A study by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) was conducted in 2012 and updated in 2017 to determine what types of facilities use the most water in the U.S. The EIA plans to update the survey again in December 2022. While there likely will be some changes, many key findings are expected to remain about the same.
Here is how the study was conducted.
The EIA selected 46,000 commercial buildings in the country greater than 200,000 square feet. The researchers found that these buildings use about 360 billion gallons of water annually.
That’s about one billion gallons of water per day and represents 2.3 percent of the total public water supply in the U.S. Further, these buildings each use, on average:
• About eight million gallons of water per building
• Twenty gallons per square foot
• More than 18,000 gallons of water per worker.
The researchers found that those buildings that operate 24/7 use the most significant amounts of water. At the top of the list were “inpatient health care facilities,” referring to hospitals.
The three others at the top of the list included the following:
• Public order and safety buildings — primarily prisons but could include law enforcement facilities as well.
• Lodging buildings — hotels, motels, and so on.
• Public assembly buildings — any building where fifty or more people meet regularly, including churches, meeting halls for private or government use, and buildings used for ongoing social activities.
Other buildings using a large amount of water each year included:
• Outpatient health care facilities
• Office buildings
• Schools
• Enclosed shopping malls, warehouses, and storage buildings
From here, the study went a bit further. For instance, it reported:
• Water use per square foot does not vary significantly as a building ages. The only exception was hospitals which may tend to use more water with age.
• Large buildings constructed from 1960 until 2012 all used about twenty gallons of water per square foot.
• The only exception again were hospitals. According to this study, today’s hospitals use less water than those built before 1960. In 1960, hospitals used about fifty-five gallons of water per square foot; after two thousand, that was down to forty-five gallons per square foot. *
• It was also pointed out that while hospitals made up only 11 percent of the large commercial buildings in the study, overall, they accounted for 26 percent of the total water consumption of large facilities.
• Similarly, lodging facilities represented only 9 percent of the buildings, but these facilities used almost 20 percent of all the water used in large buildings.
Overall, a Gloomy Report
The data is interesting, but when we dig deeper, we see it reflects the many challenges we face today as water supplies permanently dwindle. In 1960, we had droughts; but droughts are temporary. Today, we have aridification. This is when a lack of water becomes a permanent situation.
Why should a building built in 2012 or later use the same amount of water as one built in 1960? This is something we must correct.
Further, hospitals are of particular concern. Yes, we want them to have all the water they need for proper patient care, but that does not mean they do not need to be water responsible. Simply installing waterless urinals in public hospital restrooms could save millions of gallons of water per year.
This is something we suggest they do now. It’s an easy step with two other major benefits: it helps make hospitals more sustainable and lowers water utility bills. With the tight financial condition most hospitals are in today, this can be a significant cost saving.
*Other studies indicate that hospital water consumption is still about fifty-five gallons per square foot.
Source: EIA: CBECS 2012 Water consumption in large buildings summary
