Water Plus provides schools’ fund for green projects and partners with Zellar

Two schools are starting their academic years with extra funding for projects that will help cut, or capture more carbon emissions, increase water-saving, help the environment and reduce running costs.

Water Plus, the UK’s largest business water retailer, has started a new partnership with Zellar – an online sustainability tool – to drive further actions for water efficiency and help cut carbon footprints and energy bills at businesses, sports clubs, schools and other sites in the UK.

In the 2024 work, Water Plus offered free water saving visits, free water butts for schools – and supported the prize fund for green projects at school sites – in the Zellar Green Schools competition. It was free for schools to enter and two winners have been randomly selected by Zellar.

The partnership also sees the multi award-winning expertise of Water Plus being shared through the Zellar platform, including easy actions for sites to take to save water, which can also save energy – and sees the one-stop sustainability tool highlighted to a wider audience through Water Plus.

Easton Primary School, in Suffolk and Sir Roger Manwood’s School, in Kent, are the two winners, randomly selected by Zellar out of the green action examples highlighted by schools in Scotland and across England.

Each school won a water audit, delivered through Water Plus, two 227-litre water butts each, along with £1,000 each to spend on a green project, to help the schools save water, save energy and cut carbon emissions.

Catherine Rivera, Head of School at Easton Primary School, said: “The £1,000 prize will help us continue to develop our ‘Triangle of Life’ project, which aims to provide a space for our pupils to engage with nature and grow their own food for snacks and lunches. We hope it will also kickstart further sustainability projects around the school.

“The water butts will enable us to reduce our reliance on tap water and allow us to further reduce the school’s carbon footprint.”

There are carbon emissions linked to all water used at schools, other public sector buildings including hospitals and universities and at businesses. Using less tap water overall, including less hot water, can save energy and cut running costs.

Michele Marshall-Jackson, Head of Customer Operations at Water Plus, said: “Partnering with Zellar is another way we’re engaging the public sector, including schools and businesses of all sizes to help accelerate sustainability actions and explore and tap into the big opportunities in water, to help increase efficiencies and reduce carbon emissions.  

“It’s all about making it easier for our customers to take actions to improve efficiencies and reduce carbon emissions. This partnership is one of the many actions we’re taking to help progress towards Net Zero and reducing impacts on the environment in the UK, including through increasing water efficiency.” 

Zellar’s sustainability platform is set up to help schools meet requirements for all education settings, including multi academy trusts, colleges and universities, to have a climate action plan in place by 2025.

They can use the platform to calculate and understand their carbon emissions and then build an achievable plan to reduce emissions, based on their size and sector.

Sustainability actions taken add up to a Zellar score, which those using the platform can share to showcase their great efforts and positive impacts for the environment and communities.

Adam Wright, Chief Operating Officer at Zellar, who have launched their enhanced platform in recent weeks, said: “It’s great to have Water Plus onboard helping to make it easy for schools, other public sector sites and businesses save water and cut carbon and energy. Their support is driving real change at schools and helping reduce impacts on the environment we can all have.”

Gary Styles, founder and CEO of Zellar, said: “We’re delighted the multi award-winning water experts at Water Plus have become our exclusive water efficiency partner. Together we’ll make it easier for businesses, councils, schools and other organisations to reduce their water consumption and their environmental impact. 

“By helping organisations to minimise their energy, waste and now water usage; identify and invest in green technology and find biodiversity and volunteering projects, each unique Zellar plan has the power to reduce emissions, running costs and environmental impacts.”

Water Plus, which won a Global Gold for Water Management in the Green World Awards 2024 in March, for work with its customers and is a Great Big Green Week Partner in the UK, which the schools’ competition was also being highlighted through.

It’s also highlighting water-saving steps for schools – and actions schools have taken to cut water waste – in its Be Wise On Water awareness campaign.

In water-saving action this year, more than 40 water-saving devices were fitted at two schools, who were part of a larger-scale project delivered through the team at Water Plus.

Across four schools, visits through Water Plus found 1.5 million litres of water could be saved over a year, from small low-cost water-saving devices – equal to 19,837 bath tubs, each filled with 80 litres of water, or 6.3 million cuppas, holding 250ml each – and cut more than £4,000 off water costs, helping school budgets and freeing more money up for pupils.

One of the schools saw the flow rate for taps, which had efficiency fittings added, reduce to an average of 3.8 litres per minute, compared to an average 6.7 litres per minute, which is a 43% water-saving.

Where less hot water is used at a site, less energy needs to be used, with the tap efficiency fittings helping to do just that.

Water is in Scope 3, for carbon emissions, so increasing water efficiency also helps with decarbonisation targets and progress towards Net Zero in the public sector.

Zellar and Water Plus are holding a webinar for schools around setting up climate action plans and water-saving steps that they can take. The webinar will be held in November. More details on how to register will be shared soon.