Water

The issue: Water is becoming an increasingly scarce resource in the UK due to a number of factors including population, new development and changes in lifestyle and culture. Climatic changes and the lack of rainfall some seasons also means that the natural supplies of ground and surface water supplies are not replenished. This means that the conservation and intelligent use of water is becoming more important.

The use of water at the airport is vital, as it is used for drinking water, toilets and other essential activities such as fire fighting training, vehicle and aircraft cleaning. A substantial amount of water is also provided to airlines for drinking and sanitary use during flights.

Our approach: We currently review water consumption on a monthly basis. Water trends are also reported along with gas and electric consumption to the Southampton Airport Sustainability Board which was introduced in autumn 2006.
 
As outlined above, water is used for a number of activities at the airport. An increase in the number of passengers passing through the airport will require more water. Southampton Airport continued to see an increase in passenger numbers in 2006/07 and therefore the demand for water also increased. Water is primarily managed by installing equipment such as “hippo” devices in toilets to reduce the capacity and amount of water used each flush. Taps with spray heads are also used on wash hand basins to reduce the flow of water along with automatic sensors in some toilet areas, which only flush urinals when they have been used. Maintenance is also an important issue and the detection and quick fixing of leaks also plays an important part in ensuring water is not unnecessarily wasted.

Our performance
Target 2006/07: Reduce water consumption by 2% against business-as-usual forecast through improvements in water conservation.
Performance against target: Target bettered.

Between April 2006 and March 2007, we set a target to reduce water consumption against the business as usual forecast by 2%.

We bettered this target and achieved a 3% reduction in water consumption during 2006/07, against business as usual levels. This equates to 22,521m3 of water in total.

The use of equipment to ensure the drainage runs at the airport remain unblocked and free flowing, helped to ensure that excess water was not used to flush the system and reduced the need to high pressure jet wash the drains to free blockages.

Going forward: We will install water meters to grey/portable drinking water supplies to inform a water usage inventory, and identify where future potential savings can be made. This will also identitfy the target savings for 2008.