Water Conservation Strategies for Your Facility

Before deciding how to reduce water consumption, understand where the building is actually using it.

Updated October 2026

Let’s start with the basics: if you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it.

Before deciding how to reduce water consumption, understand where the water is going.

Start with the utility bills. Look at consumption over time and compare it with occupancy, operating hours, seasonal conditions and changes in building use. Then determine whether additional metering would help identify the major users within the property.

Cooling towers, boilers, hydronic systems, irrigation, reverse osmosis systems, kitchens, cafeterias and restrooms can all consume water differently.

The objective is to establish enough information to ask:

Where is the water going, and does the amount make sense for the way this building operates?

Cooling Towers and Boilers

Cooling towers can consume significant amounts of water through evaporation, blowdown and system losses.

Operating strategy matters. Excessive blowdown wastes water and treatment chemicals, while insufficient blowdown can contribute to scaling and other equipment problems.

Review makeup-water consumption, blowdown and water-treatment performance together. The appropriate operating parameters depend on the equipment, water quality and treatment program, so they should be established with the mechanical and water-treatment professionals responsible for the system.

Boiler makeup water should also be monitored. Unexpected increases may indicate leaks, failed components or other operating problems that deserve investigation.

Closed-Loop Hydronic Systems

A closed-loop heating or cooling system should not require large amounts of continuous makeup water.

If makeup-water consumption begins increasing, find out why.

Leaks can waste water while also introducing fresh water into the system, potentially affecting water chemistry and contributing to corrosion or other equipment problems.

A meter on the makeup-water connection can turn an otherwise hidden problem into something the facility team can see and investigate.

Irrigation

Landscape irrigation is another area where water use can quietly increase.

Start by determining whether irrigation schedules reflect actual landscape requirements and current weather conditions.

Rain sensors, soil-moisture sensors and weather-responsive controls can help avoid watering when it is unnecessary. Broken sprinkler heads, poor coverage and irrigation directed onto pavement should also be part of routine inspection.

If irrigation represents a significant portion of property consumption, meter it separately so seasonal use can be evaluated rather than buried in the building’s total water bill.

Reverse Osmosis Systems

Reverse osmosis and other water-treatment systems can consume considerably more water than the amount of treated water they ultimately produce.

If your facility uses an RO system, understand both sides of the equation:

How much treated water are we producing, and how much water is being discharged in the process?

The answer depends on the system and application.

For significant installations, monitor input, output and reject water. Depending on water quality, treatment requirements and the facility, there may also be opportunities to improve system efficiency or appropriately reuse reject water.

Kitchens and Food Service

Commercial kitchens can be significant water users.

When replacing dishwashers, ice machines, food-preparation equipment or other water-consuming appliances, include water consumption in the procurement decision along with energy use, capacity, sanitation requirements, reliability and operating cost.

Also look at how the equipment is actually being operated.

An efficient piece of equipment can still waste water when operating practices are poor.

Restrooms

Restrooms are usually one of the easiest places to identify visible water waste.

Leaking toilets, urinals and faucets can continue for weeks if nobody reports them. Automatic fixtures can also malfunction or cycle unnecessarily.

High-efficiency fixtures may reduce consumption when replacement is appropriate, but maintenance still matters.

A relatively inexpensive fixture that runs continuously can erase a great deal of expected savings.

Watch for Abnormal Consumption

Water conservation should also include identifying water use that should not be occurring at all.

A sudden increase in consumption may indicate a leaking fixture, broken irrigation line, mechanical-system problem or another failure somewhere in the property.

Building-level meters, submeters and monitoring systems can help identify unusual consumption earlier.

The appropriate level of monitoring depends on the facility. Every branch does not need its own meter simply because the technology exists.

Meter where the information will help someone make an operating or capital decision.

Then make sure someone is actually reviewing the information.

Start With the Building You Have

Water conservation does not always require a major capital project.

Sometimes the first opportunities are operational: correcting irrigation schedules, repairing leaks, adjusting equipment operation or identifying a mechanical system that is consuming more makeup water than expected.

Other opportunities may require capital investment in fixtures, controls, equipment or metering.

The building’s actual consumption should help determine where to start.

Leadership Takeaway: Before approving a water-conservation project, establish where the building is using water and which consumption can realistically be reduced. Metering only creates value when the information leads to an operating or capital decision.