Water consumption
What are we aiming for?
Water
- Control, manage and reduce carbon emissions associated with our activities
- Purchase and utilise resources in a sustainable manner including energy and water
- To reduce water consumption by 10% by 2013 and 15% by 2020, from a 2005 baseline.
Our water reduction targets
Why is this important?
Water conservation has become more important recently as climate change alters weather patterns, leading to floods in some areas but drought in others. In addition to this, we are using more water per person, populations are increasing and we are changing how water flows naturally around the country. By covering more land area in hard surfacing, we are diverting surface water into drainage networks rather than soaking away into the natural soft landscape and filling our underground aquifers.
We also need to take into account the carbon emitted from supplying water to buildings and treating the waste. This incurs a carbon penalty at a rate of 0.404 kg of CO2 for every m3 of water.
Where are we now?
Between August 2010 and July 2011, we used 40,760 cubic metres of water. If one cubic metre of water is 1,000 litres, that's a lot of bottles of water!
What are we doing?
Now that we have installed water saving devices in our gents urinals, push down taps and efficient showers where possible, we need to monitor our water usage. As this is key to controling it, we have installed automatic meter reading devices on our major water supplies. This alerts us to any anomalies which can be investigated before they become major incidences.
What can you do?
- Report leaking taps and/or dripping or constantly flushing toilet cisterns to the Estate Management Department on Ext 1111 (Derby) or on Ext 4452 (Buxton)
- Only use the water you need to wash your hands, don't let taps run unnecessarily
- Only fill the kettle with as much water as you need
- Suggest any ideas or initiatives you have to the Environment Services Team on Ext 1093 or 2265.
