Water Conservation, Recycle & Reuse

With a Masters degree in Water and Environmental Management Sharp Environment aims to promote water efficiency in the home/business and externally in the garden for example. There are many methods to reduce internal and external water consumption, which includes relatively low cost devices through to more higher cost technological solutions to recycle or reuse water.
Reducing water consumption offers a number of benefits that includes reducing annual water bills if you are on a meter and help you achieve more sustainable lifestyles by contributing towards the management of the water environment and the supply-demand balance.

After undertaking extensive research during 2007/08 Sharp Environment is available to support you with water conservation projects. This research investigated and reported on the potential impact domestic water efficiency (both indoors and in the garden) may have to offer in terms of financial savings, the supply-demand balance and the water environment i.e. abstraction rates. This research was conducted with Staffordshire University and concluded that;

"Water efficiency strategies (in the SW of Cornwall) will reduce domestic demand in existing households because 51% of households have no retrofit efficiency devices. Strategies targeting these households support the use of low-cost efficiency retrofit devices with awareness campaigns, although excludes replacement strategies (i.e. toilets and white goods). Combined strategies can reduce household consumption by a maximum of 46% at costs that are favorable to supply side measures (EA 2007u). The strategies offer an alternative to securing the supply-demand balance and supports increased investment. Particularly because efficiency measures could reduce demand by 11.64Ml/d, which is greater then the current commitment and forecasts. Measures will also increase resilience to climate change impacts, although short-term uncertainties justify twin-track approaches to increase confidence.

Homeowners will benefit from water efficiency even without subsidisation because payback periods are within 22-26 months and combined measures can achieve annual savings of £117.58-£129.86. Society will also benefit through measures that reduces the impact of abstractions on the water environment, which can achieve reductions of 11.31-13.29% in the amount of water abstracted. However, the actual visible benefit to flow rates will be marginal, but the effect will increase resilience to increasing demand, peak demand, periods of low flows and climate change".

The water efficiency measures used to derive these conclusions include low cost devices such as toilet hippos / retrofit cistern devices, shower heads, timers, flow restrictors, water butts and leakage alarms etc. There are of course other options available that include rain water harvesting and grey water systems that can cost up to approx. £3,000 each, which takes anything up to 1 to 15 years to pay back, depending on the technology and water usage.

There are many resources that cover water efficiency options for domestic and commercial uses, which includes the Environment Agency's fact sheets "Conserving Water in Buildings" and South West Water's "Conserving Water in the home and in the garden".

Please do not hesitate to contact Sharp Environment if you would like to investigate options to reduce your water consumption or whether you are looking for support in implementing efficiency, reuse and recycling technologies.