Sustainability

Energy & Water

More than two thirds of the Earth is covered by water, but less than 1% is freshwater, 97 % is to salty and the rest is ice.

Water by its nature is heavy and therefore costly to transport. We get it delivered to our doors for approximately $1 per tonne… but is this sustainable?  The debate is only just emerging on the link between energy and water but we can’t keep producing water of drinking standard and putting it on our gardens at the expense of the environment.

Centralised water infrastructure such as desalination plants are massive energy gobblers with building of the plants, building of new energy production plants to service them and pumping the water over large distances.  Even building and maintaining new dams has a large embodied energy impact.  In Australia we have a commitment to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions yet most of the solutions currently in progress will require a lot of energy to run.  There is another way…..

“Fit for purpose” water
Water used for drinking purposes is only a very small proportion of the water use around our homes.  A high proportion of the water goes in flushing toilets, doing laundry and on the garden.  We do not need to use perfectly good drinking water for these activities, instead we can use water that is “fit for purpose” and that can be harvested or recycled on-site.  

A combination of rainwater harvesting and grey water recycling can significantly reduce the load on centralised infrastructure, help us manage our own water use and reduce our environmental footprint