What opportunities will a water borehole open to businesses?

Having a water supply via a private water borehole is becoming more popular among businesses and can create highly beneficial opportunities. With overhead costs rising across the board, businesses are trying to find ways to combat this and reduce costs where they can. Water consumption can be a large part of a business’s utility bill and water boreholes can be a great way to reduce consumption and a reliance on mains water.

Water borehole opportunities

Water boreholes offer many opportunities for businesses both financial and environmental. Let’s take a deeper look into these opportunities to see how businesses could benefit.

Reduce costs

The main benefit that attracts most businesses to installing water boreholes is the opportunity to reduce their water costs. We have seen clients able to cut the costs of clean water budgets by over 90%. Businesses can abstract up to 20,000 litres of water per day without requiring a licence via the Environment Agency (note you are obliged to inform the British Geological Society of and boreholes deeper than 15m), which means after installation, businesses can source fresh water for free.

Whilst there can be substantial upfront costs associated with installing a water borehole such as getting a prognosis, permissions if required, on-site work and verifying purity of the water source, the benefits far outweigh the initial costs – particularly as water boreholes can have a short Return on Investment (ROI) depending on use. Ultimately, water boreholes can essentially eliminate businesses reliance on mains water, help you reduce your carbon footprint, reducing costs significantly, while also offering the option to use mains water when needed.

Become self-sufficient

A large part of installing a water borehole is the ability to be self-sufficient. The water accessed within these boreholes is the result of rain and natural run-off, so a business would simply be accessing a resource that has accumulated because of the topography of their region. Which means almost no reliance on third party machinery or processes of the water supply.

Uninterrupted supply

Water boreholes largely offer a continuous supply of water at a constant pressure with little chance of a fault occurring. There can be issues associated with mains water supply that water boreholes don’t suffer simply because they are independent of the risks associated with mains supply. For businesses who rely on a constant supply to water, boreholes are far more reliable than mains water for an uninterrupted supply.

Long term savings and ROI

Water boreholes not only save on water costs for businesses but have a great ROI with the potential to generate revenue. A water borehole is considered to be a type of building improvement, similar to installing solar PV for example, and can add value to a commercial property. These water boreholes can cost around £100,000 to install, depending on depth, local geology and site access with payback periods determined by how much the site uses. As they are suited for multiple uses from drinking water, to food production and washing and irrigation, the ROI can be substantial.

Environmental edge

There are also significant environmental benefits of installing a water borehole. Most notably is that they are the most environmentally friendly way of securing water supply. For businesses also looking to reduce Scope 3 emissions and their carbon footprint, water boreholes can support this. For businesses such as manufacturers who consume a large amount of water, by switching to a water borehole, they could reduce both costs, consumption and their carbon footprint. The UK water retailers are one of the biggest energy users throughout the country.