Water efficiency tips for your business

The value of managing water better goes beyond saving the cost of water on your bill. Managing your water use efficiently will do all this.

Save you money
As well as the obvious saving for the cost of water, there can be flow-on savings for water, wastewater, trade wastewater, chemicals and energy. You can also save on maintenance and capital costs of equipment by managing water better.

Contribute to a sustainable environment
You'll help reduce demand for water from dams and rivers. You'll also discharge less wastewater into rivers and oceans.

Help inspire your staff
You can build a culture of commitment, creating attitudes and business processes that improve morale and carry through to process improvements across your business. Improved corporate social responsibility leads to greater productivity.

Build your brand and improve your public image
This is especially important in drought conditions, when the community looks to big business to contribute. This can affect their purchasing decisions and your bottom line.

You can't manage any resource if you don't know how much you're using and where you're using it. Check:

• the services you're connected to
• how much water you use overall
  
• where you use water in your business and how much you use in each area
  
• your business's benchmark for water use to see how much you should be using
  
• how your water use affects other business costs, such as water treatment, wastewater treatment, power for pumping, heating or cooling, and chemicals.

This will help you establish a water balance. A water balance shows where water is used on your property and lets you compare water intake with water discharged. You can pinpoint where your business may be losing water.

Avoid using water where you can. For example, sweep hard surfaces instead of washing them down. You can also avoid leaks by:

• investigating any changes in water use patterns that might suggest a leak
• regularly checking equipment and fixtures that use water
  
• replacing washers and seals yearly.

There are lots of ways to reduce your water use.

• Install water-efficient appliances and equipment. 
• Size equipment appropriately. Bigger isn't always better. Not only will you use less water, you can reduce capital, operating and maintenance costs.
  
• Review cleaning and maintenance practices.
  
• Review irrigation practices.

Reuse water from cooling towers or manufacturing processes to:

• flush toilets
• irrigate gardens
  
• suppress dust.

Reused water must be fit for purpose. Consider getting professional advice, and refer to the Australian guidelines for water recycling.

You can recycle water by treating reuse water to a higher level before it's used:

• to irrigate playing fields or golf courses
• to control dust
  
• in industrial processes
  
• in cooling towers (a high level of treatment is required to reduce salts).
  

Before recycling water, get professional advice, and refer to the Australian guidelines for water recycling.

As well as recycling water from within your business, consider using alternative water sources including:

• rainwater
• stormwater
  
• bore water
  
• treated wastewater (after checking relevant health and environmental guidelines).

Saving water isn't a one-off event. You have to commit to the long term for sustainable savings.

• Seek commitment from senior management to support the change and keep the company accountable.
• Appoint someone to be responsible for leading the water saving plan, tracking use and reporting back to management.
  
• Make monitoring and managing water part of business processes. Set key performance indicators with meaningful targets for your industry and establish reporting processes as you would for other resources.
  

To realise the reputational benefits of saving water, you need to engage your staff and customers:

• Provide incentives for staff to save water by linking water conservation to staff performance reviews.
• Ask staff for water saving ideas – encourage them to send ideas via email or suggestion boxes. Start a discussion on internal social media pages. Follow up on ideas and report back on progress.
• Include water saving policies and procedures in staff training programs and talk about water conservation plans, opportunities and progress at staff meetings.
• Display water conservation signs or posters in staff and public amenities.

We work with our major customers to implement targeted water conservation programs. Major customers can also call their Business Customer Specialist to discuss water efficiency or request a relationship management meeting.