Written by: Richie Bryant
"Improving water efficiency standards in buildings in the most effective and simplistic way possible” This is the vision Shayp is successfully achieving, to help them aspire to their mission of “preserving the world’s most precious resource and creating a more resilient and sustainable society.”
Water is at the core of sustainable development and is critical for socio-economic development, healthy ecosystems and for human survival itself. Ensuring the efficient consumption of water is both financially relevant, and critical for resisting one of the main risks of Climate Change, water scarcity.
How to improve water efficiency
Improving water efficiency is a 3-step process, with incremental increases in difficulty to successfully achieve:
1. Eradicate leakages,
2. Optimize consumption efficiency
3. Behavioral improvements
Using their cloud-based AI, Shayp analyses water meter data to reveal water usage inefficiencies in buildings with unprecedented accuracy. Detecting leakages and water consumption anomalies in real-time, they also guide building operators to improve the situation as quickly as possible.
Shayp, the 2022 BrightWolves Sustainability Challenge Winners, in the true fashion of a sustainability-driven company, has decided to enhance their impact, by focusing on helping clients optimize their water consumption efficiency. For this, BrightWolves was requested to assist in analyzing how best this could be done.
What is water consumption efficiency?
Water consumption efficiency can be defined as using no more water than required. In managing consumption, it is important not to jeopardize comfort in order to consume water more efficiently. Identification of the measures as well as the process required to begin providing an impactful service to clients with regards to water consumption efficiency was the overall goal of the assignment.
Measuring water consumption efficiency
Through a comparison of relevance, availability, accuracy and comparability of data, several metrics were identified and categorized into two overarching categories:
1. Identification Metrics: To identify water consumption inefficiencies on an overall basis.
2. Precision Metrics: To pinpoint water consumption inefficiencies to a specific area for which action can be taken.
Proving the value of reporting
Using the identified metrics, a proof of concept was developed using actual client property portfolio data. The proof of concept most importantly helped demonstrate that reporting in such a manner to clients is of extreme value. However, it went far beyond this by enabling Shayp to determine where complications may be detected when developing a service across the entire client portfolio.
Water consumption efficiency has never been a relevant topic in the past, and very little industry knowledge is readily available, this poses both a challenge and an opportunity. Through discussions with water experts, we could uncover extreme value and opportunity relating to this new service for Shayp.
The proof of concept made it possible to determine which buildings in a portfolio, on an overall basis, were consuming water inefficiently. Thereafter, as a result of the granularity of the data captured by Shayp, it was possible to determine whether fixtures were operating at an optimal efficiency and further, to determine the value of investing in changing such fixtures to achieve optimal efficiency.
As a result, the WERA (Water Efficiency Remote Audit) method was born.
Using the analysis performed, Shayp developed The WERA method, defined as, “a way to assess which buildings perform better than others solely based on the type of fixtures and the true behaviour of occupants.”
According to Shayp, “The WERA method also helps to identify the factors that increase efficiency. It is possible to calculate the quick wins by simulating different scenarios. In other words, based on water consumption data, building managers can identify the best solutions to invest in for a particular building”.
For more information, download Shayp’s market report here
Expansion through the emphasis of their vision
The implementation of this additional service enables Shayp to increasingly differentiate and emphasize their leadership within the industry. In turn, as the accuracy of reporting improves, Shayp may consider deriving value out of this reporting in order to further expand their operations.
A company living up to their mission and using their Sustainability Challenge Win to further explore and implement new offerings that make a greater sustainable impact. I don’t think the partnership could have been more fitting!
Alexandre McCormack (Shayp CEO) "Winning the Brightwolves Sustainability Challenge and gaining the opportunity to work together allowed us to push a personal pet project that was sitting on the back burner for some time. They helped us collect valuable customer and partner feedback, benchmark the state of the art and refine different models. The resulting WERA model provides valuable insights and is yet simple enough to be used all around the world. This will drive key stakeholders in the building sector to make cost-effective and more rapid decisions for improving water efficiency in buildings without having to go through lengthy, on-site audits."
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