Drinking is a big thing in offices up and down the country; and I’m not just talking about the social side of it, I’m talking about the thirst-quenching, H2O-guzzling side of it. But when you are knocking back your glass of clear, revelling in the healthiness of it all – do you ever stop to think about the amount of water being pumped around your office in general? From hand-washing to toilet flushing to catering facilities, our work premises are racking up significant costs with this natural source and by not becoming aware of the volumes we use, we are affecting the environment as a whole.
One of earths most valuable sources; we need water for a multitude of things and most of the time we don’t even think about it. However, conserving water is of great importance because the transportation and treatment of it can be extremely costly, thus impacting the world we live in further. Now, if you are part of a relatively small set up then you may not be able to attack water usage on a large scale, but you can certainly make small changes like not leaving taps running unnecessarily, only filling the kettle with what’s needed and maybe even having low volume cisterns fitted in your loos – many companies could save up to 50% of their water costs just by putting into practice these simple and easy procedures.
If you are part of a large organisation then the differences you make can be implemented on a larger scale. Toilet taps should be changed for either push head or sensor spray options, which dramatically cut down usage, automatic flush controls work well with urinals, particularly outside of normal hours ad you could also look to fit all toilets with low volume cisterns. Don’t forget that your local water company will not only offer you free water-saving devices, but they will also advise you on what else you can do to conserve this precious resource. Just as we are encouraged at home to minimise our water usage so that we don’t face shortages every summer, the same should apply in the office but unfortunately many of us just do not associate water usage with financial loss at work.
When Envirowise created an underwater office at the London Aquarium it highlighted just some of the ways in which offices are wasting water each year and revealed that up to 310 millions of litres of water were being wasted every day in offices, that’s about 35 litres per day for each worker, and the most surprising thing is that 86% of this goes on flushing toilets. When you consider that a dripping tap produces enough water overnight to fill a bath, it can bring home that although these statistics sound unrealistic, they are actually true and just by fitting bottles in your cistern alone this amount can be reduced by 20%!
So, next time you’re knocking back a good old glass of water, spare a minute to consider, not just how your own health is benefiting, but how by being aware of the ways you can reduce your usage throughout the day, you will also be considering the health of our world.
