The Power of Practical Innovation

By Groundbreaker

In September, we were delighted to find out that our NRv2 LoFlo was the winner of this year’s Water Dragons. It’s a small, simple device that sits at the meter and helps homes use less water, without anyone having to change what they do. To see it recognised by the Future Water Association, in a competition that has been backing new ideas since 2008, meant a great deal to our small team.

It has also made us think about how change really happens in this industry. We tend to picture big breakthroughs. In our experience it’s far more low key than that: a practical idea, tried out in the real world, that somebody was willing to back. Water Dragons has welcomed nearly 400 innovations since 2008 and each one began with someone who thought they could make a difference.

We’re all familiar with the Environment Agency’s 5 billion litres a day shortfall by 2055. The detail that matters more is where it expects the answer to come from: around 60% of the projected deficit through managing demand and cutting leaks, and, in The Water Report’s reading of the framework, up to 80% before new supply starts arriving around 2040. Supply schemes take years, so for the next decade or more the work falls to measures we can fit today. A flow regulator at the meter is about as low tech as demand management gets, and across a major network rollout it has cut per capita consumption by an average of 4.67% a year. Low tech doesn’t mean low impact. With ten million more smart meters on the way, the chance to fit simple solutions at scale is now, and the sooner we start, the more they add up.

Getting there isn’t something any one company, product or campaign can do alone. It takes a lot of people each doing their bit and pulling in the same direction: water companies, manufacturers, developers, installers and regulators. A small step is worth the most when it lines up with everyone else’s.

That spirit of collaboration is what the FWA has been nurturing for four decades and it’s why this recognition means so much to us.

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