St Stephen’s shopping centre, Hull, has won a highly commended award for its sustainable and efficient approach to water usage. The coveted award was announced at the prestigious Yorkshire Water Taking Responsibility for Business Awards in Leeds.
The awards celebrate the exceptional performance and achievements of organisations throughout the Yorkshire region.
Water savings of more than 75% St Stephen’s Deputy Centre Manager Tony Van der Vliet says: “Over the past five years, we’ve reduced our water usage by a massive 75% through a range of water efficiency strategies. We’re always looking for ways to improve even further and are implementing additional initiates this year to further increase our savings.”
St Stephen’s efforts to provide the most eco-friendly toilets in our region recently resulted in a shortlisting for the 2013 Loo of the Year award and the Eco Friendly Toilet award.
The shopping centre is amongst some of the most environmentally friendly organisations in the Humber region. Many of its sustainability initiatives are a first in the region, including making use of a sustainable rainwater harvesting system; proactively undertaking a leak detection survey which led to savings of around ten million litres of water and installing an on-site waste treatment plant, which is returning around 60,000 litres of water each year, back to the water table.
Almost 100 people from more than 20 companies attended the Yorkshire Water awards including Coca-Cola, Premier Foods, E.ON and National Rail. Alongside St Stephen’s, other winners on the night included East Riding of Yorkshire County Council, Humberside Police and St Catherine’s Hospital in Doncaster.
Kevin Barefoot, Business Services Manager at Yorkshire Water said: “It’s fantastic to see these companies seize the initiative and by doing so making a positive contribution to the Kelda Group Vision of taking responsibility for the water environment for good”.
Almost 30 entries were received across the six categories and the awards were first assessed by a panel before a second round of judging took place.
Some of the water-saving initiatives St Stephen’s has implemented include:
1. Taking responsibility for leakage In 2010, a proactive leak detection survey identified a major leak deep under the service yard. Getting this fixed cut water use in half and has saved over 10 million litres a year.
2. Using sustainable sources of water A rainwater harvesting system reuses over 1.3 million litres of rainwater each year harvested from the roof to flush the public toilets, generating water savings of 1.2million litres per year.
The installation of a waste treatment plant on site at the shopping centre is also generating water efficiency benefits. The equipment recycles 80 tonnes of food waste each year, returning around 60,000 litres of water each year, back to the water table.
3. Investing in and installing water efficient devices Some of the water efficient devices we have invested in include: • The installation of seven waterless urinals saving 100,000 litres of water per unit per year • Fitting timers that switch off the flushing system for other urinals out-of-hours, which otherwise operated through the night • Installing dual flush cisterns in 22 toilets, with estimated savings of up to 1 million litres per annum, or around 220,000 litres per toilet. • Replacing all non-adjustable push style taps with adjustable taps
