Utility leak "detectives" at Teccura have identified and fixed water leaks totalling 1.1m litres a day at just 20 commercial properties in the UK.
The company, which specialises in pinpointing hidden water, gas and electricity leaks at commercial properties for utility firms, flipped its business model 180 degrees to explore the untapped potential of solving water leaks for a wide range of other commercial customers.
The results exposed a myriad of issues generating colossal water wastage in different industry sectors, and highlighted a pressing need for more work to be done in this field.
Through its groundbreaking pilot project, Teccura discovered that each of the leaks at the 20 trial properties had existed for an average of 5.45 years, with one leak at a school having lasted 18 years. All the water wasted was treated and safe to drink, while the combined daily water leaks could have filled 161 Olympic swimming pools for every year they existed.
By stopping the leaks, the company is helping to safeguard precious freshwater supplies, sustaining itself through innovative thinking, and saving its customers money. On average, each customer involved in the pilot saved £32,850 a year.
The Guardian judges felt that Teccura demonstrated a "fantastic example of how to achieve a significant impact with a good idea". By reversing its business model and thinking creatively, Teccura has "commercialised sustainability, rather than making sustainability a part of what they do", the judges added.
So how does it work? Applying clever mathematics and sophisticated consumption analysis, Teccura takes a scientific approach to the detection of water leaks. Its Complex Consumption Analysis (CCA) software, thought to be the most advanced of its kind, accurately maps utility usage by investigating – in minute detail – the facilities in operation, the demand placed on them and how each facility consumes water or energy.
Taking the example of a hotel swimming pool, Teccura looks at elements such as lighting, air and water heating, water filtering and loss through evaporation.
Moving beyond standard calculations, Teccura builds an intricate picture of water and energy consumption by analysing how demand is influenced by issues including hotel type, events, location, climate, access and typical guest profile. High demand could mean the pool requires more filtering, pumping and back-washing, resulting in higher levels of water usage.
Importantly, all facilities are interrelated, the company says. Hotel swimming pool users could place demand on another water-using facility such as showers, saunas or jacuzzis, for instance, creating a neverending web of consumption.
And the job doesn't stop there. The Teccura team would then create a database of hotels – it holds consumption analysis data for more than 21,000 UK hotels – and calculate consumption for every property.
The results are cross-referenced with utility firm billing data to identify partially billed properties or excessive water or energy use. A Teccura technician is then despatched to investigate and fix any problems on-site, and the team then helps its client to resolve the billing issue.
Currently, water companies have one primary means of identifying water leaks – a technician lifts valve covers in the street at night, and listens to the supply. A noisy pipe may signal a leak. This approach works well at domestic properties, where water isn't generally used at night. However, commercial properties often use water 24 hours a day.
The leaks at the 20 pilot sites analysed by Teccura had gone undetected by water company technicians who regularly covered these locations. Teccura's exhaustive approach goes much further, the company says, offering the only option to resolve water leaks that can otherwise escape notice indefinitely, trickling millions of litres of safe water down the drain.
The future potential of Teccura's consumption analysis techniques is huge. There are more than 1.5m commercial properties in the UK alone. The Teccura team estimates that by calculating accurate energy and water consumption profiles for just 50% of these properties, we could reduce UK water demand by 300 million litres per day.
What's more, the company says, this can be done extremely cost-effectively, particularly when compared to other resource efficiency projects.
Teccura also operates in Australia, where, astoundingly, there is no similar model in existence to analyse water leakage. This is despite the country experiencing increasingly frequent severe water shortages, droughts and bouts of extreme weather.
Similarly, Teccura has no competition in the US, where extended periods of drought ravaged corn crops and sent food prices rocketing in 2012.
With demand for water predicted to outstrip supply by 40% by 2030, now is the time to eliminate unnecessary water and energy wastage. Teccura's Complex Consumption Analysis is a strong example of the kind of innovative thinking needed to resolve this huge challenge.
Katharine Earley is a copywriter and journalist, specialising in sustainability.
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• This article was amended on 17 May 2013. The original said that the Teccura team estimates being able to reduce UK water demand by 300ml, ie milliltres, per day. Teccura has asked us to make clear that that should have been 300Ml or 300 million litres per day. This has been corrected.