Our use of water and energy are closely linked. Operational emissions from the water industry account for nearly 1% of the UK’s total carbon emissions.
This is because water treatment is energy and chemical intensive and transporting water around the country requires a great deal of pumping.
Reducing your water use will therefore have an impact on your carbon footprint.
Did you know?
- Out of all the water on the planet there is less than 1% accessible fresh water for us to use?
- The average water used per person per day is 143 litres in England and Wales, 165 litres in Scotland and 145 litres in Northern Ireland.
- One cotton t-shirt has about 2,700 litres of water embedded in its production, which is around 49 baths full of water!
(source: WaterWise.org.uk)
It’s little-known facts like these that made us realise we needed a better understanding of why it’s so important to save water – and we needed to understand how we could do it.
That’s why we signed up to the 2021 Water Pledge, run by WaterWise. Every day for a month, they send us water facts and hints an tips on how to reduce our use.
Sign up here by the 1st February 2021 >
So what are we doing to make a difference?
We are lucky enough to work in a beautiful, grade-listed coach house. But old buildings need regular TLC and are not as efficient as modern homes.
An obvious one was to get the plumber out and fix any leaking taps. You might think it is just a few drips, but if you place a bowl under the tap overnight, you’d be surprised how much water is collected.
And in fact, collecting fresh water is the subject of the biggest change we are making. Being so old, our office building is made up of lots of different pitched roofs. All of which collect fresh rainwater which, if saved, can be used to water our plants and clean our outside area.
So, we are installing not just one but four slimline water butts to collect this precious resource.
And because we are limited with space and our water butts are unable to be close to the guttering, we are installing a RainPod. This is simply an out door piping system that collects and directs the water to the waterbutts. The guys at RainPod have a lovely video here explaining how it works.
Find out more about RAINPODS here >
Later this month we are joining forces with WaterWise to create a little video highlighting some of the most important things we have learnt during Water Saving January. Watch this space!
Find out what we're learning during the rest of our 20th year in business >