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Water

Office buildings are a significant consumer of water. Commercial water use can account for 10 percent of a city’s water consumption. Even a moderate sized building of 100,000 square ft may consume over 2,800 gallons in a day or more than 1.8 million gallons of water a year. That is enough to supply 40 average sized homes.

  • Conserve
    • Fix leaks: Millions of gallons of water are lost every year through leaking pipes
    • Install water saving fixtures: Using low-flow sink fixtures at the tap can decreases water usage by 50 percent
    • Update plumbing fixtures: Consider replacing toilets with low- flow toilets that use 40 percent less water or waterless urinals
  • Reuse
    • Consider grey-water, reclaimed water or rainwater harvesting for landscape irrigation
  • Localize
    • Encourage conservation, by using native landscape material and use of local water sources first (cisterns)


Alachua County installed over 60 waterless urinals. These devices save over 3 million gallons of water a year and $25,000 dollars.

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