There are two main reasons why you may wish to reduce the amount of water your business consumes:
- cost reduction
- environmental concerns
Across the globe, water is becoming an increasing concern for entire countries and societies. So we need to be aware of the need to conserve it.
Capital Investment and borrowing
If your business is essentially an industry that consumes significant amounts of water as part of your industrial processes, then modern approaches to technology may hugely reduce your overall consumption.
Of course, this isn’t just a question of turning off the tap. You may need to look at your entire processes and perhaps purchase some significantly different environmental solutions if you are to cut down the amount of water you use by a significant percentage.
Simple business loans
Inevitably, that might involve money and whilst you may hope that any such investment would be cost-justified, in practice, securing business loans from the banks at the moment can be something of a challenge.
It might be worth considering the wider business funding environment though because things have changed quite a bit over recent years and the banks are no longer the sole source of business funding. You’ll see this clearly illustrated if you search for online business loan providers.
Some of these newer business lenders are changing the way loans are looked at. You can get a feeling for this new culture by looking at any one of the more contemporary sites like everline.com – an off shoot of the wonga family that was established in 2010 to cater to small and medium sizes businesses and start-ups.
You’ll see a refreshing difference in terms of orientation when compared to the slightly turgid approaches of some of the banks. The sites are very well laid out and all the key metrics are immediately to hand. They’re also a good source for learning about the basics of borrowing if you’re unfamiliar with them.
For a modern business, whether in the context of water conservation programmes or for any other type of purpose, moving quickly and easily through the business loan application processes is essential. These sites can help you to achieve that.
Some lenders might be particularly interested in helping to fund activities relating to environmental protection and capital investment – which might typically be the case here.
As is the case with any sort of borrowing, you should look around and investigate the market thoroughly to be sure you have identified a number of different options and have selected the one that’s the most appropriate for you.
Remember the law of diminishing returns
For large scale consumers of water, making significant savings isn’t always easy. Trying to identify appropriate opportunities can be tricky and it can also be a specialised task.
Focus on the big wins and important activities – and don’t keep investing in order to achieve smaller and smaller reductions in consumption.
Proliferate a water-awareness culture in your business
Not all businesses are vast consumers. Even so, water consumption in a relatively ordinary office type environment can be surprisingly high.
It is amazing how some relatively minor enhancements and changes can result in very significant reductions but at heart, this is not about installing the latest water-saving dishwasher or WC cistern. This is much more about changing behaviours around you and encouraging people to be aware of water as a precious natural resource.
You can get advice on this particular subject from various government sources.
For example, the water savings to be achieved by getting people to rinse things in a bowl of water as opposed to under a running tap over many minutes can be quite staggering.
This is an important subject and one that we all have a duty to take seriously.
Photo from Shutterstock. This post was supported by Everline.
You must be logged in to post a comment.