As your water retailer, we’re here to help. In this issue, you’ll find a brief guide with some small actions that you can take to help save water, as well as links to our more comprehensive value-added services, including water audits, leak detection and tankered water.

You can also take a look at our latest successful Water Efficiency Fund projects, read about our latest Career Ready students and watch the panel discussion at Sustainability Live.

If you ever have a question, an idea or even a challenge you need support with, please get in touch. Your Account Manager is always just a call or email away – or use our online webchat to get in touch with one of our dedicated case owners, instantly.

Tom Abel

Director of Sustainability Services

Earlier this month, Tom Abel, our Director of Sustainability Services, joined a panel discussion at Sustainability Live about water management strategies, some of the biggest water challenges organisations are facing and how we can move beyond water conservation and towards water positivity – where businesses aim to return more water to the environment than they use. 

Hot weather puts pressure on water supplies

Over the summer, prolonged hot and dry weather has been driving up water demand across Scotland. Scottish Water reported domestic water use was up by 10%, while at the same time water reserves were approaching record lows.

With this in mind, here are a few ways that we can all help to reduce water use and keep water flowing across the country.

How can you help?

Look through your recent water bills to understand how much water you’re using. You can use this information to identify potential areas for efficiencies and talk to your account manager for further advice. Log into your My Business Stream account to view detailed consumption reporting through intelligent water management.

Make sure you don’t have any leaks, as even small leaks can waste a large amount of water. A dripping tap can waste up to 11,000 litres of water per year – that’s 90 bathtubs! If you’d like help identifying leaks, you can find details of our leak detection services on our website.

Use our efficiency checklist to conduct a detailed audit of your water use and identify where you can make savings.

Decide what actions to take and commit to a deadline. Remember to review your water bills regularly to monitor progress. We’ll talk more about making an effective plan in our upcoming webinar, mentioned below.

You can find more water efficiency tips on our ways to save page.

We’re delighted to announce that this year’s Water Efficiency Fund has awarded £97,917 to public sector customers in Scotland to fund a range of water saving initiatives.

Our panel reviewed a large selection of competitive applications and, as always, they had a tough choice selecting the successful projects. We’d like to thank everyone who submitted an application and congratulate all those whose projects are now underway.

This year’s projects include water audits for City Property, West College Scotland and Dundee City Council; temperature-controlled flushing for the University of West Scotland; infrared tap installations across a number of sites for South Ayrshire Council and replacement cisterns and sensors for Glasgow Kelvin College – to name a few!

Claire McCulloch, Energy/Environment Officer at South Lanarkshire College said “It’s great to hear about South Lanarkshire College being awarded £8,500 for waterless urinals – we are thrilled to hear this news!”

Don’t worry if you missed out on this year’s application process, we’ll be launching another round of funding on 1 April next year.

Payment terms - A reminder

We wanted to give all our customers a friendly reminder that the Standard Payment Terms of the Framework are 30 days from the date of invoice.

We do appreciate on occasion there may be situations that arise that can prevent payment being made. In those cases, your Account Manager will be happy to help find a solution and keep your payments on track.

We would greatly appreciate it if you could let your Accounts Payable team know about the payment terms, to ensure they are familiar with the terms to help us to receive payments on time. As always, your Account Manager is available to answer any questions you may have.

Developing young careers

Over the summer, this year’s group of Career Ready students completed their four-week work placement. Six students joined us for a programme of skills sessions, project work, one-to-one CV and personal statement support and a range of other activities, culminating in each of them making a final presentation.

We were extremely impressed with the level of work and enthusiasm shown by this year’s group, as well as the creativity with which they approached their projects. The group fed back by producing a video, acting out their experience at Business Stream to highlight their favourite sessions and even roping in a few of the Business Stream team to play parts!

You can find out more on our LinkedIn page.

Our commitment to developing young careers extends further, from delivering primary school education programmes to supporting Career Ready’s wider charitable aims through local authority boards. We also work with Business in the Community (BITC) to provide skilled coaching to people of all ages seeking employment and with a number of schools to help young people get the best possible start in the working world.

Fresh insights | Our recent expert-led, interactive webinars

We're hosting our next webinar on Tuesday, 6 October focusing on water efficiency and operational resilience. You’ll hear more on how you can take action to strengthen your approach to resilience, how you can plan ahead for the winter and how we can help with our value-added services.

We’d love if you could join us but, if you’re unable to attend, we’ll be recording the session and it’ll be added to our Useful Resources webpage. You can check out all previous webinars by clicking the button below and going to the 'Videos' drop down.

If there are any topics you'd like us to cover in our upcoming webinars, please let your Account Manager know.

My Business Stream

If you’re not already managing your account online, we’d like to remind you that you can enjoy the benefits of My Business Stream, our secure online portal, at no extra cost. With My Business Stream, you can take complete control of your services in just a few clicks.

Whatever the size of your estate, My Business Stream is a free tool that brings everything you need together into one easy-to-use digital dashboard.

Once registered, you can:

• pay your bills in seconds

• keep track of your spending
• view and download water usage reports
• submit meter readings
• update your account details, and
• access your account 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Register for My Business Stream and enjoy a faster, easier way to manage your account.

It’s quick and simple - just grab your latest bill, head over to the My Business Stream Portal, and enter your customer reference number to get started today.

Getting in touch with us

If you have any questions about your account, please speak to your Account Manager or Case Owner. You can also call or send an email to our dedicated team using the buttons below.