The power of water use visibility and real-time data

Our industry is engaged in an important dialogue to improve sustainability through ESG transparency and industry collaboration. This article is a contribution to this larger conversation and does not necessarily reflect GRESB’s position.

It is always a shock to suddenly receive an abnormally high water bill – and that expense is not the only cost of unmanaged water. Most properties have some form of unmanaged water, which is wasteful, hurts sustainability goals, drains budgets, and puts properties at risk of catastrophic leaks and water damage.

Thankfully, having access to comprehensive, real-time water data can prevent this from happening in the first place. The visibility from water data keeps property owners and managers in the know about which properties are using more water than others, which ones are using too much, and how they compare to similar properties.

Water use visibility protects buildings from risks, improves property net operating income (NOI), and helps achieve water savings goals.

Implementing a flow monitoring and leak detection service provides access to real-time water use data. It also allows property owners to establish a baseline of water usage across their buildings. The collected data offers insights into which areas are using more water than necessary and sends real-time alerts in the case of abnormal usage.

This permits property owners and managers to make changes to improve water efficiency, instead of allowing issues to continue unchecked for days or weeks at a time. From there, they can add water savings goals to their broader sustainability initiatives and continue to track the water data to see their trends and progress.

Real-time water use visibility prevents leaks, breaks, and other issues from going unnoticed for days, weeks, or even months at a time. Water data shows which areas of your property may be using more water than the established baseline. This data may identify a trend that started slowly, gradually rising over a few weeks, or may identify a sudden increase.

With this visibility, the issues can be addressed immediately to prevent leaks and breaks from continuing – which quickly puts properties at risk of significant structural damage and problems like asphalt erosion, flooding, mold, weak foundation, and wood rot, to name a few.

Tracking and managing water use with real-time data improves the property’s NOI. This metric represents the revenue from the property minus operating expenses, demonstrating the value of a property’s earning income by showing profits after maintenance costs are accounted for.

Your water use might be bringing down your property’s NOI if water bills are steeper than they should be when compared to similar properties or others within your portfolio. Access to water data empowers property managers and owners to identify water waste that might be adding unnecessary costs to overall property expenses.

Having access to real-time water use data is a powerful tool. It provides total visibility of your water use for either an individual property or across a portfolio of properties. Access to such data transforms water usage from a threat that can hurt a building’s value and sustainability rating to a consideration that improves building value and helps managers and owners achieve sustainability goals.

This article was written by Lila Tyler, Marketing Content Manager, at HydroPoint.

References

“Commercial Buildings.” United States Environmental Protection Agency. Accessed February 15, 2024

“Flow Monitoring and Water Data Uncovers Destructive Leaks.” HydroPoint. Accessed February 15, 2024.