🗣️ Hidden Cost of Water

Host: Lauren Del Ciello
Guest: Brad Clements | Senior Corporate Account Manager | Nalco Water
Category: 🗣️ Opinion

Podcast’s Essential Bites:

[10:39] “Water scarcity is a combination of quality and the quantity that's available. So you can have a lot of water and if the water is not good to drink or not usable for your equipment, or too expensive to reuse, it creates just as many challenges. 40% of the world's population right now is under water stress. […] The World Resources Institute has just put out an article that says by 2030, the demand for water will exceed the available clean water to be used by 56%. So we are seeing climate changes that are impacting this and the direction we're heading from a sustainability standpoint on water is definitely disheartening.

[12:01] “Most of the water in the United States in North America is very clean for consumption from a health standpoint. The Clean Water Act in the United States allows 500 visible counts of bacteria per milliliter [as] an acceptable amount for […] drinking […] water. But the other side of quality when we talk about reuse and using water efficiently is the natural makeup of the water. […] If you're in Odessa, Texas, or New Orleans, it is very, very difficult water. It's still safe to drink, but as we start using it in hotels, in commercial buildings, in operations, it becomes a massive, massive challenge, just because of the complexity of the water and how many dissolved solids are in it.”

[13:22] “Most people think that water is cheap and available because […] it's just abundant. And it's cheap. […] I do think that something holding the industry back from looking at sustainability is understanding really the true cost of that water, it's going down the drain in your property.”

[14:41] “Most of the costs associated with water in a building aren't the things that the [hotel] guests are gonna see. […] There are a lot of risks associated [with water use]. There's […] the financial quantifiable ones, which are the energy usage, the gas usage, the labor associated with it, the chemicals that are going down the drain, the makeup water and sewer costs if you have them. But then there's the big picture items, […] the perspective of your community [if] you [are] a good steward […] and [use] those resources wisely.”

[18:57] “County to county, the mineral makeup of that water could be drastically different. […] As far as water triggers go, some bad characters get a lot of calcium, magnesium, a lot of silica that really impact naturally, the reuse of that water. So the water coming in definitely determines how well you can reuse it naturally. […] We use a computer algorithm to match the minerals in the system to the right product, to specifically match that up on what product best suits you, and allows us to increase the cycles, because there are so many different breakdowns in the country and some different types of water. So depending on where you are […] impacts your opportunity to reuse without major investments.”

Rating: 💧💧💧

🎙️ Full Episode: Apple | Spotify (Original Title: “Sustainable Hotel Water Management”)
🕰️ 35 min | 🗓️ 07/16/2021
✅ Time saved: 33 min