Water efficiency for manufacturing: reduce costs and strengthen resilience

How efficient is your site's water use?

The answer to this question is growing in importance as water scarcity and cost pressures impact the manufacturing industry.

Over the last few months, many large sites have delayed or even ceased production due to a lack of available water. We know from our work with affected clients that the most resilient manufacturers are those with water efficiency measures built into their operations.

So where should sites start with water efficiency?

We raised this topic with two of BIP.Verco's manufacturing experts – Ollie Brown (Head of Manufacturing) and Tom Purkhardt (Head of Commercial and Industrial Performance and Resilience). Read the interview below for their advice on how to make the most of water efficiency opportunities and build resilience against water supply constraints.

Why is water efficiency becoming a business priority?

Tom: Until recently, the focus for manufacturers has been on energy efficiency, not water efficiency. But that's starting to change. Why? Well, sites need to continue operating.

After this year's hot, dry summer, it's more apparent than ever that climate change is creating more water-stressed areas. In these areas, sites are either shutting down or being unable to expand in the ways they want to. In response, there’s pressure from suppliers like Anglian Water, who are urging businesses to either reduce water demand or reuse and recycle the water available.

And then, of course, businesses have to look at the bottom line. Water consumption falls under that remit, and the true cost of water is actually much higher than the figure on the utility bill.

What makes up the true cost of industrial water use?

Ollie: The cost of water typically makes up 10 to 20 percent of a site's utility bills. And that figure doesn't include hidden costs, such as:

effluent treatment costs;
disposal costs;
chemical costs;
heating costs; and
processing costs.

When all those hidden costs are considered, the true cost of water can be up to five times higher.

This statistic sounds daunting, but fortunately water efficiency is a brand of cost saving that hasn’t had too much focus yet, so there are lots of promising opportunities. And when you implement water efficiency measures, you're not just saving on the water tariff, but on all the hidden costs as well.

This is an important consideration for decision makers. We've seen lots of businesses make decisions based only on what they see on their invoices, which means they reject water efficiency projects if they won't pay back within two or three years. But knowing the true cost of water, and how efficiency measures impact hidden costs, can be the difference between a resilient business and one that will face costly production delays in future years due to lack of water.

How can manufacturers better understand how water flows across their sites?

Tom: It's best to take a step back and have a look at the process diagrams. Ask:

Where is the water coming in?
Where are the treatment points?
Where are the distribution points and what do they distribute?
What type of water does each of the distribution points use?

Once you have this information, you can work backwards through the process to get a clear view of the journey of each type of water, from beginning to end. It's important to consider the entire process here, including where the water ends up – from cradle to grave, not just cradle to use.

We recommend developing a utility distribution map at this stage, and we can help you make one.

Get in touch for advice

Ollie: I'd also add that data is king. The more information you have, the better. There's often a lot of information around process systems, cleaning, and Clean in Place (CIP) protocols - that's always a useful starting point.

Typically, certain processes will happen at certain times, so by tracking your main incomer against these, you can begin to figure out where water is used. For example, lots of sites will have a cleaning team, which will start at a certain time. Using your main income and your knowledge of routines, you can then figure out how much is going to the process, how much is going via cleaning, etc.

Where are water efficiency opportunities currently found?

Tom: The good news is that there's lots of low-hanging fruit here, since water inefficiencies haven't really been a key focus until now.

Ollie: Agreed. Just like many manufacturers have done with energy efficiency, you'll want to move through this process:

Start with low-cost work offering quick payback. This usually includes behavioural improvements. Review people, actions, hygiene, cleaning, and CIP.
Move on to higher-impact activities like water reuse and recycling. Look at how processes and equipment integrate and the boundaries around these.

Can you give some examples of water reuse and recycling opportunities?

Ollie: There are lots of examples, and many are site-specific. One that applies to lots of sites, though, is that you want to recycle water as early as possible, ideally before it reaches the effluent treatment plant. This:

saves on effluent treatment costs; and
reduces the number of technical considerations and challenges related to reuse and recycling.

There are also opportunities around hygiene. Considering current legislation and guidance, recycling water to hygiene is often one of the preferred methods.

How can those who are interested find out more about water efficiency?

Ollie: We're running a webinar on this topic soon, so we recommend signing up if you're interested in further insights and discussion. Here are the details:

Webinar: Turning water scarcity into opportunity

Date: Tuesday 17th November

Time: 14:00 GMT

During this webinar, BIP.Verco experts will explore how to:

understand your water use and make water projects pay back;
identify 'low-hanging fruit' water efficiency opportunities;
make sense of the water recycling/reuse conundrum; and
select the appropriate technology to help you use and monitor water more efficiently.

Don't worry if you can't make the date - sign up to receive the recording shortly after.

What are BIP.Verco’s water efficiency services and what can they achieve?

Tom: We support you from the very start of the process, helping you to understand where your key end consumers are for water. We map this out for each of the types. We can build a metering or monitoring strategy for you, too.

Then we have our bread-and-butter services:

Our metering platform, known as MyPerformance. It has been tracking water consumption for 30 years, evolving with the needs of our clients.
Dedicated audits, which solve particular questions. These are great if you want to know something specific, such as 'can we reuse this type of water at this stage?'
Deep Dives into a specific utility – in this case, water. A Deep Dive looks at the entirety of a site's water use and uncovers specific opportunities for improvement.

Beyond these services, our capital projects team can then assess projects you’d like to proceed with, look at the potential of implementing them, and help you understand the costs involved, as well as what payback might be.

Browse our water efficiency services

Ollie: And one more thing to add – we've worked with Cambridge University to develop a tool tracking water use. With this tool, we help can help you: