Green Gown Awards 2015 – Facilities and Services - University of Liverpool - Finalist

Tackling water scarcity with a tidal wave of efficiencies

Through implementing a comprehensive water management plan the University has reduced its water consumption by 20%; enough water to fully hydrate (8 glasses a day) our 30,000 students every day, for over 15 years!

The project is the approved water management scheme known as AquaFund. It looks at all areas of water usage, wastage and cost and is implemented to have the multi-pronged effect of reducing the University’s water consumption, improving the environmental efficiency of our buildings, identifying and preventing leakage and producing financial savings.

Reducing water consumption has also resulted in corresponding cost savings of over £1 million, improved the environmental efficiency of buildings and directly contributed to the provision of safe water and sanitation to over 600,000 people in the world's most impoverished countries, via charity WaterAid.

Top 3 learnings

1 That implementing a fully-comprehensive water was not as difficult as we thought

2 The levels of staff and student engagement with water, once we were able to quantify and easily relay information about our consumption and the work we are doing to reduce it

3 The high level of savings both financial, consumption and co2e that can be saved from managing your water consumption effectively.

Videos

• Tackling water scarcity with a tidal wave of efficiencies (click to hide)