Circular Economy
Sainsbury’s Reports 50% Reduction in Water Usage Since 2005

Sainsbury’s reports that through a number of actions addressing such issues as leak detection, and utilizing rainwater throughout its operations, it has reduced its operational water consumption levels across its entire estate by 50 percent compared to 2006.

By Mike Hower | Published 11 years ago | About a 2 minute read

Over the past year Sainsbury’s says it has focused on strategic investments, not only to deliver its target but to ensure it is maintained and, wherever possible, non-potable water is used. These include:

Focusing on identifying and eradicating underground water leaks by installing automatic meter loggers.
Investing in automatic meter reading, which has enabled swifter identification of leakage and reduced the liabilities encountered through water company estimated billing.
Investing in car wash water reclaim units at 66 of its stores saves the equivalent of nine Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of water each year.
Installing rainwater harvesting in all new stores as standard and retrofitting rainwater harvesting units in existing stores. For example, a recent retrofit unit at a store in Swansea now supplies water for toilet flushing and has achieved an annual mains water consumption saving of 1,300 m3.
Carrying out comprehensive audits to improve water efficiencies throughout its estate and fitting low-flush toilets and pre-rinse spray taps in all its stores.

“We achieved our water reduction target in a number of ways such as eradicating underground leaks which has saved our stores hundreds of thousands of pounds,” said Paul Crewe, Sainsbury’s Head of Sustainability, Engineering, Energy and Environment. “We have also fitted things like pre-rinse spray taps and low-flush toilets in all our stores and invested in rainwater harvesting for all new stores as standard, as well as retrofitting these units in existing stores.”

Water stewardship is one of Sainsbury's key environmental targets and forms part of the company’s industry-leading 20x20 Sustainability Plan, which the company claims is the cornerstone of its business strategy.

Sainsbury’s also recently became one of the first organizations to achieve the Carbon Trust Water Standard, and the first retailer to obtain independent certification showing it’s taking action to measure, manage and reduce water use year on year.

Mike Hower

Founder & Principal Consultant, Hower Impact

Mike Hower is the founder of Hower Impact — a boutique consultancy delivering best-in-class strategic communication advisory and support for corporate sustainability, ESG and climate tech.

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