How much water does your school use?
Work out how much water your school is using now to see what savings you make in the future and assess how you are doing.
To find out your starting point - calculate your annual water use per person:
- Ask the school office for copies of your school's water bills for the last year and write down the total volume of water used, this will be shown on your bill as m3, (If you cannot find your water bills contact Thames Water). The Understanding Your Bill information sheet shows where you will find this figure on your bill.
- Add up all the volumes from the water bills over the last year to get the total water used over the last year.
- Finally, divide the water use per year by the number of students and teachers in your school. This will give you the volume of water used per person per year.
See the Annual water use calculation example information sheet for a worked example.
What does my annual average water use figure tell me?
You can compare your average daily use to the benchmarks below. These benchmarks are helpful because they indicate poor, average and good water use practice.
How do you compare? Can you make any improvements?
Use your water use data to set a realistic target for reducing water wastage. As a guide, some schools have initially set water use reduction targets of between 5 and 10% in their first year.*
Next identify areas where you might be able to save water by carrying out a Water Use survey.
*Sustainable Learning