How to monitor water use in your business

Water is an increasingly scarce resource, and the costs of supply and disposal will inevitably increase in the future.

Adopting a systematic approach to reducing water can enable you to cut your business' water use by 20 to 50 per cent, saving money on both water supply and wastewater disposal. It may also allow you to recover raw materials and prevent product being lost in effluent (liquid waste) streams.

There are several stages to improving the efficiency of water use, and the first is to investigate the costs, use and potential savings of water supplies. A water balance is a management tool that enables you to better understand water costs and use, so that you can see where savings can be made. You can also use benchmarking to compare your water use with similar businesses.

This guide explains how to develop and refine a water balance, how to benchmark your water use against other businesses and how water balances and benchmarking can help your business save money.