We believe in an efficiency first approach to water use and our focus on central London, an area with moderate to high precipitation rates, means we are well placed to reduce outdoor irrigation use, for example.
Outdoors, we look to install landscaping that requires no irrigation or reduced irrigation water requirements through careful selection of plant species, irrigation system efficiency (e.g. drip systems) and non-potable water reuse (rainwater catchment).
Indoors, we install water efficient fixtures (e.g. EnergyStar) such as WCs, urinals, hand basin taps and showers to achieve a 30% reduction above the BREEAM baseline.
Looking ahead to building operations, we look to install water submeters for at least 80% of irrigation systems and indoor plumbing fixtures that enable ongoing monitoring of water use and raise awareness of possible efficiencies, whilst also serving to flag minor leaks or faults via an in-built alarm system.
This water use data can then be shared with a green building system such as LEED for a number of years as part of the certification’s ongoing commitment.
For more on our Environmental Policy, see here.