Turning water into business gold

Until recently, the UK population has taken water entirely for granted. But the effects of climate change over the past few years have given us a greater appreciation of it. It not only keeps us alive, clean, and healthy - it can also be great for our bank accounts.

In this blog, we celebrate some of the UK entrepreneurs who’ve found ways of turning water into business gold.

Businesses that spring into being

In 2016, Doran Binder bought a pub in the Peak District. During a water supply test, he discovered his new business was sitting on an aquifer that supplied the pub with some of the purest water in the world. So instead of running a pub, he found himself running a small bottling plant selling Crag Spring water across the world. And now he’s gone a stage further, turning the pub into a water bar.

Binder seized the opportunity to turn his ordinary pub into a unique business. He has become an expert in the natural process of purifying and tasting the water, finding a new role as a water sommelier. He now offers high-quality mineral water from all over the world which sells for as much as £11.50 a litre. So, if your business is sitting on its own water supply, it may be time to diversify your offering!

Making the most of rejected fruit

Another company that uses British spring water is Dash. Selling bottled spring water isn’t new, but this business also reduces food waste in the process. It began with an idea to use juice from the wonky fruit that supermarkets reject, which would otherwise be thrown away. They combine the juice with sparkling water to make a range of premium sodas. In less than five years the entrepreneurs behind Dash built a business worth millions of pounds, and their product is sold across the world.

Water plays such a vital role in all food service businesses that it needs to be looked after carefully. Castle Water and our specialist partners help both small and large businesses to ensure they have contingency plans in place for water outages, as well as water efficiency audits to see where costs can be saved.

Sustainable CAFE

Clean Aqua For Everyone (CAFE) is a water treatment system developed by Edinburgh-based engineers. It provides an off-grid way of filtering water to clean it to European standards. It is a self-sufficient system that uses renewable energy, making it ideal for remote areas, agriculture, and low-income communities. It’s a social enterprise, which means all profits are used to fund CAFE installations for communities most in need.

Pooling natural resources

The addition of chlorine in swimming pools keeps swimmers safe from bacteria, but it stings the eyes, irritates the skin, dries the hair and needs to be responsibly disposed of. So, using cutting-edge technology as well as good old-fashioned plants, entrepreneurs at Clear Water Revival have developed safe, natural swimming pool filtration systems. This allows swimmers to enjoy swimming in natural, clean water as safely as they would with chlorinated water.

Using less water can be profitable too

Sustainable businesses are the future, and entrepreneurs are shaking things up in the business world, sometimes in unexpected ways. Getting your car cleaned at a standard car wash uses over 200 litres of water, so in an attempt to use fewer chemicals and less water, the entrepreneurs behind Dropless dry-clean cars instead. Using eco-friendly cleaning fluids and microfibre cloths, they can save 150 litres per wash. What’s more, it’s a mobile business, so they go to where the customer is - no more queueing up at car washes.

Water Efficiency and your business

Whether your business’s water use is limited to toilets and sinks, or a regular supply of water is instrumental to day-to-day operations, efficiency matters. From simple fixes like ensuring leaking taps get fixed promptly, to larger-scale solutions such as repurposing rainwater for flushing toilets or irrigating gardens, efficient water use is well within your reach.

If you’d like to find out more about how Castle Water can help your business save money by becoming more water-efficient, speak to a member of our team here or view a list of our services here.