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Cutting Back on Water Use
It may be late for New Year’s resolutions, but as Corporate America looks ahead to 2012 annual results, many businesses have vowed to cut back on water consumption. They’re not just motivated by concern for the environment; nor is it a basic matter of lowering expenses; in many cases, it’s a question of survival
By most accounts, the golden age of water is over. Businesses can no longer operate as if there were an infinite supply of clean, usable water. As the global population booms and water demand surges, the supply remains constant, and the cost (and ability) to get it where it needs to be, when it needs to be there, grows increasingly higher (and more complex).
The problem is exacerbated by the fact that water is required to produce electricity, so in many cases, water is not only used as a key ingredient in a product, it’s also used to generate the electricity, which, in turn, is used to make a product.
While corporate water usage is under increasing scrutiny by the public many businesses are still reluctant to dramatically change in part because it’s difficult to know just where to begin to make these changes, and how to go about making them. Admittedly, it’s an enormous undertaking – but the best place to begin is, generally, by gathering information about your company’s water use, creating metrics to measure water use, and then find ways to begin reducing the use. Even seemingly small incremental changes can have a dramatic effect over the long term.
Corporations that are serious about water conservation need to rethink entire processes. Using data collected companies can analyze a facility’s physical conditions (such as the outdoor temperatures as well as the interior temperatures of different parts) and determine how best to optimize various processes to take advantage of local conditions.
Although this isn’t an overnight fix, for many companies the long-term benefits data analytics are indisputable. Businesses can lower costs, reduce their environmental impact; and potentially avoid public relations headaches. And, of course, the alternative could be far more dire: Power and water costs that surge past the point of profitability or sustainability.
Michael Sullivan is global program director of IBM Smarter Water.
What is your company/property doing in this regard?
Posted by Keith Lukin
Consultant at Lukin & Associates
