The Company plans to invest between $34 billion and $38 billion over the next 10 years for capital improvements to its Regulated Businesses' water and wastewater infrastructure. This signals a commitment to long-term growth and infrastructure development.

The Company has proactively improved its pipe renewal rate from a 250-year replacement cycle in 2009 to an approximate 125-year replacement cycle by 2028. This proactive approach indicates a long-term strategy for infrastructure improvement and risk mitigation.

Customer growth in the Company's Regulated Businesses is primarily from adding new customers through acquisitions of water and/or wastewater utility systems. This strategy contributes to expanding the company's market presence.

The Company pursues enhancements to regulatory practices to facilitate efficient recovery of its costs and capital investments. This indicates a proactive approach to managing regulatory relationships and ensuring financial stability.

Company's employees completed approximately 157,000 hours of employee safety training during 2023. The Company had an ORIR injury rate of 0.86, which reflects a 4% increase in injuries compared to 2022.

The Company has established its weCARE employee value proposition that focuses on employee experience as an influencer of an employee's opinions and emotional response about the Company as an employer. This indicates a commitment to improving employee satisfaction and retention.

The Regulated Businesses are subject to extensive regulation by state PUCs and other regulatory agencies, which significantly affects business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. This highlights the potential impact of regulatory decisions on the company's performance.

Operations and the quality of water supplied are subject to extensive and increasingly stringent environmental, water quality and health and safety laws and regulations. Compliance with these regulations could impact operating costs and capital expenditures.

The ability to meet the existing and future water demands depends on the availability of an adequate water supply. Drought, governmental restrictions, overuse of sources of water may limit the availability of ground and surface water.

The Company's Regulated Businesses generally do not face direct competition in their existing markets because the Company operates pursuant to franchises and the high cost of constructing a new water and wastewater system creates a barrier to market entry.

The Company's Regulated Businesses face increasing competition from governmental agencies, other investor-owned utilities, and strategic buyers that are entering new markets and/or making strategic acquisitions.

When pursuing acquisitions, the Company's largest investor-owned competitors, based on a comparison of operating revenues and population served, include Essential Utilities, Inc., American States Water Company and California Water Service Group.

The Company's adjusted regulated O&M efficiency ratio was 32.8% for the year ended December 31, 2023, compared to 33.7% for the year ended December 31, 2022. This indicates improved operational efficiency.

American Water seeks to reduce regrettable employee turnover by assessing the effectiveness of weCARE and through its efforts to foster the Company's employee experience.

Disruptions in the supply chain related to goods and services could adversely impact operations and the ability to serve customers. This highlights the importance of supply chain management.

The Company maintains an industry-leading research and development program that is designed to enhance its services, support its compliance activities, improve service quality and operational effectiveness, and provide environmental leadership.

Through laboratory and industry resources and the team's expertise, efforts are focused on contaminants of emerging concern, including but not limited to PFAS, Legionella, cyanotoxin-forming algal blooms, a variety of pathogens, microbial indicators and disinfection byproducts.

The Company continues to leverage its expertise and collaborates with the EPA and state agencies to help establish effective environmental, health and safety, and water quality standards and regulations.

The Company expects to invest between $16 billion to $17 billion over the next five years, and between $34 billion to $38 billion over the next 10 years in infrastructure improvements in the Regulated Businesses.

In order to meet its capital expenditure needs, the Company intends to issue a combination of short-term and long-term debt securities and/or additional equity shares of common stock. This indicates a balanced approach to financing.

The Board of Directors authorized an anti-dilutive stock repurchase program to mitigate the dilutive effect of shares issued through the Company's dividend reinvestment, employee stock purchase and executive compensation activities.

The Company's values and actions have achieved prestigious recognition by firms devoted to recognizing companies that demonstrate ESG leadership, including recognition on the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index and Barron's 100 Most Sustainable U.S. Companies List.

The Board of Directors oversees the Company's strategy and performance related to sustainability through four standing committees: Safety, Environmental, Technology and Operations; Audit, Finance and Risk; Executive Development and Compensation; and Nominating/Corporate Governance.

The Company's Annual Performance Plan, which provides annual, performance-based cash compensation to Company employees based upon the achievement of stated business goals, is aligned with its commitment to ESG principles.

Climate variability predictions present several potential challenges to water and wastewater utilities, including increased frequency and duration of droughts, increased precipitation and flooding, and potential degradation of water quality.

The Company reviews current climate science and global models related to temperature, precipitation and sea level rise on an ongoing basis and uses this information in its comprehensive planning studies and asset management plans.

The geographic diversity of the Company's service areas may mitigate some of the economic effects on the water supply associated with weather extremes the Company might encounter in any particular service territory.