Aisha Bello- Dambatta
Leisure centres are large users of water and energy and are very expensive to run. Much investment and improvements tend to focus on energy management, especially given the current focus on emissions reduction and net-zero targets. Local Authority-run centres, in particular, face increasing pressure to reduce their carbon emissions as public bodies.
However, given the link between water and energy use, we suggest leisure centres consider water management as a core component of their energy management policy and carbon reduction ambitions and targets by considering water and energy management as a single, integrated management task rather than two separate tasks as is currently typically the case. Not much is currently being done in terms of emissions reductions from water consumption and there is a significant potential for both cost and carbon savings from water use efficiency.
Improving water use efficiency is often a simple, low-cost intervention with immediate results that can have an important role to play in helping meet emissions reduction targets, as well as help reduce operational and maintenance costs of centres.
This also makes business sense as even the simplest interventions can provide significant savings in operational costs and environmental taxes. Many simple to implement interventions that can be used to help reduce water consumption whilst still maintaining minimum standards of hygiene and comfort are available at zero or low-cost, with immediate results and short-term payback periods. There may also the possibility to claim capital allowances for investing in low-carbon and/or more water-efficient fittings and appliances.
We recommend interventions to be based on the framework of water management hierarchy which prioritises interventions in order of preference of implementation, where the next hierarchy should only be considered once all potential savings from the hierarchy above have been exhausted. This is based on the principles of waste management hierarchy of the EU Waste Framework Directive which ranks interventions according to their environmental performance with respect to climate change, air and water quality, and resource depletion.
Some of the interventions leisure centres should consider include:
· Measuring and regular monitoring of water and energy consumption as a first and continuous step to good practice water management. This information helps with understanding consumption patterns and trends and make it easier and quicker for faults and irregularities to be identified.
· Implementing a programme of interventions focused on behavioural change in water use aimed at both staff and customers. The cost of such programmes is often minimal, but they can lead to significant savings.
· Regular site walk-arounds and continuous record keeping of water using fittings and appliances will make it easier and much quicker to estimate how much water is used and to identify issues. It can also bring about other benefits, such as reducing the risk of damage to buildings from condensation due to overheating and evaporation, for example.
· If possible, increasing the stock of low-carbon and/or renewable technology installations at the leisure centres like wastewater heat recovery, solar PV, biomass boilers, and heat pumps to further reduce carbon footprint and improve wider environmental performance.
It is important to note that not all interventions will result in reduction in both water use and energy use, and some interventions may actually increase water or energy use. In general, if water or energy demand is to be reduced, then some other factor must change to accommodate this reduction, and where a reduction of water or energy results in an increase of the other, it may not necessarily be clear which is the more sustainable outcome, and this should be decided on project- or site-specific basis.
Another important note is that these interventions are not one-size fits all. Although leisure centres typically have the same water use types, they differ significantly in age, size, location, building types and materials, functionality, and efficiency; and for this reason, interventions must be considered on a site-specific basis.
For more information or advice on how your leisure centre can save water and energy use, please contact: a.bellodambatta@bangor.co.uk