Water on tap

John Phillips, Business Development Manager at Zip Water, has specified multiple Zip HydroTaps at two of the UK’s leading Universities, Lancaster University and the University of Central Lancashire, which together educate over 40,000 students.

Ranked as one of the top ten UK universities by The Guardian and The Sunday Times and in the top 1% globally, Lancaster University is situated in a beautiful campus in the North West of England.  Located in Preston, the University of Central Lancashire is recognised for its world class academic reputation and ranked in the UK’s top 100 universities list.

With a growing reputation for excellence within the education sector, the two Universities wanted to improve their beverage offering for staff that would not only increase wellbeing and staff morale but also improve their green credentials.

With over 2500 members of staff at Lancaster University and 2700 members of staff at The University of Central Lancashire, it became clear that providing bottled water for the teams was becoming costly, unethical and a drain on resources.  In addition, it was reported that long queuing times during staff break times for energy hungry kettles to boil, which can only produce seven-eight hot beverages at a time, were reducing productivity and staff morale at both sites. 

Both universities found that buying in bottled water on a large scale was creating a huge carbon footprint. Not only does the bottled water need transporting around the campus to different locations and refrigerating to keep cool, but the empty bottles then need to be disposed of – all of which is a drain on resources from a time and finance perspective.  

With businesses’ energy costs expected to rise by 15% - 48% between 2013 and 2030, these savings seem even more impactful[i].   Reducing the energy, water and resource costs at the Universities campuses can save valuable money, helping counter the rising energy costs; all these little changes can amount to substantial savings.  These savings will ultimately help to protect the Universities bottom line, therefore protecting employee’s jobs and help secure a strong future.

In the UK we consume 3 billion litres of bottled water a year and the environmental damage caused by bottled water production is huge.  It takes seven litres of water and 162g of oil to produce a single one litre disposable bottle of water, releasing 120g of CO2 in the process.  And that isn’t taking into account the impact caused by the transportation of water, as a sizeable 27% of all bottled water sold in the UK is imported, or the environmental impact of throwing away or recycling used bottles[ii].

The waste management market, which includes the collection, treatment, recycling and disposal of controlled waste, is expected to reach £24 billion by 2018i so university Facilities Managers will continue to face increasing pressures to improve sustainability credentials across the board.  Making 2%, 5% or even 10% green savings each year, whilst still allowing the business to operate at the level it needs to, can be difficult. 

The Zip HydroTap, which delivers filtered boiling, chilled and sparkling water in an instant, is the perfect beverage solution for high-footfall locations looking for an ethical and money saving option.  Lancaster University has now installed over 50 of the boiling and chilled systems and the University of Central Lancashire has installed 25 across all of the campuses staff rooms.

When describing the best thing about the installed Zip HydroTaps, John says that the Universities have dramatically cut down on waste as there’s now no need to buy bottles of filtered and sparkling water.  They have also saved a substantial amount on fuel costs, as the need to deliver crates of bottled water has gone, and on electricity bills as they’ve said goodbye to their old energy inefficient kettles.

As well as this, the Zip HydroTap can be pre-set to power down after two hours of non-use or can be set to hibernate (power off completely), allowing power to be turned off for extended periods of non-use, which further helps to reduce energy consumption.  

In fact, universities using the Zip HydroTap have seen a significant reduction in both water and energy usage.  The G4 – which launched in November 2014 - is the most energy-efficient and environmentally responsible product in the instant boiling water market; a factor which is becoming increasingly important to environmentally conscious businesses.  The G4 reduces standby energy consumption by up to 53% over the previous models[iii]. 

An added bonus of Zip HydroTap’s installation is that staff no longer have to deal with the constant stream of invoices from the bottled water companies or Government enforced PAT testing of electrical equipment such as fridges and kettles – which were both becoming particularly time intensive and difficult for staff to keep on top of.

John Phillips, Business Development Manager of Zip Water who specified the Zip HydroTap’s at both locations, says:“We’re proud to work with two of the top Universities in the country and help support their sustainability practices and improve staff wellbeing.  Since installation at the Universities, queuing time for hot and cold beverages is practically non-existent, meaning that staff can make the most of their breaks whilst enjoying beverages created with the most advanced water filtration system available on the market at the touch of a button.

“The Universities are also offered complete peace of mind in case there is ever a problem as Zip Water has the largest team of directly employed fully trained Engineers in the UK, who are on hand along with an expert Technical Advice Team who can offer advice and support at just a phone call away.”

Both Universities have ongoing plans to install further Zip HydroTap’s as the campuses grow and install more staff areas.

For more information about Zip’s products and services, visit www.zipwater.com/uk