, services provided, or the drinking water supply. The target for the number of Prio 1 cybersecurity incidents is zero.

Measurement method

The number of ICT Prio1 cybersecurity incidents recorded in JIRA (work management tool).

Responsibilities and reporting

The Director of Digitalisation provides quarterly reporting on the number of Prio 1 cybersecurity incidents in the departmental report.

Definition

The number of accidents resulting in at least one day of absence per million working hours among employees with an employment contract with Vitens hired-in staff (excluding subcontractors). LTIF stands for Lost Time Injury Frequency.

Measurement method

The calculation is as follows: number of accidents (lost time > 1 day) multiplied by 1,000,000 hours, divided by the total working hours (minus sickness hours).

When counting lost-time days, the count starts from the first day after the incident. The day on which the incident occurred is not counted. The number of hours worked is determined for permanent employees and hired-in staff (excluding subcontractors). In this context, a contracted employee refers to an external worker employed through a temporary or secondment agency over whom Vitens has authority and exercises supervision.

Responsibilities and reporting

The LTIF falls under the responsibility of the People & Organisation department. This indicator is reported monthly in the H&S accident report and in the organisation‑wide management report and is discussed with the Executive Board.

Definition

The average number of minutes over the past year during which a resident in our supply area did not receive water.

Measurement method

The calculation of the OLM is as follows:

For each interruption, the number of interruption minutes is determined by multiplying the duration of the interruption by the number of affected consumption addresses. The OLM is the sum of all interruption minutes divided by the total number of consumption addresses in the supply area as at 1 January of the relevant financial year. In the monthly reports, this figure is extrapolated to a full year by dividing it by the number of days in the reporting period and then multiplying by 365.25.

Responsibilities and reporting

The Director of Asset Management reports monthly on the progress of the KPI in the organisation-wide management report. Once a quarter, the outcomes are discussed in the quarterly meeting with the Executive Board. These outcomes are taken into account in the investment plan, with the aim of reducing the number of faults and interruptions.

Definition

Development of total non-domestic drinking water demand, in percentage terms, relative to 2016–2019.

Measurement method

[Total invoiced non-domestic drinking water consumption in m³ over the past 48 months - total invoiced non-domestic drinking water consumption in m³ in 2016–2019) / [the total invoiced non-domestic drinking water consumption in m3 in 2016 to 2019]. We use a 48‑month average to prevent differences between individual years, including weather-related variations, from having a disproportionate impact.

Responsibilities and reporting

The owner of the Water Conservation programme reports quarterly on the progress of the KPI in the organisation-wide management report.

Definition

A nature management plan sets out the vision for the water abstraction area and translates it into nature objectives, management measures, and conditions for shared use.

Measurement method

The number of updated nature management plans relative to the total number to be updated within a ten-year cycle.

Responsibilities and reporting

The percentage of updated nature management plans is reported annually within the ecology team and in the annual report.

Definition

Perceived work-life balance. Backed up by flexibility, support, and respect for boundaries.

Measurement method

This is the average score for the following questions:

1. Vitens respects the boundaries between work and private life.

2. I find it difficult to switch off from work in my personal time.

3. My work makes it difficult for me to make enough time for my private life.

4. I feel I have enough flexibility to balance my work and personal life effectively.

5. I feel supported by my manager in finding a good work–life balance.

6. I have enough freedom to plan my work and personal activities in a way that keeps them in balance.

Responsibilities and reporting

The People & Organisation department is responsible for the work–life balance score. This score is reported annually in the employee survey and in the departmental management report.

Definition

The area of all active standard scheme areas (excluding temporary or draft schemes).

Measurement method

The calculation is as follows: the sum of the number of hectares of scheme areas that meet the above definition.

Responsibilities and reporting

The Asset Management department is responsible for the total area (in hectares) eligible for drought-damage schemes. This indicator is reported annually in the annual report.

