WATER AND YOUR BUSINESS

All businesses can benefit from using water efficiently. Water may be costing your business more than you think as you are paying for it to be supplied and for the waste water to be removed.

Cost savings from water efficiency can be significant. In manufacturing industries, water bills can cost over 1% of turnover and in other sectors, businesses could halve their water bill by implementing simple and economical water minimisation measures. Using less water may mean you can rely fully on the mains supply and not have to pay for a water abstraction licence.

As with energy, the first step in reducing water use is to understand how much water your business is using. The Envirowise website contains a tool to monitor and analyse your water use. You can compare your business's water use with other similar organisations to get an idea of whether your use is high. This can be done by benchmarking. Envirowise has developed a “Water Account Tool” to give this information.

Financial support is available for businesses wishing to invest in water-efficient technologies; for example, the Enhanced Capital Allowances scheme. This is a tax break supporting businesses investing in sustainable water technology.

For some organisations rainwater harvesting can reduce water supply from the mains. This will only be viable where rainwater can be collected in sufficient volumes to be re-used (for example, if your buildings have a large roof area). It is most cost effective where an organisation uses low quality water supply; for example, for washing vehicles.

 

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