Water savings make a splash

Water savings make a splash

We use about a billion litres of water a year less than we did in 2005/06 – enough to fill 400 Olympic-sized pools.

A drop of water creating ripples

Climate change is threatening the globe’s water reserves. That’s why at Sainsbury’s we’ve acted to sharply reduce the amount of water we use – from cracking down on leaks to creating water-neutral stores.1

By the end of 2015/16, we’d cut back on water consumption by around 30 per cent since 2005/06 – saving 1 billion litres of water each year – despite the fact that our estate grew by 53 per cent over this time.

“Sainsbury’s has shown leadership in their approach to water management.”

Andy Brown
Head of Sustainability, Anglian Water Services Ltd

Tracking water use

An important first step in our water-saving strategy was to find out how much we already used, so we could establish a benchmark to work from. We did this – like a domestic householder would – by checking our bills.

To help us get even more accurate data, we then installed more than 650 automatic meter-reading (AMR) devices – and carried out water audits.

1‘Water neutral’, as defined by the Environment Agency and the government, means that: “for every new development, the predicted increase in total water demand in the region due to the development should be offset by reducing demand in the existing community”.

1 billion litres

less water used in a year, compared to our benchmark of 2005/06.

Armed with this data, we looked for areas where we could find savings. These ranged from identifying sites where we use a lot of water, so it could be reduced, to simply finding water leaks to fix.

We then installed water-saving devices in the right places – such as waterless urinals, low-flow toilets, percussion taps, more than 170 rainwater harvesting systems and reclaimed-water carwashes.

We also developed three water-neutral stores – where, in addition to water-saving measures, we offset the rest of our water use by sponsoring water saving in the community.

Such steps mean that our relative water use has gone down by 54 per cent since 2005/6. Overall, that’s about 1 billion litres in a year, enough to fill 400 Olympic-sized pools.

Towards our target

We’re pleased with our progress but there’s still more to do to hit our target of cutting relative water use by 55 per cent, compared to 2005/06.

During 2016/17 alone, we needed to save 85 million litres of water to offset increases in use due to new stores and other changes. We achieved this by finalising the roll out of innovative water-saving urinals across our estate.

We’ve also signed the Courtauld 2025 agreement that, among other things, commits us to reducing the impact of water use in food and drink supply chains.