College water conservation measures helping others

A woman washing her hands

Projects improve fresh water supply and sanitation in some of the poorest parts of the world.

This year our water saving efforts have helped transform the lives of more than 2,300 people in need, in countries across the globe including the Philippines, Peru and Kenya.

Imperial College's water supplies are managed through a company called ADSM, which helps us to reduce our costs through efficiency measures.

The contract is one of the many ways in which Estates Operations delivers on the College's sustainability plan through water conservation.

The five year ‘Aquafund’ agreement to identify and save water for all College buildings began four years ago. We share the savings made, with 1% donated to projects to improve fresh water supply and sanitation in some of the poorest parts of the world.

ADSM provides the following:
• Surveying each College building for water use, controls and installation of water control measures
• Five year maintenance of water controls and remote metering
• Proactive monitoring of water use in all buildings
• Benchmarking water use
• Targeting buildings that require controls and repair work
• Help with water billing, tariff and discrepancies with the water & waste retailer.

The initial water savings identified were the most dramatic - in 2018/19 the partnership brought fresh water to more than 49,000 people in rural Mozambique.

Since then the reductions have been harder to make, but have still had impact on both our usage and on projects supported through Water.org

You can read more detail about this in the annual report on our webpages.

You can find out more about this partnership and the projects it supports from the Estates Operations Energy Engineer, Hari Haren, who leads on much of our sustainability work.