Scottish Water win UK Water Efficiency Award

Scottish Water worked in partnership with the Scottish Government Building Standards Division (SGBSD,) to develop and introduce a mandatory minimum level of water efficiency into building standards for all new and refurbished housing in Scotland.

The Water Industry Commission Scotland provided funding for Scottish Water to explore ways of ‘incentivising’ the development community to adopt water efficiency as a standard consideration for domestic housing, with the intention of this becoming a  standard requirement within Scottish homes.

In addition to a number of practical projects being implemented, it was agreed that an immediate, sustainable and resilient solution should be explored to deliver efficiency in the new build and refurbishment sectors in the short term, based upon widely considered findings from other water efficiency studies.

A clear and practical water efficiency requirement was devised which built upon previous water efficiency considerations, often overlooked in favour of other sustainability measures. Direct collaboration with SGBSD ensured that water efficiency measures are now a mandatory requirement in Scotland to a Bronze standard but with Silver and Gold Standards being an available option for developers wishing to add further sustainability value and recognition.

These standards were approved by Scottish Ministers and launched on October 2013.