For education that sets an example

Water

Water has a number of applications including:

• Drinking
• Washing
• Cooking

When the staff boil a kettle how much water do they put in it? Do they fill it right up or put in around the amount that they actually need?

25% of survey respondants completely filled the kettle before boiling, wasting energy and water.

Putting too much water into the kettle and not reusing water thats been boiled once already means that litres of water can be wasted everyday.

Did you know that there is less water available to each person in the UK than there is in Spain or Portugal?
The more water we use in our homes, the less there is in rivers, lakes and wetlands. This can be a threat to both wildlife and the environment. When water levels fall in rivers, the oxygen levels also fall and can consequently become dangerously low for fishes, also food sources for birds can be lost.

Leaving a tap dripping after using it can also waste copious amounts of water.

Plus for people at Boarding Schools: Did you know that...

• If you leave the tap running whilst brushing your teeth then you can waste an approximate 3 gallons of water a day?
• Or that every 10 minutes spent in the shower is another 25-40 gallons of water used

There are limited amounts of water in some parts of Britain and, by reducing the amount of water we use and waste we can help to protect the wildlife in rivers and lakes. We can also reduce the amount of energy needed to treat water to make it clean enough for us to use because, the less water that needs to be treated the less energy will be needed to treat it which will contribute to a reduction in climate change!

Flushing the toilet accounts for about one third of a household's water usage: it is possible that in one day you flush as much water as you drink in a month. This means an awful lot of water can be lost especially since old toilet cisterns can use as much a 9 litres of water every flush! However there are ways to not lose quite so much, for example if the school needs new toilets why not ask if a dual flush or low flush toilets can be bought?

The more efficient the flush setting the more water can be saved. Using dual flush or low flush toilets can use approximately one third less water than a normal toilet. A displacement device such as a 'save-a-flush' or 'hippo' can also save water. A really easy way to do this is to put a brick into the cistern! These are available from any local water company and they'll save around 1-2 litres per flush. Why not propose this to your site or premisis manager?

By not using toilets as waste baskets you can avoid wasting the amount of water needed to flush the toilet in flushing away small bits of rubbish - so encourage other students to use the bin!