Energy, Water & Waste Audits

EcoSTEPS have both direct and indirect experience and expertise in the critical areas of Energy, Water and Waste. A good place to start is often with an audit to assess current practices and the opportunities for improvement.

Energy Audit

The external energy audit and design procedure is the traditional approach to energy management. It involves the appointment of an external consultant, who inspects the site and produces an energy audit, listing predicted costs and benefits of a variety of energy savings measures. These measures are approved by management and the work is then implemented, either through a design-specify and tender process or via a design and construct process. This process should in general involve the original consultant who produced the recommendations to ensure that the original intent is carried out.

Water Audit

Knowing where water is used is the first step towards saving water in the workplace. A water audit helps track water usage and pinpoint where you could modify equipment or change behaviour to reduce water consumption. A water audit can make an immediate impact by identifying and fixing obvious water problems.

The purpose of a water audit is to work out where water is being used with a view to reducing consumption and hence cost and demand on an important resource. The water audit starts with four major questions and works into greater detail in each area. These questions are:

• Where does the water come from?
• Where does the water go after it’s used?
• How much water is used?
• Where is the water used?
  

Waste Audit

A waste audit is a formal, structured process used to quantify the amount and types of waste being generated by an organisation. Information from audits will help identify current waste practices and how they can be improved. Being waste-wise can mean:

• a more efficient and effective organisation
• reduced waste management costs
• better use of limited natural resources.
  

Audits can be done on any type of waste e.g. paper and office waste, municipal waste, commercial and industrial waste, construction and demolition waste etc. There are a number of different ways to conduct a waste audit, such as visual waste audits, waste characterization, desktop audits and others. The type of audit EcoSTEPS use depends on the type of waste, where it is and what is required from the audit.

Find out how EcoSTEPS can help your organisation, please contact us.

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