Brightwater Services Ltd.—an authorized water provider—launched in Scotland. Roger Green and Rich Rankin designed the company to service the more than 180,000 businesses in the country that can now choose which licensed water provider they use. Brightwater plans to fill a niche in the SME sector by specifically targeting independent businesses in sectors such as retail, services, tourism, and hospitality and professional services.
The company’s business model is based on delivering cost savings of over £1 million to its customers in its first three years, while reducing their overall combined water use by 287 million liters, which equates to a further saving of up to £644,000.
The company has devised a “10% test,” a water efficiency questionnaire to benchmark current usage and aimed at helping and encouraging businesses to use 10% less water. If every business in Scotland were to reduce their usage by 10%, Scotland would save more than 16 billion liters a year—over 6,440 Olympic size swimming pools—and Scottish business would save up to £35 million in water charges each year.
Brightwater took a sample of 24,875 business premises in Scotland, each of which had an estimated annual spend between £400 and £10,000 on their water services. Approximately 98.1% of all the businesses they analyzed could save 20% on the Industry’s Default Standard Tariff by switching.
“Our research has shown that there is a marked lack of awareness of deregulation in this sector,” said Rich Rankin, managing director of Brightwater. “Many business owners don’t think about switching water suppliers, despite the fact that switching your photocopier, phone or broadband supplier is more common. For small businesses in particular, where owners are juggling many different jobs, they may simply not have the time to consider switching and how it might save them money while improving their environmental performance by saving water. This is where we can help. Small steps can make a huge difference—just something as simple as a dripping tap can waste as much as 3,250 liters of water in a year. And with the World Resources Institute indicating that demand for water is projected to rise by 40% in the next 20 years, there is a clear sustainability message that will resonate with responsible businesses.”
Brightwater is in the process of transitioning a number of companies. McDonald Gordon & Co. Ltd., an accountancy firm, is now saving over £250 a year.
“As a small professional office, we don’t use a lot of water, so were surprised to find out how much we could save,” said Raymond Paterson, director of McDonald Gordon & Co. Ltd. “Brightwater managed the whole process for us and made switching very easy. I would recommend any business, no matter what size, to take the Brightwater challenge.”
Brightwater Services has a Small Business Charter that includes easy switching from other suppliers; advice on water efficiency and usage reduction; water audits, bill validation and rebates.
Brightwater will publish its performance statistics and reviews in real time on its website.
Source: Pagoda PR
