Riversmart businesses - saving water
makes sense (cents), is good for our rivers
and
good for us all 
Try our quick business checklist below, which is for general application. As sponsors come forward we plan to add more specific workplace checklists.
Every drop you save helps our rivers, and also helps your business reduce its overheads.
Once you've done this audit, why not go on to do the checklist to find out if you're business is polluting our waterways ?
Business water savings checklist
(Suggestion: you may want to print this out so you can write on it as you work through or download it as a pdf file here)
Everywhere:
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Do you repair leaking taps straight away ? |
Kitchenette and staff rooms:
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Do
you only use the dishwasher when it's full ? |
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Do you have a small bucket in the sink to catch and re-use water while you're waiting for the hot water to come through or from handwashing ? |
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Do your taps have flow reducers to avoid unnecessary high flows ? |
Bathrooms and showers:
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Do you have shower timers to encourage workers to keep their showers as short as possible ? |
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Do you have a water saving shower heads fitted ? |
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Do you have your showers hooked up to a grey water recycling system, for watering gardens areas perhaps ? |
Toilets:
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Do you have dual flush toilets ? |
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Do you repair your toilets straight away if they start to trickle ? |
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Do you have waterless urinals – these products are now widely available |
Parking areas and other hard surfaces:
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Do your maintenance/gardeners sweep rather than hose down these areas ? |
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Are business vehicles washed using a bucket, or at a car washing facility that recycles water ? |
Gardens and lawns:
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Do have a grey water recycling system for watering your garden and lawns ? |
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Do you have a tank or bladder system to collect rainwater, to then use on your gardens and lawns ? |
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Have you installed down pipe diverters to help water your gardens and lawns ? |
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Do you mulch your gardens to help keep moisture in the soil ? |
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Do you have drippers or a similar irrigation system to reduce evaporate losses ? |
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Do you only water your gardens and lawns at night, or late afternoon ? |
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Do you avoid watering after rain, or when rain is forecast. (Don't water through habit, think about it) |
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Have you reduced the area of water-thirsty lawn, or maybe replaced it with artificial 'grass' ? |
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Have you replaced, or established your garden with water miser plants ? |
There are 22 questions above. If you scored above 18, then you're doing a great job. Keep it up, and maybe try to get closer to 22 next time your audit. Between 12 and 18 there's scope to do better. Under 12, then your business has room for lots of water savings.
After you've done this water conservation audit, set your business a target to reduce water use, then re-do this checklist each three months or so. It all helps !