Water Saving Tips for Your Commercial Property

If you’re doing your regular P&L review and you’ve noticed that your facilities expenses are on the rise, it’s a great idea to look for simple ways to improve your maintenance efficiency and keep as much profit as possible on that all-important bottom line. We’ve got you covered! Below we’ve got some of our favorite, straightforward water saving tips for your commercial property — a few minutes of reading here and a small investment of time to implement even one of these changes could help keep your revenue from literally running down the drain!

1. UPDATE OR MODIFY PLUMBING FIXTURES.
From your faucets to your toilets, an initial investment in a more water-efficient fixture will more than pay for itself in the long run at your commercial property. Think about how many gallons of water your facility uses every day, then consider how installing more eco-friendly faucets, or even simply a more restrictive aerator in the faucet heads themselves, would quickly reduce your water consumption. When you wash your hands, for example, a lot of that water is wasted because more is coming out of the faucet than you actually need to rinse off lather. Likewise, you know your toilets are getting used every day, and if they’re older models — especially if they were installed before 1992 — then they’re using way more water than is actually needed. Water-saving flush handles are another idea to allow your employees and customers to choose whether to use less water for flushing #1 or more water to flush #2. You might even think about going the water-free route by installing urinal pods that allow liquid to pass through while masking the odor and eliminating the need for any flush at all. Finally, you can also save water in hand washing by installing motion-sensor faucets. Obviously they’ll cost more up front, but even one leaky faucet that goes unnoticed, or one that accidentally gets left on overnight or longer, will add to your water bill fast.

2. TAKE CARE OF YOUR PIPES.
Pipe insulation is cheap and easy to install, and best of all it will save you a ton of money by retaining heat in your hot water pipes, which will mean less water being wasted at the faucet while a user waits on the warm water to start flowing. Proper insulation will also reduce the risk of your cold water pipes bursting in the winter. If you’re not sure whether they’re insulated the best way, then a facilities inspection is in order — and if you’re not the most plumbing-savvy person, then find a team member who is handy and has experience, or call a professional company like AdvantaClean to help with your property-wide pipe analysis. Making these small investments of time and money will more than pay for themselves in reduced utility bills and they will also help you minimize the risk of major water damage repairs like flooding and water damage restoration costs from pipes that have burst.