Do you have any idea how much water you use every day? It’s highly likely that you’re one of the 94% of the British public who radically underestimate their water use. Did you know, for example, that a five-minute shower uses 69 litres of water, which means a ten-minute shower will use more water than having a bath (the average UK bathtub holds 100 litres of water)?
To address the UK public’s misconceptions about water use, the industry body Water UK has launched the Water’s Worth Saving campaign. Water’s Worth Saving has been designed to educate the public about their water usage, encouraging them to save water and save money at the same time as learning to live more sustainably.
Saving water in the workplace
As people become more aware of the need to save water, the more likely it is that any water-saving measures you put in place in your business will have an effect. So you can use the Water’s Worth Saving campaign as a timely way of encouraging your staff to help your business save money too.
You may have already implemented many water efficiency measures throughout your business. Many organisations have installed water meters so they can keep on top of usage and are more likely to discover water leaks, or they have installed devices that mean less water is used for flushing toilets, or they are harvesting rainwater and making good use of greywater. However, the success of water-saving measures also depends on getting buy-in from your staff.
How employee behaviour can help your business save water
You can implement all the latest technologies to help your business save water, but if your staff leave taps running, don’t report leaks, and don’t take the same precautions in the office as they do at home, then your measures will never be 100% effective.
Water efficiency is as much about educating your employees as it is about practical measures. This could be as simple as asking people to use the eco setting on the dishwasher in the company kitchen, to only boil what they need when making hot drinks, to check they’ve switched the tap off once they’ve washed their hands, and to report any leaks.
A toilet that’s leaking from the cistern into the pan may not pose a structural problem, but it can waste a lot of water - between 200 and 400 litres a day. Something as seemingly minor as a dripping tap can waste up to 60 litres of water a week. Combined, all these ‘little issues’ can become a big problem. You also need to take into account that your business will be paying for all that wasted water not once, but twice - through your clean water and wastewater billing.
Getting your staff to help your business save water could be achieved with something as simple as an awareness-raising campaign to encourage employees to change their habits when it comes to the way they use water.
Saving water makes good business sense
Implementing water-saving measures will result in immediate cost savings for your business. But there are also hidden costs in water. The main one is that it takes power to treat water and pump it into and out of your premises, so the less water you use, the less power you use, which will have a knock-on effect on your utility bills.
Sustainability is a hugely important issue for customers, many of whom are willing to pay a premium to do business with a company that is actively making a difference. Having robust water-saving measures in place could mean the difference between gaining new business and that customer or client going elsewhere.
Download our Water Efficiency Guide for more tips about how to save water and save money in your business. Alternatively, we would be happy to arrange a detailed water efficiency audit where our experts will carry out an extensive assessment of your current water use and suggest the best solutions to help your business save water and save money.
