Case study: Premier Inn

Premier Inn reduces water consumption by 20% through greywater recycling innovation.

The background 

In 2002, Waterscan and Whitbread joined forces to tackle a variety of water consumption issues across all their hotel and restaurant brands. Successful projects continue today and include water auditing, bill validation and leak detection and repair.

In 2007, Premier Inn, Whitbread's hotel brand and the UK's largest budget hotel operator, invited Waterscan to design, supply and install a sustainable, state of the art water recycling system at their Doncaster hotel to help meet stringent new energy efficiency targets.

The solution

Waterscan's recycling specialists analysed the plans for the new hotel and proposed a greywater recycling system that would recycle water used in the baths and showers to flush the toilets. The system was designed to meet the limits values of the EU guideline for bathing water, to be energy efficient and have a minimum requirement for cleaning and maintenance.

The outcome

An Aquacontrol greywater system was installed at Doncaster in 2007 and in 2008 a combined rainwater and greywater recycling unit was installed at Premier Inn's new flagship green hotel in Tamworth.

Doncaster is currently recycling 2,800 litres of water per day with a reduction in mains water consumption of 19%. Tamworth's recycling is providing 100% of the hotel's toilet water use, saving 20% of the hotel's entire water consumption.

The proposal now is to modify the design and create a range of systems specifically designed for Premier Inn for all new build hotels in the UK with a payback period of 3-5 years.