Friday 8 February 2019

Retailers offered cash for water efficient business customers

Thames Water is offering financial incentives to retailers that encourage business customers to use water more efficiently.

The retailers will receive a cash boost if they deliver “measurable savings” with their customers across water-stressed London and the Thames Valley under the new pilot programme expected to run until March 2020.

It will reward in-region retailers with a one-off payment of 5p per litre per day of water saved for each of their business customers – savings will be measured by comparing three months of meter data before and after any efficiency interventions are made.

Improvements such as fixing leaks on taps, toilets and urinals in an average school are estimated to save around 6,000 litres per day, resulting in a reduction in water bills as well as a payment of £300 to its retailer.

Thames Water says an extra 2.1 million people are expected to move into the Thames Water region over the next 25 years.

It forecasts this, "combined with climate change", could lead to a shortfall of 350 million litres of water a day – by 2100, this is predicted to increase to 650 million litres per day.

Gerard Lyden, Market Development Manager at Thames Water adds: “The business market is all about saving customers time, money and water. We know retailers have a wide range of service offerings and opportunities to engage with their customers, which could lead to great new ideas and actions to save water – something we really need in our supply area.

“We’ve developed our innovative, financial incentive scheme to help stimulate retailers to look for more ways to help their customers to save water and get rewarded with a payment when they do.”