Strategic Plan
Excellence Across Every Service
2026–2030
PWD’s five-year plan to maintain and improve our system and services.
For more than 200 years, PWD has ensured our city has the essential water services it needs to thrive. To build on that commitment as we look to the future, PWD developed a Strategic Plan that outlines our vision, mission, values, and strategies for enhancing our services to the City of Philadelphia.
What is the Strategic Plan?
The plan serves as a roadmap for enhancing infrastructure, allocating resources effectively, supporting employees, managing long-term initiatives, and establishing a system to track and evaluate progress over time to ensure the utility achieves its long-term goals.
The Latest
The 2026-2030 Strategic Plan has been finalized. Further updates regarding implementation will be shared in late summer/early fall 2025.
More than 400 PWD employees participated in two open house events on May 28-29 to learn more about the 2026-2029 strategic plan. The open houses were held at 1101 Market Street and 29th Street. During the sessions, employees were able to:
- Provide comments or questions about each of the six strategic pillars;
- Share what they’d like to learn more about;
- Talk about PWD’s values with a visual facilitator who captured how the values show up across the organization; and,
- Attend facilitated sessions to share additional thoughts on the draft strategic framework
We are now working to compile the feedback we received and finalize the full strategic plan. This should be completed by the end of June.
The Plan is currently in Final Draft stage and will be issued in June 2025.
You are invited to attend an open house to view the plan and proposed strategies, provide feedback, and speak with our consultant Raftelis and PWD leadership. You may take work time to attend, with supervisor approval as operational needs dictate.
Wednesday, May 28
1101 Market Street
2nd Floor Lounge
10AM – 2PM
Facilitated discussion 12:30 – 1:30PM
Thursday, May 29
29th Street Facility (29th and Cambria Streets)
Internal Courtyard Parking Area
7:30AM – 11:30AM
Facilitated discussion 9:30 – 10:30AM
Unable to attend the event? Provide feedback online ↓
Thank you for participating, and for moving our department into the future.
We want to hear from you as we finalize the Plan
The Process
The strategic planning process allowed PWD leadership and staff to collaborate and provide feedback on where PWD is today, where PWD would like to be in the future, and how to move the organization forward.
We began the planning process in the summer of 2024, and we’re finalizing the plan in spring 2025. More than 650 individual stakeholders were engaged throughout the process. With the help of facilitators, we gathered feedback from other City departments, external stakeholders, the PWD leadership team, supervisors and managers, and employees through activities including interviews, focus groups, open houses, and surveys.
From the feedback, PWD leadership developed a strategic direction for the organization, which includes the vision, mission, values, and strategic pillars, along with strategies and actions.
The Timeline
Setting the plan in motion
For PWD to achieve the desired results, the strategic plan must be put into action. The organization will have an ongoing focus on the activities and projects that will guide PWD toward achieving its goals and objectives. We call this the “implementation process.” Teams of staff members will create detailed implementation plans and each year, they will report on progress, celebrate success, and update their workplans for the following 12–18 months.
Foundation
Our Vision
Ensuring that Philadelphia thrives by delivering essential clean water services, protecting the environment, and valuing our customers and employees.
Our Mission
We are a resilient utility, committed to providing reliable, safe drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater services to our community. We protect our region’s environment and support public health and safety.
Our Values
The Philadelphia Water Department is committed to meeting the needs of its community, through:
- Safety
- Compassion
- Integrity
- Collaboration
- Excellence
Strategic Pillars
Valued Workforce
Demonstrating the value of employees by effectively recruiting, developing, recognizing, and retaining a skilled, diverse, and dedicated team.
What this looks like:
- Improving PWD’s hiring strategy and process
- Growing career development opportunities
- Strengthening retention
Customer and Stakeholder Confidence
Building trust and understanding through effective and timely communications, transparent information sharing, inclusive engagement, and a culture of excellent customer service.
What this looks like:
- Creating job-specific customer service training
- Building community trust with clear and open communication
- Using data to guide branding and marketing
Operational Excellence
Safely and efficiently providing drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater services with minimal interruption while meeting or exceeding regulatory and accreditation requirements.
What this looks like:
- Keeping safety a top priority
- Planning for emergencies
- Standardizing and improving operating procedures
- Strengthening cybersecurity
- Streamlining PWD’s customer experience
Resilient Infrastructure
Proactively prioritizing comprehensive asset management, adaptive planning, and long-term infrastructure investment to meet the needs of future generations.
What this looks like:
- Encouraging innovation and research
- Improving infrastructure planning
- Upgrading and investing in our assets
Financial Sustainability
Support efficient delivery of utility services, diversified resource streams, and long-term financial stability by balancing capital and operational needs with customer affordability.
What this looks like:
- Expanding funding options
- Upgrading financial and customer information systems
- Matching current needs and long-term goals
- Improving efficiency and revenue collection
Organizational Alignment
Promoting, facilitating a mission-driven environment by prioritizing collaborative learning, effective communication, and continuous process improvement
What this looks like:
- Building awareness of PWD’s mission and role
- Helping employees connect with available resources
- Improving how information is shared internally
- Working with other City departments to improve processes
- Using data to guide decisions and policies
Get updates on Strategic Plan progress
Frequently Asked Questions
These will evolve over the course of rollout. Help us understand your biggest questions by responding to our form!
Strategic plans are typically designed for a three- to five-year period because the timeframe allows for an organization to prioritize the most critical objectives and create achievable action plans for those objectives. The shorter timeframe also allows organizations to more effectively allocate resources and track progress and outcomes. Because the plan takes into account the current operating context, changes in trends and external influences become harder to predict beyond a few years, which can undermine a plan’s relevance or feasibility.
The Strategic Plan is a living document that was intentionally built with the input and collaboration of our employees. As such, we want our teams to use the plan to guide their day-to-day tasks, responsibilities, and goals. The plan will help staff prioritize their work and guide decision-making over the next five years.
