3 Tips to Conserve Water in Hospitals & Healthcare Facilities

In private and public sectors across all areas of the economy, there is a movement to prioritize sustainability and efficiency of life’s most precious resource – water. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, hospitals and other healthcare facilities account for 7% of the total water consumption in the country, using water for everything from cooking and cleaning, to drinking and landscaping. The U.S. Department of Energy also estimates water use per capita for hospitals ranges from 40 gallons per day to 350 gallons per day, depending on factors such as geographical location; services provided; size, age and type of buildings and water-use equipment and practices. While it’s vital for hospitals and healthcare facilities to have clean water, there are ways to accomplish the task, while also limiting water consumption and saving the facility money. To successfully implement in a facility, a plan is needed. The following are three tips to get started.

1. Understand a facility’s water usage

Water usage in a healthcare facility is a complicated undertaking due to the intricacy of the plumbing infrastructure, the complexity of the fixtures and equipment needed for daily tasks and the sanitary procedures required to carry out proper care for patients. As a first step, the EPA recommends that engineers start the journey toward reducing water consumption by properly assessing and mapping out the current water usage within the facility to identify areas that show room for improvement.

Such measures will aid key decision makers when it comes time for them to form a water management plan — a guideline that can direct effective changes and adaptations for both the facility and healthcare workers to reduce water usage. The Healthcare Environmental Research Center found that efficient water management plans reduce use by approximately 20-30%, highlighting the effectiveness of staying organized in an approach and plotting a methodical transformation.

2. Update plumbing infrastructure and equipment

Upgrading basic plumbing infrastructure to newer, more efficient models and performing regular, timely maintenance can make an instant impact on water efficiency goals. According to the EPA, new toilets installed should have flow rates of 1.28 or 1.6 gallons per flush and WaterSense-labeled urinals should be flushing at 0.5 gpf or less. Also, WaterSense-labeled showerheads should be flowing at 2 gallons per minute or less. A prime example that demonstrates the importance of updating plumbing infrastructure and equipment is the DOE’s finding that one leaking hospital toilet alone can waste more than 50 gallons of water every day, while one dripping faucet or showerhead can waste up to 1,000 gallons per week.

In addition to basic plumbing infrastructure, engineers can look to the equipment to see further water savings potential. Recent developments have led to higher-performing equipment that can reduce water waste by 20%, which can mean up to millions of gallons of water saved each year. To further increase savings beyond utility bills, hospital facility managers can take advantage of financial incentives for installing water-efficient fixtures and equipment. Many local utilities offer rebates for taking on water-saving projects, allowing upgrades to pay for themselves.

Among the many requirements engineers and facility managers need to meet, pipe insulation is often among the more overlooked provisions despite making a big difference in water usage and energy consumption. Invest in high-performing insulation to eliminate water waste and keep energy costs down; properly insulated pipes require less energy to heat and cool, keeping the water at the desired temperature for longer.

Other changes that should be considered include switching HVAC equipment to more energy-efficient models and implementing practices throughout the hospital that have been proven to decrease the water usage strain on HVAC systems — such as metering cooling tower and closed system water use or using reclaimed water for cooling tower make-up water.

3. Understand how local building codes support water efficiency in healthcare facilities

While individual healthcare facilities can act and implement water-efficiency measures, community-wide change comes through the adoption and enforcement of up-to-date plumbing codes. Building codes, like the International Plumbing Code, build upon previously established water-efficiency standards to meet the latest sustainability goals, with the most recent edition including provisions that ensure access to clean water and efficiency measures for water use.

Building codes provide engineers and facility managers with the minimum requirements to help address plumbing fixture flow rates, which help eliminate water waste and improve the overall efficiency of the building. These codes are trusted by the federal government, which requires all civilian governmental buildings and U.S. military bases to use the IPC as its base plumbing code, making it one of the most trusted codes for plumbing.

When enacting building codes, creating a holistic environment by adopting the full suite of codes leads to greater efficiency across the facility. For example, when combining the IPC and the International Energy Conservation Code, a hospital can establish a water-efficiency strategy that utilizes complementary codes to make a huge impact on its sustainability objectives.

Making transitions within large infrastructures, especially in a facility so essential to public health, is complex. While decision makers may have doubts about their ability to conquer such an undertaking, the benefits will outweigh the concerns. By making a building more efficient, this ensures that healthcare facilities are not only helping to conserve the most vital resource on earth, but also allowing the savings to be redirected into important areas such as patient care.