Crawley: Saving Water in the Hospitality Sector
Crawley is the hub of one of the most dynamic economies in the country and has a thriving local economy that is widely considered the driver of West Sussex economic growth. It is a growing town of over 100,000 people with a significant population rise during commercial hours. As such, there is a large demand on the existing water supply resources.
Crawley receives its water supply from Weirwood reservoir, the river Rother and from several boreholes in the area. In the summer of 2006 following two dry winters the supply was placed under acute pressure with reservoir levels low and the amount of water going to the river Rother reduced significantly via a drought order.
The council decided that whilst households were being urged to save water and were suffering from a hose pipe ban, hospitality businesses should address the profligate water use prevalent in their sector.
The project’s main remit was to audit for and provide water conservation and efficiency measures within premises in Crawley's hospitality sector. Crawley Council had visited 24 premises within the hospitality sector in the summer of 2006, gave recommendations for water saving measures and estimated this would result in 1,750m3 of water saved per year.
The project found that take up of water efficiency measures was much lower than the Council expected. Four premises were “in the process of installing urinal
controls.” Two premises had fitted Save-a-flush bags. Actual yearly savings will be 453m3 of water at best, 18.8m3 of water per premises per year.
ech2o carried out detailed water audits of 40 further premises within Crawley’s hospitality sector and implemented water efficiency measures in suitable premises. The ech2o project resulted in:
• 10 sites logged providing valuable data of water use over the next two years.
• 101 Save-a-flush bags fitted (39% of WCs), saving 1,146m3 per year.
• 20 urinal controls installed controlling 63 urinal spaces, saving 2,558 m3 per year.
• Excessive flow rates from taps adjusted in 30 premises, saving 1,092m3 per year.
• Three major leaks identified, saving 269m3.
• Total water savings from ech2o’s work carried out under the BREW project across 431 premises are 5,065m3 per year.
• Average savings of 118m3 of water per premises per year.
• 5,065m3 of water saved is 6,078 kWh of energy saved, resulting in 2,735 kg of CO2 not emitted
Contact Email:
Organisation:
Crawley Borough Council
Funding Details:
Funded by SEEDA as part of the BREW project and delivered by ech2o on behalf of Crawley Borough Council
Status:
Complete
Website relating to case study:
Organisation’s website:
Keywords relating to this case study:
Water, conservation, efficiency, drought, Crawley, SEEDA, BREW, hospitality
South East groups case study relates to:
Tourism
