Domestic Water Saving Audits

The Challenge At NWG, we have set out fourteen ambitious goals that will have a fundamental impact on the way our customers experience their water and wastewater services in future. One of these goals is to reach a PCC (per capita consumption) target of 118 litres per person per day (l/p/d) by 2040. The current PCC for our NW operating area is 144 litres per person per day (l/p/day), and 155 l/p/d for our ESW operating area. Our company average PCC is 148 l/p/d, which means we are looking to save 30 l/p/d by 2040. Our Plan also references the need to empower our customers to engage with us on water efficiency. Background Every Drop Counts (EDC) is NWGs award-wining water saving campaign. Through this campaign we have engaged with more than 18,200 households in eight towns since 2016. As part of EDC, we offer our customers a free water saving home visit. These are plumber led home water and energy retrofit visits designed to facilitate face to face interactions with customers and conversations about using water wisely, whilst carrying out installations and/or supply of water saving devices. As well as our water saving visits, during EDC we engage with local communities through events and stalls, and we target local schools previously with our Super Splash Heroes plays and workshops. Alongside this we have extensive marketing and social media campaigns which include the likes of billboards, radio ads and Spotify advertising all aimed at increasing participation within the target area. We've had great success with EDC over the years, with our water saving visits saving on average 22 litres per property per day. We offer all customers within our campaign target areas a water saving visit under EDC, no matter how much water they are using, whether they are already efficient or perhaps haven't considered water saving before, and no matter their situation. Our Approach In previous phases of EDC, we have aimed to achieve maximum water savings by installing as many (suitable) water saving products as possible at each visit. Our contractors have deployed plumbers to carry out a water audit of customers home, installing water saving retrofit devices and products, fixing minor leaks and engaging with customers to deliver behaviour change messaging. This approach can be considered a one size fits all approach, where each customer is offered the same water saving interventions and given roughly the same advice. A New Approach We have considered what is meant by 'average PCC' when thinking about achieving our ambitious goal and have looked at how we can maximise the impact of our water saving projects to achieve higher, more sustained savings. These are our thoughts and what we have determined through a deep dive into existing data: • 'Average' PCC doesn't really exist • Upon analysis, it's clear that the 'mean' PCC does not reflect the majority of our customers • There is a significant number of customers who are using considerable amounts of water • These highest users in fact drag the average (mean) PCC number up (away from the mode) • There is a larger capacity for water savings in the highest users Taking these findings into account, we'd like to approach Every Drop Counts differently, targeting the Top 5% of our customers based on their consumption. Targeting these customers specifically, requires a new approach, with potentially a new or different water saving intervention(s) and a more bespoke educational interaction, overall creating a more meaningful, impactful water saving home visit for our customers in the Top 5%. Behaviour Change While elements of this project will require some technical ability, we are looking to shift the emphasis into the behavioural change arena. Everything we know about delivering successful water efficiency programs tells us that effective customer engagement is absolutely fundamental to delivering sustainable behaviour change and achieving water savings. This project presents the chance to gain a deeper understanding of our customers and how and why they use water. By taking a more targeted approach and making each interaction bespoke to each customer, we hope to promote a more effective and successful water saving campaign. To illustrate, we're looking at quality over quantity: A water saving home visit that is completed within 30-45 minutes, where the technician installs the maximum amount of water saving products available, would be classed as a successful visit within our previous approach. Looking forward and approaching the visit from the new angle, we would question whether each of the devices installed where suitable for the customer/household, whether the technician has gained an understanding of the customer/household and whether they have offered the most suitable solution to tackle high use for that customer/household. There may be a middle ground between the technical aspects of a home water savings visit, and the behavioural and interactional aspects of a visit, and this middle ground may shift from customer to customer, therefore a judgement is to be made upon each visit carried out. We have considered whether a qualified plumber or technician might be the right candidate for this task, where technical skills are certain but behavioural skills may be lacking.