Definition

Index that measures the quality of our sources to provide insight into how Vitens can better protect its sources. The KPI Pollution Index sources is used to communicate with partners about contaminants that threaten the quality of our sources, and to determine Vitens' action perspective.

To generate insight into the quality of our sources, interpret them and get an idea of the scope for influence, the actual raw water quality is compared with our desired raw water quality (source values). This gives a picture of where points of concern (exceedances compared to source values) are present.

The intention was to convert all identified points of concern into one indicator (an index), comparable across years and enabling deeper analyses. This was inspired by RIWA's treatment task index. The treatment task index is based on the principle that the water at an intake point must be treated to the extent that all substances meet their standard in the Dutch Drinking Water Decree. The more substances exceed that standard, the bigger the treatment task, and the higher RIWA's index.

Measurement method

The Source Pollution Index is based on the following three inputs:

Input 1: the first input is a list of established source values Explanatory note: Source values have been established for each substance that can pollute a water source (e.g. pesticides or medicine residues) and for which measures can be taken at the source (before treatment) to prevent pollution. A source value is an objective/target set by Vitens for the presence of a particular substance. For each substance, two source values were established in each case: one for the relatively short term (2030) and one for the long term (2050). See established list of source values.

Input 2: the second input is an established list of abstractions and raw-water sampling points that underpin KPI. Explanatory note: This establishes which raw-water sample points per abstraction are used to create input 3 and calculate the pollution index sources (the average of which leads to the Vitens-wide pollution index).

Input 3: the final input consists of the raw-water quality data from the past three years, measured at the raw-water sampling points described under input 2 and recorded in LIMS. Note: Raw-water quality data are obtained by sampling and analysis with a minimum frequency of once a year. The sampling is driven by the annual Water Quality Monitoring Programme.

The calculation is done analogously to RIWA's treatment task index. The measured quality data water per abstraction is compared with the source values. For each substance, this determines whether the measured value (based on max value over three years) meets the source value or not (exceedance). These results are translated for each substance to a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 means no exceedance (meets source value) and 100 is the highest degree of exceedance. The scores of all substances are added together and form the pollution indices for the abstractions.

To calculate the Vitens pollution index sources, the average pollution index of all abstraction is calculated: one for the short term and one for the long term.

Future laboratory corrections regarding false positives are not included in the adjustment of the Pollution Index for comparative figures in the future.

Responsibilities and reporting

The Director of Asset Management holds ultimate responsibility for the KPI and its development. The hydrology specialist is delegated responsibility for the creation of the KPI.

Definition

The index shows the extent to which the drinking water complies with the legal standards set out in the Drinking Water Decree.

Measurement method

The WKI consists of health-related parameters (acute and non-acute), operational parameters and customer-focused parameters. The WKI is calculated based on the 2022 performance protocol. The benchmark Excel file (survey between water companies to compare performance) is used for the calculation. The aggregated WQI follows from a calculation based on weighting factors for both norm setting and reality. The weighting factors were determined as follows: acute health parameters are weighted four times, non-acute health parameters twice, operational parameters once and customer-focused parameters three times.

The index is expressed per delivered m3 drinking water and is a dimensionless number (DLG).

Responsibilities and reporting

The WKI is reported quarterly by the Drinking Water Operations department in the ‘Water Quality’ management report and in the organisation-wide management report and is discussed with the Executive Board.

Definition

The sickness absence rate indicates the proportion of working time lost over a given continuous period due to incapacity to work as a result of illness or accident. It provides an indication of the scale of sickness absence in relation to available workforce capacity.

Measurement method

The calculation is as follows: the absence rate, expressed as a percentage, is calculated by dividing the product of the number of sick days in the period and the incapacity percentage rate by the number of calendar days in the preceding period (including long-term sickness, but excluding pregnancy-related absence).

Responsibilities and reporting

The sick absence rate is the responsibility of the People & Organisation department. This indicator is reported monthly in the organisation-wide management report and discussed with the Executive Board. The reported result covers the preceding period within the current calendar year and reflects the year-to-date sickness absence rate.