elemental talks

1pm

Turning the tide on unsustainable water use in the home

Of the 349 litres of water used daily in the average home, as much as 68% of that total gets consumed in the bathroom — that’s over 50 gallons of water every 24 hours! 

With water scarcity looming large in a warming world, such levels of resource consumption are simply unsustainable. So, what can be done to turn the tide on water in the home?

The Elemental Water Sustainability Series, produced in association with Triton, is a three-part exploration of the problems we face and the solutions available in the residential market — with the first webinar looking specifically at the challenges in social housing.

Efficiency is coming home. Earlier this year, the Bathroom Manufacturers Association (BMA) issued a pre-Budget call for household water efficiency measures to be included in Government spending plans. The pitch set out the sector’s priorities and suggested ways in which public spending could be utilised to help drive down domestic water use.

The debate will therefore consider the role of government and regulatory bodies. It will also examine the pressure on industry not only to innovate and scale, but to help shape the water narrative and get the message out to everyone from policymakers to consumers. 

The discussion will adopt a whole-house approach to water sustainability, but focus on the bathroom, in particular. Over the course of three webcasts, the experts on the panels will review all aspects, from tech and kit, to behaviour and demand. The series will also explore linkages with the broader climate agenda, energy use and carbon emissions.

Hosted by Jim McClelland – SustMeme

Speakers:

Phil Viner – Commercial Director, Triton Showers
Jacob Tompkins – CTO, The Water Retail Company
Kathryn Rathouse – Director of KR Social Research

Watch our recent webinar session with Triton ‘The importance of water and energy sustainability in the UK housing stock’ here.

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1pm

Lessons in the bathroom: The link between wellbeing and washrooms in schools

Especially with heightened awareness of the importance of hygiene in a post-pandemic world, the bathroom has become a focal point for building performance and standards, as well as associated spend on refurbishment and maintenance. In the education sector, it is fast-becoming the most important room in the school.

As evidenced by the results of a YouGov poll conducted for session sponsor Geberit, general hygiene, lack of privacy and condition of toilets are all key triggers of anxiety amongst children and a direct cause of concern for their parents.

Almost one in five parents (19%) said that their children had mentioned issues with school toilets. One third (33.5%) had concerns about standards of hygiene and almost half (46%) reported that their children have experienced anxiety about using school toilets.

However, in a snap poll of 100 schools, also undertaken by Geberit, school bathrooms were not top of the list of planned refurbishments, with external school grounds (41%) the most popular project. In fact, only around 1 in 6 respondents (16%) said they had a plan to refurbish school toilets within the next 12 months. Yet, almost half of the same sample (44%) would still not rate the overall condition of pupil toilets as ‘good’.

The webinar will drill down into the data and explore the reasons for this disconnect:

• Is there a lack of understanding about the link between washrooms and wellbeing?
• Are there issues around design and installation, or maintenance and repair?
• Is it more a failure to prioritise spend, or simply a matter of lack of budget?

Our discussion will not only endeavour to answer these questions, but do so in the context of a framework for water sustainability which targets efficiency and conservation in use, especially ahead of the upcoming COP26, taking place in Glasgow this November.

Hosted by Jim McClelland – SustMeme

Panel TBC

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1pm

Central plant: How can efficiency be built-in at the heart of the system?

Conserving precious energy resources, whilst at the same time cutting carbon emissions, is core to the UK Government’s planned response to the recommendations of the Sixth Carbon Budget and its bid to progress down the pathway towards Net Zero by 2050.

Core to this combined energy efficiency and emissions reduction strategy are not only the services and technologies in individual dwellings and buildings, but also the data, systems and heat networks connecting them. In turn, at the heart of these is the central plant room.

As a result, the modern building services engineer is increasingly pushed to create specific central plant designs that will not only save energy resources and cut costs, but can shrink carbon footprints and be compatible with other kit, too. They must also meet the latest regulations, plus prove flexible and adaptable to changes in demand and behaviour.

Satisfying diverse requirements and demand management of such complexity is a big ask.

Any successful design solution must allow for the easy and efficient integration of renewable energy sources, such as CHP, solar and heat pumps. The central plant system also needs to offer a reliable and optimal way of producing hot water, controlling the heating and metering each individual flat, apartment or house.

The box of tools at an engineer’s disposal includes the likes of Heat Interface Units (HIU’s) and flow regulators, consumer modules and metering products, plus the correct buffer vessel for the job. Improving and maintaining plant room efficiency is doable, but not easy.

This webinar therefore explores the various ways in which low-carbon energy efficiency can effectively be built-in at the heart of any system or network, in the plant room itself.

The session builds on the recent Elemental Talk on the subject of Heat Networks, also run with Altecnic, that asked How can we future-proof the growth of UK heat networks?

Hosted by Jim McClelland – SustMeme

Panel TBC

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