Water efficiency helps Waterloo Region rental properties and condos
Wasted water will steadily drip your profits away. Yet water is not always top of mind for owners and managers of apartment buildings, condos and student housing. Finding ways to be more water efficient isn’t that hard. Still, hundreds of thousands of dollars are flushed away each year in the Region of Waterloo due to hidden leaks and poor water efficiency from outdated toilets, shower heads and other fixtures.
There is a solution. The Region of Waterloo’s WET Program helps property managers understand and tackle their high water use. Since 2016, this program has helped owners of rental properties save hundreds of dollars per unit per year. For bigger buildings, that can mean tens of thousands in yearly savings.
For example, managers noticed especially high water bills in an eight-floor apartment building on College Street in Kitchener and knew leaks were a problem. So they called on the Region of Waterloo’s Water Efficiency team to help. The building owners found and replaced 73 leaky toilet flappers in late 2018, and received a $15 rebate for each one through the WET Program. Since then, the building is saving about 175,000 litres of water and $1,000 every month in water costs. These are savings they’ll continue to see on every single water bill in the future.
A 134-unit apartment building in Cambridge took a different approach to tackle high water use. They completed a full slate of water efficiency improvements in late 2019 and cut the building’s water bills in half, saving over 11 million litres of water and $50,000 per year. These savings will continue to grow as water rates increase.
Investing in water efficiency is not only good for your business; it’s also good for the local environment. The Region of Waterloo is growing quickly with population expected to boom in the coming decades. This community draws most of its drinking water from limited supplies of groundwater, and embracing water conservation across sectors will help us avoid expensive new water infrastructure in the future, helping keep water rates lower.
Let’s face it, multi-unit properties face several challenges when it comes to conservation. Tenants have little reason not to waste water if they don’t pay their own water bills. They may not report dripping faucets, leaky shower heads or toilets that run constantly. And many buildings have outdated shower heads or toilets that lag behind the efficient, high-performing products now on the market.
Water waste adds up fast in large buildings. Fixing the causes of poor water efficiency will often pay for itself in a few years. It’s a win-win proposition where building owners boost their profits and the Region can manage our community’s valuable drinking water for future generations.
Every building is different, and the Region’s Water Efficiency staff can advise on different ways to save. The WET Program offers funding to boost many types of projects, big and small: water audits, toilet flapper replacements (often a hidden source of wasted water), upgrades for all water fixtures, or installing a sub-metering system to gather data and find efficiencies. We also offer free water-efficient shower heads and tap aerators.
Does your building have water consumption higher than 150 litres per person per day? We can help you figure that out, and if so, an investment in water efficiency could pay off.
Find out how the Region of Waterloo’s Water Efficiency team can help you save water, cut costs and lower your environmental impact. More than 100 buildings have already taken the step. Yours could be next! Contact us today or call 519-575-4400, ext. 3558 to learn how your property could benefit from our funding and resources.
Disclaimer This content was funded and approved by the advertiser.
