Today is World Water Day and here at Elterwater Hostel we are keeping an eye on what we use as this helps us retain our Gold Green Tourism Award.
It may seem a bit perverse to be worrying about how much water comes out of our taps whilst we are surrounded by becks bursting with snow melt and with lakes lapping over their normal levels; but, as well as there being a financial cost to the business, there is an environmental cost of cleaning and processing the water for the hostel.
So once a month we arm ourselves with gloves, head torch and something to leaver off the manhole cover and scoop out the mud to discover and record just how much of this precious resource has been consumed by our visitors.
Christine collates all the figures, dividing our usage by the number of stays and we keep a careful eye on the patterns, so if leaks appear or we make water saving improvements, such as reducing flush volumes in the toilets, we can see the effects and respond. Whilst the laundry is not included, we are proud that our water usage is well below reported averages for other accommodation providers and indeed for domestic sites and has improved over the years.
