Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Examining barriers to metering, monitoring and recording water use in the food and drink supply chain
Final Report
July 13
Copy 1 of 1
Approved: ....EB......
Emma Burlow, Managing Director
Queen Square Associates Plc
Date: 09.07.13
ABBREVIATIONS AND GLOSSARY
Table 1 – List of abbreviations
Abbreviation / Description /AMR / Automatic Meter Reading
BBPA / British Beer and Pub Association
BHA / British Hospitality Association
BIER / Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable
BMPA / British Meat Processors’ Association
BPEX / British Pig Executive
BRC / British Retail Consortium
BSDA / British Soft Drinks Association
CFA / Chilled Foods Association
CGWR / Champion’s Group on Water
CIP / Clean in Place
CIRIA / Construction Industry Research and Information Association
DEFRA / Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs
EA / Environment Agency
EBLEX / English Beef and Lamb Executive
ECA / Enhanced Capital Allowance
ERDF / European Regional Development Fund
FDF / Food and Drink Federation
FHC / Federation House Commitment
FISS / Food Industry Sustainability Strategy
HaFS / Hospitality and Food Service
HMRC / HM Revenue and Customs
IGD / Institute of Grocery Distribution
KPI / Key Performance Indicator
MLCSL / Meat and Livestock Commercial Services Ltd
NETREGS / Net Regulations
NFU / National Farmers’ Union
NIEA / Northern Ireland Environment Agency
NPA / National Pig Association
PPC / Pollution Prevention and Control
QSA / Queen’s Square Associates
RO / Reverse Osmosis
SCADA / System Control and Data Acquisition
SEEDA / South-East England Development Agency
SEPA / Scottish Environmental Protection Agency
SIC / Standard Industrial Classification
SMEs / Small and Medium Enterprises
SWA / Scotch Whisky Association
WFD / Water Framework Directive
WICS / Water Industry Commission for Scotland
WRAP / Waste and Resources Action Programme
WTL / Water Technology List
ZWS / Zero Waste Scotland
Table 2 – Glossary
Term / DescriptionAbsolute reduction target / Target to reduce the absolute amount used irrespective of changes in production, e.g. 20% reduction in water used.
Abstraction / Removal of water from a source such as a river, lake, or groundwater
Benchmark / Statistic conveying typical performance, e.g. litres of water per meal served
Coriolis method / A type of meter using the Coriolis effect to measure mass flow of a liquid. The Coriolis effect is the apparent deflection of a mass moving in a rotating frame of reference.
Differential pressure / A method of measurement relying on pressure difference across an orifice or other resistance to flow
Discharge consent / A licence to discharge waste water
Green Deal / A loan and certification scheme for installation of energy-efficient measures for homes and businesses, the loan being repaid from energy bills over a period.
m3 / Cubic metre = one thousand litres
Mass flow rate / The mass of fluid measured by a meter in a time period, e.g. kg per hour
Megalitre / One million litres = 1000m3
Pareto chart / An analysis tool combining a bar chart of items in descending order with a line graph showing the cumulative percentage total. The tool is used to focus attention on the most important items.
Relative reduction target / Target to reduce the amount used in relation to production or sales, e.g. 20% reduction in water use per litre of beer produced.
Telemetry / Transmission of metering data from a remote source
Totaliser / A device which displays or stores the cumulative total, e.g. the total number of litres measured since installation.
Trade effluent / Waste water discharged to sewer by a business
Transponder / A transmitter-responder; a device that receives stores and retransmits a signal. In metering, a device that receives a signal from a meter and transmits it onwards by radio or SMS.
Volumetric flow rate / The volume of fluid measured by a meter in a time period, e.g. m3 per hour
Water balance / The practice of identifying where water is used by use of sub-metering, spot measurement or estimates for each use until the total balances to the incoming meter total. This can include reconciliation of incoming and outgoing (effluent) flows, evaporative losses and water in product.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In 2013, QSA plc (QSA) was commissioned by Defra to carry out a desk-top research study of the barriers to effective implementation of water metering and monitoring in the food and drink industry and its supply chain. The study was completed in April 2013 and this report is based on information available at that time.
