Quenching Walmart's Thirst for Water Efficiency

Companies have a vested business interest in managing their water

With California facing its worst drought conditions in its history, toxic algae blooms in Lake Erie, andwater costs rising 33 percent since 2010, water's value — both its actual costs and our perception of it — has been transformed since Smith's time.

Companies today have a vested business interest in managing their water consumption. Since 2011,businesses globally have invested $84 billion in water management projects.

Given that water for cooling makes up a significant portion of a building's water use, adopting a portfolio approach to cooling water management program is one way companies can make meaningful impacts in reducing water consumption and improving energy efficiency.

In one powerful example,Walmart — with a portfolio of stores spread across the U.S. — made significant reductions in its water use and utility expense by implementing such a program.

Fragmented approach driving higher costs and water use

In 2008, Walmart found an opportunity to improve the performance of its 180 water-cooled U.S. stores. These stores had no engineering support on-site and no remote monitoring of cooling system performance.

In addition, it had 15 water treatment service suppliers, each with their own vendor report forms, chemical strategies and proprietary equipment.

Assessing its portfolio of stores, Walmart found a lack of both vendor oversight and a standardized approach to cooling water management.

This resulted inexcessive water consumptiondue to low reuse of water and slow response time to leaks,decreased energy efficiency anddecreased useful life of assets.Furthermore, because of lack of a reporting system and access to real-time data, labor was being spent on maintenance issues as opposed to optimization.

In 2008, Walmart partnered with Phigenics to develop a new approach to cooling water management.

Recognizing that developing a strategy to reach water reduction and costs goals at each individual site would be both time and resource-intensive, Walmart took a portfolio-based approach. In an effort to create a company-wide impact and greatly improve the efficiency of water use across its water-cooled facilities.

For companies seeking to optimize the performance of its cooling tower operations, the below framework has been a winning approach for designing and implementing a portfolio cooling water management program.

Develop a cross-functional cooling water management team

Once a team secures buy-in from management, the program champion assembles a cross-functional cooling water management team. A team should include oversight by an independent water management expert and coordination with the local water treatment service representatives and water testing laboratories.

Initially, the team develops an implementation plan based on the following steps and should meet quarterly to review progress. The program champion coordinates quarterly team meetings, monitors overall program progress and liaises with internal and external stakeholders.

Develop a benchmarking program

The program team's first task is to develop program objectives and key results (OKRs). Some examples of OKRs used in Walmart's program and those of other leading companies are:

• Optimizing the useful life of capital assets — key results are conducting an audit, developing a remediation protocol or developing a maintenance plan for each cooling tower.

• Reducing cooling water consumption by 20 percent overall and by 30 percent in water scarce areas — key results are increasing the portfolio's cycles of concentration (how many cycles a tower can operate before flushing the system, aka blow-down), installing make-up and blow-down meters and wireless communication exchanges, and plotting the facilities on a water scarcity map to assess which face the greatest risk of water stress.

• Reducing operation and cooling tower expense by 20 percent — key results are reducing the amount spent on water treatment by 1,000 gallons; reducing water, sewer and energy costs; and negotiating with water utilities for evaporation credits.

• Improve consumer and worker health and safety — key results include reducing and benchmarking quarterly positive tests for Legionella ; and documenting achievements in hazard control.

Source: GreenBiz

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Taxonomy

• Strategic Planning
• Water Management
• Water Governance