The owners and managers of commercial buildings always have two things on their minds: tenant satisfaction and new ways to control costs.
While we cannot address the tenant satisfaction issue, there is much we can say about controlling costs. It starts with something owners and managers may not be considering: water—more specifically, water consumption.
Since we are talking about the bottom line, here are some “bottom lines” about water to get started:
- Water is getting more expensive. After decades of only minor cost increases, water rates have risen 41% since 2010, according to a study of 30 major U.S. cities.
- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has implemented clean water requirements that are causing water and sewer rates to increase around the country.
- About one water pipe in the U.S. breaks every minute. To address this, we need new piping and water infrastructure that will cost at least $1 trillion. This will further increase the cost of water.
Armed with this knowledge, owners and managers of commercial facilities can offset future water cost increases by performing a water audit. A water audit analyzes a building’s current water consumption to discover where water use can be reduced or eliminated. The next step is to make reducing water consumption—and increasing water efficiency—a long-term goal of the facility.
Note that our definition uses the term “efficiency.” The goal is not to conserve water, as might be done during a drought. Instead, the audit looks for ways to reduce water consumption now and in the future. This is water efficiency.
First Steps
If your facility has decided to conduct a water audit, the first step in ensuring the program is a success is to get upper management buy-in. Conducting a water audit can become involved, and unless upper management is behind the program or, better yet, initiated the program, it may not succeed.
Next, create a water audit team. These employees will be in charge of the program and ensure the recommendations are implemented. The team typically includes management, building engineers and the custodial department. View the cleaning crew as the eyes and ears of the building.
Finally, although water audits often can be conducted in-house, it might not be the best option for your organization. For a large facility, several facilities, a medical center, or an older building, consider turning the project over to specialists. The time commitment as well as the water audit intricacies may become overwhelming for an in-house team.
Key Steps
If you decide to conduct the water audit in-house, the first step is to review the plumbing layout of the facility. These plans, which the local building department can provide if necessary, indicate where water is used on the property, where it enters the building, where drainage systems are located, and where water leaves the building to be delivered to the sewer or water utility company.
With the plumbing layout secured, follow these steps:
- Gather 24 months worth of water bills. Do not focus on the charges, but rather the facility’s water consumption. Your local water utility company likely will have these bills on file if you do not. Determine the average amount of water used in the facility. This is your benchmark.
- Conduct a walk-through of the building with plumbing plans in hand. Locate pipe, fixtures, and other water-using and water-removing systems in the building.
- During the walk-through, look for leaks. Check if pipes are damp or if a leak is visible. Determine if there are leaks around fixtures such as toilets, urinals and sinks. Note them for later repair. Except for landscape irrigation, restrooms typically use more water than any other area of a facility.
- Examine the amount of water used for landscaped areas to determine how the irrigation system works. Is irrigation turned on automatically for a set period of time? Is it performed during the day or evening? Does the system employ sprinklers or drip irrigation? The answers to these questions can help determine ways to reduce the amount of water used for landscaping.
During the walk-through, the water audit team should keep one important question in mind: Why is water being used here? Water audits in manufacturing facilities, for instance, often locate areas where water is being used, but the reasons for its use no longer exist, often due to changes in a manufacturing process. These are prime opportunities for reducing water consumption.
The Three-Bucket Approach
Now that you have a better idea of where water is being used or wasted in the facility, you can start looking for ways to reduce consumption. The fastest and most organized way to address this is to create three buckets: one for items that can be addressed now at minimal cost; a second for items that can be corrected over the next six to 12 months at moderate cost; and a third for more costly items that may take a year or more to address.
The following are examples of the bucket strategy.
- Bucket No. 1: Leaks. Fixing leaks is usually the quickest, least expensive, most effective way to reduce water consumption in a commercial facility.
- Bucket No. 2: Restrooms. If the toilets and urinals in your facility are more than a decade old, they likely are using more water than originally designed. One of the most cost-effective ways to update toilets and urinals is to replace them all at the same time. This gives building owners and managers some leverage over purchasing and installation costs. Also, look for new technologies. Toilets are available that use less water than required by law, and especially in the western half of the U.S., no-water urinals are replacing water-using urinals. Because one waterless urinal can save about 35,000 gal of water annually, this can result in a major reduction in water consumption.
- Bucket No. 3: HVAC Systems. The HVAC system likely should be inspected by a professional. He or she might suggest ways to reduce the amount of water lost through evaporation. However, if the units are more than a decade old, replacement may be necessary. Most new HVAC systems are made with several water-reducing technologies already in place.
View It as a Journey
Earlier we said management must be behind the water audit and water consumption reduction overall to ensure the audit is a success. However, another key reason is that conducting a water audit is the first step of a water efficiency journey. Make it your goal to keep finding ways to reduce water consumption over the long term. With management on board, considerable progress can be made.