Following the completion of the Food Industry Sustainability Strategy (FISS) in 2006, the FISS Water Champions Group proposed a water saving target for the Food and Drink Industry. The proposed target was to achieve a 20% reduction in the use of water not included in the product by 2020 compared to a 2007 baseline. The Food and Drink Industry used between 348 and 367 million m3 of water in 2010[1]. This represented a reduction of 11 - 16% on 2007 usage of 412 million m3. In 2012 the Federation House Commitment (FHC) reported a 14.4% reduction in water use (excluding that in product) by its signatories[2] .
Table 3 – Water use trend for the Food and Drink Industry
Sector water use / 2007 / 2010 Low / 2010 Highmillion m3 / million m3 / million m3
Manufacturing / 231 / 186 / 196
Retail / 10 / 7 / 10
Wholesale / 2 / 1 / 2
Hospitality and Food Service[3] / 169 / 154 / 159
Total industry use / 412 / 348 / 367
However, while the reductions in water use in manufacturing, retail and wholesale are thought to relate to improvements in water management two thirds of the reduction in the hospitality and food service sector can be accounted for by reduced activity.
Drivers for water metering, the value of metering, its use in water efficiency, and monitoring are considerably different for different sectors of the food and drink industry:-
· Food and drink manufacturing sites tend to be larger and use water for food processing and as part of the product. Cost and regulatory pressures are relatively strong in the sector and there are also supply chain pressures originating from retailers. The sector’s commitment to water management is indicated by the level of engagement with the Federation House Commitment and benchmarking and target setting initiatives in several subsectors.
· Retailers recognise the strategic importance of water as an issue in the food supply chain, and while their consumption is relatively low, they have played a key role influencing their supply chain and have started to measure their water use through the ‘Better Retailing Climate’ initiative. Retailers are also participating in the Product Sustainability Forum[4] which is looking at the lifecycle impacts of products including embedded water use in grocery products.
· For hospitality and food service, with many small sites, cost and regulatory pressures are lower, and there is less focus on water as an issue. Some sites lack incoming water meters, being tenants within other operations, or have water bills assessed on rateable value, rather than metered use.
Despite the pressures on manufacturers a recent WRAP resource map on brewing found that "monitoring of water use is minimal with many breweries using input and output meters only" [5] . From an analysis of recent water reviews by QSA completed on 40 food manufacturing sites, all sites used the incoming main meter readings to track water consumption, however, only 65% inserted the data into a spreadsheet and/or used the data for trending, fewer still used it for setting and monitoring KPIs, and only 17.5% incorporated this data into the site’s control system.
Nearly all water companies provide some support to their business customers to encourage water efficiency, and some offer an Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) service, but this varies from company to company. A brief survey of all 24 water companies in the UK identified that at least:
· 10 offer a full AMR (Automatic Meter Reading) service but 5 (mainly smaller companies) have no current plans to do so;
· 8 offer on-site water review (most charge for this service);
· 7 provided signposting to the WRAP Rippleffect programme;
· 6 provided signposting to the Enhanced Capital Allowances scheme; and
· 5 still signpost to the obsolete Envirowise programme.
It is thought that over 2/3 of installed billing meters are suitable to have a data-logger or AMR fitted, but uptake is low, with water companies reporting that few business customers take up the service.
A survey was carried out of existing sources of advice and information on water monitoring and measurement which identified 151 resources including guides, monitoring and benchmarking tools, reports, webpages, factsheets and case studies. WRAP is the most significant current source and has authored 35 resources relating to water measurement as well as hosting the Rippleffect on-line training tool.
Trade associations vary in the types of resources they provide, however, many offer little or no water efficiency advice and refer to WRAP, the water companies, the Manufacturing Advisory Service, Carbon Trust and the Environment Agency as sources of advice on water metering and monitoring that would be used by their members.
