What are the water efficiency awards?
The Environment Agency Water Efficiency Awards is the leading scheme in England and Wales to recognise the achievements of organisations who promote water efficiency. The scheme was launched in 2000 and is held every two years.
Leading by example, these organisations show what water efficiency means in practice, and how water saving schemes make good financial sense.
The Awards celebrate best practice and raise awareness of the importance of water efficiency within business and industry. Also, the awards are accredited by the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce (RSA) Accreditation Scheme for Environmental & Sustainable Development. The benefit of this includes:
- enhancing company image and promoting achievements
- exposure in the market place nationally and internationally
- recognition in Europe as an environmental champion for the UK
Why does water efficiency matter?
Water is essential for life. It's a precious resource that supports our livelihoods and our quality of life. In the UK demand on water resources is growing. Despite common pre-conceptions about our weather, we actually have much less water available per head than some Mediterranean countries such as Italy or Spain! The effects of climate change will add to these pressures. Every drop we use means less for our wildlife.
Also, all our water supply has to be treated before and after use, this consumes energy and results in the release of greenhouse gases. In fact, if a family of four with a typical shower all reduced their showering time from 6 to 5 minutes every day, they could save around 160 Kg of CO2 emissions and 14,000 litres of water in a year.
Organisations need to be water-aware, both for the sake of our shared natural environment and on behalf of staff or shareholders. The water bill of a manufacturing firm can represent up to 1% of business turnover. Businesses in the retail, hospitality and service sectors are often wasting up to half of all the water they use.
It's vital that organisations and individuals alike take responsibility to use water wisely to protect our valuable natural environment, now and for future generations.
Water Efficiency Awards 2011
Like all government departments and other arms-length bodies, the Environment Agency has difficult decisions to make about how best we reduce our costs while still delivering against our key priorities.
As part of this thinking, we are currently reviewing how our Water Efficiency Awards fit into our broader strategy. This means that the next Water Efficiency Awards, originally planned for 2011, may no longer take place.
In our Corporate Strategy, Creating a better place 2010-2015 (PDF, 3.8MB), we have made a commitment to work with businesses and other organisations to use resources wisely. This remains a high priority for us, but we need to make sure that we do it in the most cost-effective way.
For now, we would like to thank everybody who has been involved in the awards over the last ten years - particularly the judges, sponsors and, most of all, the entrants.
We will continue to keep you informed about the decisions we take on the future of the Water Efficiency Awards. For more information, or to share examples of good practice, please contact us:
