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installed by 2030. He said that this was showing that of the 135 million litres per day being supplied to commercial users, 30 million was registering as “continuous fl ow,” meaning continual leaks. Garry Beaver outlined the similar efforts at Anglian Water, saying the data was giving them a “huge amount of data and insight, which allows us to target more effectively, understand where opportunities and problems are, but also start to be able to measure the impact of the things we start to put in place.” Tucker said that although “the nation doesn’t know about the national water target,” this was now confronting wholesalers. From helping Defra compile its data, he said Thames Water had discovered that the water reduction target for the commercial sector “could essentially be achieved by reducing water loss on those sites, and that that is now underpinning our entire direction of travel on reduction.” According to Tucker, a way forward to deliver effi ciency measures in the commercial sector would be for company directors to educate and empower staff within each client organisation on how they can contribute to the “national water target agenda.” This would mean “getting staff in a room and saying we need to play our role, and I need you to come up with ideas on how to deliver and exceed a 15% reduction in water use.”
He admitted that dealing with small sites was “challenging,” and Beaver added that there were “thousand with six, seven litres per hour” leaks, and it was unrealistic to tackle them all; “you have to lead from the top down.”
Engineering out industry barriers The water sector is split into a hierarchy of wholesalers, ‘retailers’ and clients, and the retailer end of the discussion is key as they make decisions on specifi c investments. Arguably, however they are not incentivised to sell less water, and so the levers for speculative progress are unclear. Their objective is to get commercial sector clients, and water retailers, to act in order to bring water effi ciency measures forward, but Garry Beaver of Anglian Water said that one of their challenges was “working closely with retailers and the close contact with end users, to make sure the processes take advantage of the data.”
In this context, several delegates, including building consultant and surveyor Naomi Sadler agreed that a Part G would require water effi cient measures for commercial buildings was long overdue. “We need some regulation in the commercial sector, continuous fl ows are colossal, and leaky loos are probably where we need to really be going.” She said that standardised data and benchmarks for water effi ciency were part of the solution, but currently, “there is nothing except BREEAM that actually measures water based on building use and type.”
The group also explored how insurance could be linked to water
effi ciency to drive commercial clients. Sadler advocates a “change in the terms and conditions to say, if you don’t fi x your leaks within a set period of time, once you’ve identifi ed them, you’re not insured.” James Fisher of BRE said that the organisation was currently in a “conversation” with the Association of British Insurers, about an “asset resilience scheme,” where water effi ciency would be a “legal minima for insurance
as opposed to ‘top performing’ choice.” He added: “There is a tendency for everything in sustainability to be seen as a risk, but insurers know that features are opportunities or improvements.” Fisher concluded: “I will continue to try and push resilience and insurance forward as drivers in BREEAM; buildings will be devalued if they’re not ready for these challenges.”
Metering & data fl ows As in many areas of design, and optimising effi ciencies, the conversation in recent years has moved over to how data (including from an array of property monitoring systems including meters). Claire Spendley of Waterwise said that the mass rollouts of smart meters would help to resolve the organisation’s “long time call for mandatory leak detection technology on all properties.” Andrew Tucker of Thames Water said that water reduction work “is all data driven,” and referred to the many thousands of smart meters which his organisation have installed in commercial and domestic buildings, without requiring law changes to do so. He said that data “is going to just grow massively over the next fi ve years for all of us; every water company, every region.” Victoria Hughes from BAM Construct said that in order to tackle water leaks across portfolios of commercial buildings, it was essential to “identifying markers for wastage,” rather than do it on a piecemeal basis. Naomi Sadler said that the data on continuous fl ows showed they were “colossal, and leaky loos are probably where we need to really be going.” Rich Braid of Cistermiser said: “One of the challenges with the data is deciding what is really useful, and how is it going to be used in order for someone to take action?”
Solutions & Sponsors’ Question Time As well as hoping to “remove barriers” to the rollout of smart metering across the UK (which wholesalers like Thames have
DATA IS THE DRIVER Andrew Tucker of Thames Water (second from right) said that the 73,000 smart meters so far installed in the region’s commercial properties showed that 30 million litres per day was ‘continuous fl ow’
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