Southern Water is making a fund available to businesses across its region to encourage innovative ways to cut water usage.
The Business Partnership Fund, worth £150,000, will be open to water retailers as well as non-household customers as a grant to kickstart novel ways of saving water resources.
Southern’s director of water, Tim McMahon, said: “We’re here to provide that extra bit of funding that can make those ideas a reality and that in turn will provide a much wider benefit to all our customers and businesses as water saving really does make a huge difference.”
These could include anything that helps the organisation save resources such as by harvesting rain or grey water, adding flow restrictors to taps or utilising new technologies.
By 2038, Southern aims to cut average consumption by businesses by 9%. During the current period, it has incentivised non-household customers to save water during droughts through its You Save, We Pay initiative.
By rolling out smart meters, Southern predicts non-household customers will be able to save 2.58 megalitres of water each day by 2030.
From 2025-30, a dedicated fund of £100 million will be available from Ofwat for schemes designed to reduce water consumption at scale.
This, together with an innovation fund in the non-household sector orchestrated by market operator MOSL, highlights the recognition for a step change in how businesses consume water.
Non-domestic consumption is around one-third of the water resources used in England and Wales but no specific targets were included at PR19 to encourage efficiency by businesses.
The onus has been on water retailers rather than wholesalers to implement programmes, however retailers said the funding must be made available from wholesalers.
Applications to Southern’s fund are now open until 31 December for businesses and water retailers, as well as water conservation service providers.
Applicants must explain how a scheme will save mains water and demonstrate a tangible, sustainable reduction in water use in litres/day as a result of the project up to the end of 2024.
Once funded, organisations should give monthly updates of their initiatives as well as a case study at the end of 2024.