The Bathroom Manufacturers Association (BMA) has urged KBB retailers to embrace the Unified Water Label (UWL) and help their customers save water in the bathroom through the most sustainable products as #WaterSavingWeek 2019 begins.
Waterwise is hosting its fifth annual Water Saving Week from April 29 to May 3, with a theme for each day of the week to focus on a specific area of water use or benefit of water efficiency.
Daily themes to generate awareness on social media of the threat to our fresh water supply and offer tips and ideas on actions to take to decrease water waste include #toilettuesday, #washwednesday and #tapthursday.
Outgoing BMA chief executive Yvonne Orgill said: “Water Saving Week is another opportunity for those in the bathroom industry to work together and raise awareness about how we use water – our most precious resource.
We all have a responsibility if we are to avoid the ‘jaws of death’ situation in which there would not be enough clean water unless urgent action was taken to cut usage, as predicted by the Environment Agency earlier this year.”
Sir James Bevan, chief executive of the Environment Agency, told a key conference in March that, based on current projections, the amount of water available in the UK by 2050 could be up to 15% less than today, resulting in “significant” water shortages in the most populated parts of the country.
The UWL is a voluntary scheme that the BMA reports is currently used by more than 155 brands and registered with more than 13,200 products around Europe.
“The UWL provides a clear and simple system to identify water-saving products. Choosing UWL products, which are then installed and used correctly, will deliver environmental and cost-saving benefits, without any loss in performance for consumers,” the BMA said.
In an interview with kbbreview on sustainable bathrooms published in April, Darren Chisholm, national sales manager at Indian bathroom brand Jaquar said that if more brands advertised their sustainable credentials through the B2C channel, that could support the growth of demand for water-saving products.
Meanwhile, Cheryl DeVal, sales director at DeVal Bathrooms, said that showrooms could help to grow the market for sustainable bathroom products through demonstrations, particularly with showers and low-flow WCs.
The BMA has released two new videos for #WaterSavingWeek designed to help consumers think about how they use water in the bathroom.
New Zealand shower brand Methven will sponsor #washwednesday, highlighting its sustainable shower range, including the Rua collection.
According to recent research conducted by the company, two billion litres of water is washed away in showers every day, but cutting showering time down by just one minute could save 660 million litres of water a day and £215 million on energy bills.
- More information on #WaterSavingWeek can be found on waterwise.org.uk/watersavingweek