About American Water

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Vital, efficient and sustainable—our services do more than simply deliver water to our customers. Water is the only consumed utility. We know that people depend on us to deliver safe, clean and reliable water service that is also affordable. Our customers, employees, partners and the people and institutions who invest in us expect and deserve nothing less. Every community should be stronger because we are there. What’s good for our environment, customers, employees and communities has also proven to be good for our shareholders and financial sustainability as a company. However, our ultimate measure of success is broader than just dollars and cents. Success is driven by a single, overriding purpose: to help KEEP LIFE FLOWING for our customers every day. We are uniquely positioned to provide this essential service through two lines of business: regulated and market-based businesses. We are the largest and most geographically diverse publicly traded water and wastewater utility company in the United States (U.S.), headquartered in Camden, New Jersey and listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “AWK.” We employ more than 7,000 dedicated professionals who provide essential regulated and market-based drinking water, wastewater and other related services to more than 15 million people in 46 states. 

 

Regulated Footprint1

Our primary business involves providing water and wastewater services to residential, commercial, industrial, public authority and industrial customers. The properties of the Company’s Regulated Businesses consist mainly of:


1Approximations of our primary operating assets as of December 31, 2020.

Our national regulated footprint provides regulatory and geographic diversity through operations in 16 states across 1,700 communities, with over 3.5 million active customers in our water and wastewater networks.

Market-Based

In addition to our regulated operations, we also provide complementary water and wastewater services through our market-based businesses. These services leverage our core competencies, provide free cash-flow and are capital-light. Our market-based businesses include the following:

  • Homeowner Services Group, (HOS) provides various warranty protection programs and other home services to residential customers. As of December 31, 2020, our Homeowner Services Group had approximately 3 million customer contracts in 43 states, and partnership agreements with utilities, municipalities and other organizations.
  • Military Services Group (MSG) provides water and wastewater services to various military installations across the country. We currently operate 50-year contracts at 17 military installations across the nation as part of the U.S. Government’s Utilities Privatization Program.

Our Values

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Our values of safety, trust, environmental leadership, teamwork and high performance are the foundation of our ethical culture. Our values also contribute to a high-integrity, transparent workplace where employees feel safe bringing their whole selves to work. Here’s a deeper look at how we apply our values at work every day.

Safety

Safety will always be the top focus for us—for every employee, customer and community we serve. This includes physical safety, emotional safety and health and wellbeing. Nothing is more important.

Trust

Trust is built through one interaction at a time. We are committed to a mutually respectful and inclusive workplace for all employees. We do what we say and say what we do, treat each other with respect, listen to one another through open and honest conversations and speak up when we see something is not right. This is how we build and sustain high levels of employee and customer trust.

Environmental Leadership

Environmental Leadership means delivering safe, clean, reliable and affordable water and wastewater services. We protect our water sources and use this precious resource wisely. Our work is about excellence and the highest levels of care for our resources.

Teamwork

Teamwork is being at our personal best every day by helping to ensure that every employee is empowered, and their voice is heard. We work together toward our common goals by sharing and debating ideas, leveraging our diversity, respecting differences of opinions and being accountable for our actions.

High Performance

High Performance means we all aspire to be our best, particularly because what we do is so critical to the lives of our customers. Performing at our best includes getting the fundamentals right every time, managing risks and addressing issues quickly and transparently. 

Strategy Wheel

Our Strategy

Our purpose and values underpin our overall business strategy. Our “strategy wheel” features five key focus areas for our company and illustrates how we work to achieve our vision. Each focus area ties to specific performance aspirations and goals designed to deliver continuous improvement for years to come.

Safety

Safety is both a strategy and a core company value. To us, safety is more than just “the right thing to do”—it’s the culmination of both physical and emotional safety. The health and safety of our employees and contractors is a leading indicator of our company’s health. Simply put, if we get safety right, we can get everything else right.

People

Maintaining an environment where our people feel valued, included and accountable is critical to our ability to serve our customers every day. We continuously work together to create an environment where employees can live up to their fullest potential and feel confident that what they do directly contributes to our company’s ability to stay strong, grow and make a difference in our customers’ lives. We are a safe, healthy and inclusive organization with a highly skilled workforce ready for the future.

Operational Excellence

Our operational excellence strategy helps us to find better and more efficient ways to do business and to provide safe, clean and affordable water services for our customers. We leverage technology and process optimization to support the consistent execution of the fundamentals and business strategy. As the largest water and wastewater company in the U.S., we assume the responsibility to go beyond minimum requirements and be an industry leader in operational and environmental excellence.

Growth

We believe that when companies grow, they can invest more in creating stable jobs, training, benefits, infrastructure and our communities. We are industry leaders in critical infrastructure investment and customer growth. Our growth benefits all our stakeholders, including our shareholders.

Customers

Our customers are at the center of everything we do and every decision we make. We want to provide a superior customer experience across our diverse customer base and be the trusted leader in water quality, water management, system resiliency and environmental stewardship. If our customers had a choice as to who serves them, we want them to choose us. Customer input, along with empathy for our customers’ ideas and experiences, drives how we change and improve our processes and systems. We are committed to showing customers and communities that we care about them. As a result, our customer base continues to grow and the overall customer experience continues to improve.