Every person consumes on the average 150 litres of highly valued drinking water per day. In municipalities with intensive tourism, water consume can rise up to 400 litres per guest and day. Therefore a number of conservation measures may be taken by the hotel managers. This not only concerns water but also energies used to prepare warm water. Considering the fact that a major portion of such heated drinking water ends up in the sewerage widely unused, the question of new conservation strategies arises.
Together with the counselling company Man & Water, the famous Salzburg hotel Bayrischer Hof decided to join the Drinking Water Contracting scheme. "We have equipped all sanitary rooms of the house with water conserving fittings and the state of the art technology. This will not only save us about 21.810,85 EUR in operating costs within three years, but also will reduce the consumption of valuable drinking water from previous 220 litres per day per visitor to only 116 litres," the management explains.
The principle of contracting is simple: The contracting enterprise takes over the financing of the new equipment of the premises. The contracting partner pays, within the contracting period, operating costs at the previous amounts. The difference between the smaller expenditures due to the saving measures goes first to the benefit of the contracting enterprise. After the termination of the contract, the amounts saved will be accounted to the benefit of the enterprise itself.
The Salzburg project will be monitored by the environmental consulting agency of the Chamber of Commerce. This is expected to bring first experience with drinking water contracting and be made available also to other enterprises. (Source: Die neue Umwelt, vol. 9, no. 12/2001)
Michael Fusko
