Abstract
The sustainable, reliable, and safe provision of water is a rapidly growing and urgent challenge facing the UK, Europe, and much of the world. This thesis explores sustainable water management in UK campus environments. The scientific novelty of this thesis lies in the collation of cases studies from the University of Surrey (UoS). Combining practitioner experiences, research and industrial best practice, to form the basis of a new operational, and organisational change framework, supported with practical guidance. This thesis also provides analysis of the largest collection of objective showering data reviewed to date.
This thesis identifies and targets four key drivers of water use; policy, perception, behaviour, and infrastructure, stressing the need for a holistic multidisciplinary approach. Infrastructural upgrades showed the greatest impact. However, policy and behaviour strongly influenced success.
Through targeting interventions at high use areas, the UoS achieved a 35% reduction in annual water saving over 200,000 m/year, during a time where UoS expanded its estate by 15%, and reduced its FTE headcount by 6%. This thesis goes on to introduce practical, transferable guidance, and a framework to deliver sustainable water management, building on existing change theories explaining both ‘what’ and ‘how’ to bring about a reduction in water use. The developed framework sets out the ‘how’ utilising a hybrid of the 4E’s and MINDSPACE theories, for use in an applied sustainability setting. It is then supported by an operational guidance document for practitioners providing the ‘what’ . This highlights the essential role accurate metering and data play in identifying opportunities, and quantifying impact. The transferable results of this thesis could significantly reduce water consumption in both campus environments, and wider society.
Overall, this thesis delivers a roadmap for campuses to reduce water use, increase resilience, and lessen their environmental impact, highlighting the importance of universities leading in addressing critical environmental impacts.