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European Benchmarking co-operation The initiative The European benchmarking Co-operation (EBC) was initiated in 2004 by the national water associations and several water utilities from Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. Objective of the co-operation is to facilitate water utilities in the continuous process of improving performance and transparency by: • offering an international benchmarking programme for water services; • providing a platform for exchanging best practices of management and operations; • exchanging knowledge and experiences on benchmarking. EBC’s benchmarking programme Benchmarking is a structured, continuous process to assess performance and identify and adapt best practices. To assess and compare water utilities’ performances, the EBC-partners have developed a benchmarking model for water- and wastewater activities, suitable for larger as well as for smaller utilities. Depending on their ambitions, utilities can choose to benchmark at three levels of detail: basic, standard or advanced. Advanced Level context information reliability sustainability finance & efficiency context information sustainability finance & efficiency Standard Level context information water quality reliability service quality sustainability finance & efficiency context information water quality reliability service quality sustainability finance & efficiency Basic Level context information sustainability finance & efficiency context information service quality finance & efficiency Drinking water Wastewater All key performance areas (water quality, reliability, service, sustainability, finance & efficiency) are analysed, to present a balanced view on a utility’s performance. The Performance Indicator-system of the International water Association (IWA) is applied as much as possible to standardise definitions of variables, context information and indicators. IWA fully supports EBC’s benchmarking programme. Benchmarking projects EBC yearly organises a benchmarking project for (primarily) European water utilities. Participants submit data from the previous calendar year in a database through a secured website. After verification and analysis, utilities receive an individual, confidential report in which their performance is compared with the other participants. This comparison enables to assess one’s position and to identify performance gaps. The benchmarking project further offers a workshop, where participants can meet and discuss results, special topics, best practices and improvement measures. This facilitates utilities in preparing their own action plan for implementing improvement measures. Why participate? Benefits of this international benchmarking programme are: • getting to know your own utility in another way; • (low cost) comparison with European peer utilities; • large opportunities for networking and identification of best practices/ innovative solutions for organising water services; • showing stakeholders your drive for improvement. Interested in joining? For more information, please visit our website www.waterbenchmark.org or contact us at [email protected] European Benchmarking co-operation C/o Vewin, Association of Dutch Water Companies P.O. Box 1019 2280 CA RIJSWIJK The Netherlands Plan Act Do (performance assesment, looking for improvements) (decide on new actions) (implement improvement measures) (measure results) Check international search for best practices in management and operations Supported by 1 11 2 12 3 13 4 14 5 15 16 7 17 8 18 19 20 9 10 0,6 0,5 0,4 0,3 0,2 0,1 0,0 company x n 2006 n 2007 n Company X (0,27) n Average (0,36) €/m 3 zFi-NED-003 Production costs per m 3 water produced (€/m 3 ) 0,10 0,12 0,21 0,23 0,23 0,27 0,31 0,32 0,37 0,37 0,37 0,45 0,46 0,48 0,48 0,50 0,52 0,61 0,42 0,39
