If you’re looking to reduce the environmental impact of your business, then water efficiency is something with which you should be deeply concerned. For most businesses, there’s considerable scope to improve efficiency – and many of the steps we might take require only a small investment. Plus, since these are efficiency savings, many of them will pay for themselves in the long-run.
Auditing
If you don’t quite understand the scale and source of the problem, then you’ll have a difficult time solving it. This applies to water efficiency, just as much as anything else. Go through every part of your business in a systematic way, and make note of your water usage, and how you might improve it. Ideally, you might bring an outside environmental auditor to do this job for you.
Upgrading Equipment
If your premises include a kitchen or a laundry room, then upgrading equipment might net you considerable savings in the long-term. Hotels, restaurants, and other hospitality-focused businesses might reap the benefits the soonest – but that doesn’t mean that other businesses won’t benefit from a few choice upgrades. Aging ice-machines are the ideal candidates for replacement – their modern equivalents tend to perform more efficiently.
Water Meters
Having a water meter will allow you to monitor your water consumption over time. Experts such as Allied Electronics explain that this will allow you to accurately fine-tune your procedures, and to identify sources of inefficiency. But it’ll also provide an incentive to your line managers, who’ll be able to more closely monitor their use of water.
Educating Staff
Getting all of your staff onside will help you to limit the amount of water you’re using in the building. Signage in kitchens and bathrooms can help everyone to develop the right habits, and to take the small measures which cumulatively make a difference.
Water descaling
A water descaler is a device which reduces the build-up of limescale in areas with hard water. This eases the pressure in water systems, reduces the likelihood of appliances breaking, and generally reduces the wear-and-tear you’ll get from your water system.
Descalers create considerable energy savings, need little to no maintenance, and improve the quality of the water that comes out of the tap. As such, they’re a fairly sensible investment, even for smaller businesses.
Sustainability Goals
Having a target to work towards will push towards improvement. Get your goals down in writing, and make sure that they’re publicised across the whole business. You might even offer incentives to the whole company for meeting them. That way, you’ll get a morale boost when you reach the goal ahead of schedule. Make sure that your targets are realistic, but don’t forget to be ambitious, too.
