Sustainable Water and Wastewater Management

Efficient water management is crucial to making lodging sustainable, especially in areas with water scarcity (and yes, Flanders is one of them). The goal is not only to reduce consumption, but also to minimize the impact on local ecosystems from wastewater.

1. Our Objectives: What do we want to achieve?

Maximum Water Efficiency: Minimizing the consumption of potable water in kitchens, bathrooms and for irrigation.
Circular Water Use: Maximizing the use of alternative sources such as rainwater and gray water.
Responsible Discharge: Ensuring that all wastewater is effectively treated before it is released into the environment. This is not a problem for most lodgings in Flanders because they are connected to the sewage network.
Water stewardship: identifying and reducing risks in areas of high water stress.
Water Footprint: Indirect water consumption is actually even greater than your direct water consumption. With every purchase of a product, it’s best to consider its “water content” as well. (see also sustainable purchasing)

2. Measuring is Knowing

Monitoring is the basis of any improvement.

Frequency: Total water consumption is best recorded monthly.
Units: Consumption is measured in m³ (total) and normalized to liters per guest night or per occupied room.
Sub-metering: For larger lodgings, installing separate meters for hot spots (kitchen, laundry, pool, irrigation) is essential to detect leaks and inefficiencies.
Source disclosure: Record source of water (municipal, groundwater, stormwater, recup graywater) to monitor impact on local supplies.

3. Practical Methods and Resources.

Sanitary Facilities (Flow Control)

Showers: Water flow should be a maximum of 9 liters per minute (Green Key) or even 8 liters per minute (EU Ecolabel). So choose economy showerheads.
Faucets: A maximum of 6 liters per minute for sink faucets. You can easily obtain this yourself by turning the supply taps a little closer.
Toilets: Use of dual flush buttons with a maximum of 6 liters for a full flush and an average of 3.5 liters.
Urinals: Waterless systems or sensor-controlled flushing (max. 1 liter per flush).

Innovation and Reuse

Rainwater: Collect rainwater from roofs for toilet flushing, washing machine and/or irrigation.
Graywater: Systems that purify water from showers and sinks for reuse in toilets.
Heat Recovery: Systems that recover heat from shower water to preheat incoming cold water.(shower water heat exchanger)

Operational Measures

Leak detection: Regular (daily or weekly) checks for leaking faucets and toilets.
Laundry: Encourage guests to use towels and linens longer through a “linen reuse program.
Swimming pools: Use of tarpaulins to reduce evaporation by 50-70%.

4. The Financial Impact

Investing in water conservation not only lowers water bills, but also energy costs (less heating required).

Water softening: Preventing limescale deposits (at water hardness > 110 mg/L) protects equipment and can reduce hot water fuel consumption by 10-15%.
Insulation: Insulating hot water pipes minimizes heat losses during distribution, which directly reduces operating costs.
Maintenance costs: Quick repair of leaks prevents structural damage and unnecessary costs due to water waste.

5. Planetary Frontiers and Social Impact.

Your water policy contributes to the bigger picture:

UN SDGs: Contributes to SDG 6 (Clean water and sanitation), SDG 12 (Responsible consumption) and SDG 14 (Living in water).
Planetary Boundaries: Your policies help monitor freshwater use limits and nitrogen and phosphorus cycles (by reducing pollution through wastewater).
Social Limits: Ensures that lodging water consumption does not jeopardize local water supplies for residents.

6. More Information & Tools

This guide is a living document. By working with local partners and sharing experiences, we are building journeys to tomorrow together.

Collective intelligence, stronger than artificial intelligence !