Water & Wastewater Treatment

www.wwtonline.co.uk | WWT | APRIL 2015 | 15 Project focus A project which used posters to promote water efficiency to users of a leisure centre has achieved a remarkable 30% reduction in water consumption for the site. Affinity Water's 'Zoo in the Loo' project placed animal-themed posters in the changing rooms, showers and toilets at St. Margaret's Sports Centre in Bushey, Hertfordshire. The eye- catching posters contained specific Demand management 'Zoo in the Loo' saves leisure centre water Project focus ● Affinity Water project achieves 30% water saving at leisure centre ● Visually engaging posters placed at point of interaction ● Behavioural change required to meet demand management objectives stemmed from an experiment published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, which saw posters with water saving messages placed in 166 domestic houses in Western Australia ( Utilising a Social-Ecological Framework to Promote Water Conservation: A Field Experiment). With demand management playing a key role in Affinity's current plans, the supply company thought there was potential to translate it into a business context, explains Haroon Atif, Asset Technician at Affinity Water. "The idea behind the experiment was that they put up water saving posters in various different areas of the household and just the posters themselves resulted in a 23% reduction in water consumption," says Atif. "I found that quite surprising. The key aspect about those posters was that they were placed at the point of interaction between the user and the water, so just as you are about to turn the shower on, turn the tap on or flush the toilet, there's a poster telling you to save water. We thought that if we took this concept and leveraged it, making the posters themselves a bit more effective, then we could really be on to something." The St Margaret's Sports Centre in Bushey was chosen for the project because it had mixed water use – with showers, taps and toilets as well as a swimming pool – and it had an automated meter read (AMR) meter installed, making it easy for Affinity to check regularly on usage. The centre had not previously been subject to any water saving interventions, such as retrofitting with water-saving devices, so the behavioural approach could be studied in isolation. Affinity tasked a partner organisation - Save Water, Save Money - with designing suitable posters. Unlike the Australian experiment which had used a basic, text-heavy format, they wanted to create something that would be eye-catching, quick to read and visually memorable. They also wanted the posters to contain specific calls to action (e.g. 'keep showers short'; 'only use the big flush when necessary') and to use aggregate statistics about the amount of water that could be saved in order to stress how small actions could contribute to the big picture. The eventual designs incorporated a cheetah, an orang-utan, a wild hog and a koala which were pictured using the facilities. When they were installed the posters had an immediate effect within the first month, and the Affinity Water's Jai Restall (centre) presents a certificate to St Margaret's Sports Centre managers Shelley Cooper and Chris Sneddon to recognise the water saving achieved calls to action urging gym and pool users to limit their use of showers and taps and to use the correct flush on the toilet. AŸer a six-month period with the posters in place, the centre – which has a weekly footfall of 3,600 users – had reduced its overall water use by 30%, surpassing the expectations of the project team. The idea for 'Zoo in the Loo' James Brockett EDITOR, WATER & WASTEWATER TREATMENT

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