How can the process of adopting energy management in organisations inform water management practice?

Energy and water are interconnected natural resources and are vital utilities utilised by organisations to enable their business delivery. Managing these resources within the United Kingdom ‘UK’ is currently focused on energy management with a small or neglected focus on water management in non-domestic buildings. This paper explores, through an overview of energy management policy, energy management practice, the water market and supported by a case study, the reasons for which the adoption of energy management should be encouraged in order to stimulate greater water management activity amongst organisations. The case study of Northamptonshire County Council is presented in order to illustrate energy management and water management activity in a high performing ISO50001:2011 organisation, demonstrating the authority’s current approach to implementing water management and water efficiency projects. Results of this study show that, first, water management can be linked to energy management via the low emissions target for the UK. Second, that the lessons learned from the adoption of energy management by organisations are transferrable, and support a wider adoption of water management: i.e. policy enforcement, funding opportunities for water efficiency projects, etc.