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ROUND TABLE REVIEW
Regs & water labels Andrew Tucker of Thames Water said that Defra’s Environmental Improvement Plan of 2025 “says they want to get fi ttings sorted out, look at reuse, and neutrality needs to play a role in future.” He explained that this was part of the spur to Thames “jumping on board,” with a highly proactive strategy for bringing effi ciencies: “Shaping our incentives to be an early adopter, reduced the amount of water that building needs and then offset the rest that you can’t do on site by saving it in the same catchment.” He added that the new mandatory water label was intended to
be a “lift and shift into Building Regs”, but that it should “replace all of the entirely stupid calculation methodologies which need to be ditched,” (referring to water use per person metrics). Tucker also said that the new Part G which has been consulted on, would ideally just “be the basics of fi ttings – each of these products shouldn’t have more than this fl ow rate or this water volume or this pricing, and that all goes with the label.”
The likelihood of a 5 billion litres per day shortfall in 30 years is an extremely stark prospect, belying the amount of rain falling out of the sky recently. But commercial clients in particular, and their design teams, need to start becoming aware of their part in solving what is another crisis on the horizon, while in the short term, meter data will tell them just how much they could save using sensible solutions. This round table was another great example of communicating those messages, and we hope that they will be broadcast outside the construction sector. According to Daphne Doody-Green of the Bathroom Association, “knowledge and awareness” remained the key issue, in terms of gaining traction in all sectors on water effi ciency improvements. She said “It’s a really exciting time to be in the water effi ciency space, because the Government is investing 75 million pounds over the next fi ve years to tell people that this is a big problem.” Doody-Green confi rmed that the Association’s soon-to-launch awareness campaign would include “non household,” and this will mean “it’s going to be on everybody’s agenda.”
ROUND TABLE RECOMMENDATIONS
• James Fisher, BREEAM: Smart meters should be everywhere, but we need to use the data smartly and pivot to real in-use performance, not what we think the building will do during design.
• Andrew Tucker, Thames Water: Have the outcome of this meeting as a clear list of what policy and regulation changes are needed to become the ‘sticks,’ and in 12 months we should regroup and review a working draft of a Part G for commercial buildings.
• Naomi Sadler, SEES: We need regulation, and products have to state their water consumption.
• Garry Beaver, Anglian Water: A tailored version of reframing the risk/benefi t for large commercial organisations. Standardised data, and the adoption of stuff that we’ve already got which we’re not making the most of.
• Kate Fletcher, Arup: There needs to be a Part G covering commercial buildings. And a way to incentivise FM providers to actually reduce consumption as opposed to just minimising energy.
• Chris Brooks, Save Money Cut Carbon: The Water Effi ciency Fund will run out, so how can we get business to spend more money or access other funds? And move away from capex to an opex rental or forward earnings type model.
• Jane Bellard, Weir The Agency: We could use insurance to protect the very smallest businesses.
• Liz D’Arcy, MOSL: Can we prioritise certain commercial properties – the one with high footfall, the leaky loos, and the high users? There is a lot of diversity that needs to be taken into account.
• Claire Spendley, Waterwise: Include water in EPCs, as a quick and easy to understand way of demonstrating whether a building is water effi cient or not. Mandatory three-year reporting and leak detection for high water users.
• Matt Wilkinson, JLL: Make the link back to value – is an asset resilient for the future, if not, it’ll pose a value risk and that will drive that change, because it’ll get board-level understanding.
• Aaron Bayfi eld, Delabie UK: I think that a Part G would be something that we all agree with.
SUSTAINING THE EFFORT
It was suggested that reconvening this group in 2027 would be a potential opportunity to create a ‘working draft’ of a Part G for commercial sector properties
• Richard Braid, Cistermiser: The Building Regulations are key, there’s got to be something people can work to and abide by. We need awareness at board level and if you can link water and CO2
, it becomes more of a stakeholder conversation.
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ADF MARCH 2026
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