Some key gaps, opportunities and issues in the provision of resources were identified as follows:-
· Water companies’ provision of metering data to customers is patchy (15/24).
· There are very few resources aimed at Retail, Wholesale and Distribution. While these sectors are not significant water users the retail sector in particular is moving towards setting targets and may need more resources to assist water efficiency efforts in the future.
· Within the hospitality sector there are few resources for non-hotel segments. The food service sector is a significant water user and resources will be needed to support future programmes to address water use.
· There are no detailed “how-to” guides for the manufacturing sub-sectors which have water reduction targets or roadmaps: soft-drinks, brewing, dairies and meat processing.
· There is no generally available water benchmarking tool with broad coverage. Benchmarking is a first step for many businesses to compare their usage with others in their industry and set internal baseline measures.
· There is no current guide that specifically covers metering, AMR availability, selection of type, cost, and benefits, use of sub-metering and meter location in detail.
· The wide variety of sources means that users may not find the materials they require.
· Many trade association, water company and other websites have broken links to the former Envirowise, Business Link and Netregs websites.
· The WRAP website does not have an obvious water efficiency page. Water efficiency resources are presented at the third or fourth level on the website, or via the search facility.
· The ‘Materials and Products: Water’ page on the WRAP website does not link back to the BRE hub, where key water efficiency resources are located.
· Some useful resources are only available to companies that register for the free WRAP online course ‘the Rippleffect’, limiting access to them. These resources are not visible to casual users.
· Water company signposting to the Rippleffect is patchy (7/24).
Business awareness of the available resources varies. Larger companies, especially those in food manufacturing, will be aware of guides relevant to their sector through working with the Federation House Commitment, water auditors, or working groups in their sector. Awareness among smaller companies, based on experience, is low or non-existent. Patchy signposting by trade associations and water companies, the lack of a WRAP “homepage” for water and the withdrawal of the Envirowise, Business Link and Netregs websites makes access more difficult, reflected in the low number of pageviews for water topics on the WRAP website.
Assistance is available to purchase or operate water monitoring and metering equipment and this report looks further into the Enhanced Capital Allowance (ECA) scheme, the Green Deal, and other forms of assistance. It is noted that the ECA scheme does not allow meters used for charging purposes to qualify for the ECA and this will impact landlords wishing to sub-meter tenants such as catering operations, restaurants or retail units.
There are many examples of good practice in Food Manufacturing, particularly the Federation House Commitment and a number of industry-led initiatives such as Brewing Green, Dairy Roadmap, Meat Roadmap, Soft Drinks Industry Sustainability Strategy and the Scotch Whisky Industry Environmental Strategy all of which aim to measure, monitor, benchmark and set targets to encourage water saving practices. In retail there is the BRC initiative A Better Retailing Climate to measure retail water use, but there is no corresponding initiative in the Hospitality and Food Service sector.
The most significant barriers to uptake of water metering and monitoring identified are:-
· Lack of appreciation of the true cost of water.
· The perception that water consumption is low.
· Cultural attitudes/employee understanding of water management and use.
· Low cost of water / length of payback on investment compared to other opportunities such as energy saving.
· The perception that retrofitting is not cost-effective, leading to delays as companies wait to upgrade equipment.
· The perception that metering is a significant cost without guaranteed return, thus a risky investment.
· Low awareness of AMR services provided by water companies.
· Low awareness of the meters that do exist, for example in installed equipment.
· In Hospitality, Food Service and Retail some sites are tenants and do not receive water bills.
· Lack of clarity of where the main UK reference portal(s) are for water efficiency issues.
Some suggestions are made for further study, policy, programmes and guidance:-
Policy
· Consider how to encourage more water companies to provide access to metering data.
· Consider policies to encourage installation of AMRs by water companies and encourage them to offer AMRs and access to metering data to business water users.
· Consider policies to encourage the use of AMRs by industry on their own sites to measure, monitor and manage water use.
· Consider policies to require water companies, regulators (for abstractions) to complete national returns on annual water use by industry SIC code.