Energy costs are on the mind for many businesses and other sites, once again, including in the public sector, with competing challenges to reduce use, build resilience and drive progress on sustainability targets.
While it’s understandable to focus efforts on the areas of higher costs, there are easy ways to bring down energy use – and deliver towards those bigger targets.
With wholesaler price increases for water seen by many businesses and other organisations, since April 2025, it’s a perfect time to look into easy actions to take with water and trade effluent.
So, here’s how to unlock more opportunities.
Step 1: Stay switched on to easier savings
Little, low-cost activity can deliver significant cost reductions.
More than 240 efficiency devices are reducing energy use in 2025, for a multi-site with locations in England and Scotland, in a wide-scale project underway.
It involves water audits at sites, additional water tracking technology and analysis and a tailored approach, all delivered through a partnership with the Water Plus team.
Taking another look at how your sites use and move water can also help find more areas to explore, for savings and reducing any areas of waste.
Using heated water multiple times, in manufacturing and at other sites, can be great at reducing water consumption and cost.
While a bigger initial cost may be involved, reductions in other costs and extra efficiencies can quickly give a return on investment. A Key Account Manager at Water Plus is currently helping a customer to explore reusing water that’s been heated.
As there are carbon emissions linked to all water used at business and public sector sites, reducing water use also reduces carbon footprints.
Step 2: Basics can be brilliant
Regular checks and maintenance are an essential action to take.
De-scale equipment and tap fittings and schedule hot-water-intensive tasks together to reduce reheating cycles.
One site saw 2,700 litres an hour of additional water use in recent months. This was froma small crack on an underground pipe – and could have cost more than £83,000 in water use over 12 months. Quick reaction and closely tracking water use, during the year, kept the cost increase down, with the leak located and fixed through Water Plus.*
Another location which was tracking its use during the year, spotted an issue involving an increase in hot water. A visit found 570 litres of heated water an hour was being lost at a public sector site – equal to 2,280 cups of tea (holding 250ml each).
The pipes were in the floor of a kitchen, with the pipe repairs completed through Water Plus also cutting running costs.
If the water loss hadn’t been located – and stopped – then it could’ve cost an estimated £15,400 in a year, in costs per cubic metre of water.
Data loggers are being installed by business sites this year to gain more detailed data around water use. These are also saving time, removing the need of walkaround meter readings by site staff.
They feed updates on use during the day and night into an online analysis portal, that Water Plus can provide customers.
In fact, five data loggers are being installed for a manufacturer’s sites, in 2025, to help with analysis, benchmarking and their wider efficiency drive.
And a data logger tracked a 42.5% water saving at another site, in 2025, which had water efficiency kit installed through Water Plus driving the saving and reducing hot water use, all supporting action on #sustainability targets.**
Step 3: Risk resilience protects revenue
Understanding the water pipes and where stop taps are located at sites is key to reducing risks of supply interruption that could harm revenue and reputation, if anything was to happen at a site.
Modifying processes to improve efficiencies and introduce intelligent systems to control and optimise usage also build operational resilience.
Being alert to requirements is also important.
For instance, a multi-site retailer had visits to 465 of its sites to help with compliance checks.
The site visits were organised and delivered through the Advanced Services team at Water Plus and were completed April to November 2024.
Train and engage staff, with brief reminders near sinks and areas where items are put into dishwashers on filling these and using eco settings all helps. Prompt reporting of any water issues, like a dripping hot tap – or suggestions of where water can be used better can all bring down water costs and energy use.
More than 3,600 sites have been helped to save water, through Water Plus’s customer engagement, after water audits that located leaks, which were then fixed and small water efficiency devices were installed. This included 250 leaks located and stopped across 36 sites, with leaks on taps accounting for 10,696 litres, in estimated water loss a day.
It shows the opportunities businesses and public sector sites are seizing, which is cutting running costs.
Ready to ramp-up energy and risk reductions?
Help is at hand to tackle the cost conundrums facing businesses and other sites:
- Get in touch to request services and to power progress on your #NetZero pathway: [email protected]
- See more free resources on smarter water management strategies, to power-up profitability and sustainability, at: water-plus.co.uk/better-ways-with-water
- Partner with Water Plus – [email protected]. You’ll have a trusted partner in us, as our team’s also a 2025 UK Customer Satisfaction Award winner, from best practice leaders the Institute of Customer Service.
* Work completed through the Advanced services team in May 2025.
** 42.5% water saving, on average daily use, tracked by a data logger, between February and March 2025.
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