The Challenge
The Trust’s facilities team were having so many blockage and odour problems in customer washrooms that they were considering costly refurbishments to take out the urinals altogether.
They then connected with HSG who found a cost-saving alternative by installing the innovative Ureco and Uretech water management system.
This patented technology has enabled the charitable trust to avoid the refurbishment and is also saving them on utility bills.
As a further commitment to improving the visitor experience, the Trust has also adopted HSG’s latest innovation – Cleen – which is the UK’s first fully integrated management tool and review app.
Visitors will be encouraged to download the free Cleen App onto a smartphone and give their feedback on washroom facilities – positive or negative.
Using the Cleen Dashboard, the Trust can then directly respond to feedback or promote positive reviews. The system also provides detailed daily, weekly and monthly reports on review trends and issues for evaluation and monitoring of facilities.
Our Approach
After carrying out a detailed survey, HSG has so far installed 52 Urecos and 26 water managers across five sites.
These include the award-winning Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum; Jacobean style Aston Hall and the adjacent Aston Stables; the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter which is a perfectly preserved workshop; and the 250-year-old Sarehole Mill – famous for its association with author J.R.R Tolkein.
Recognised last year with The Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation, the Ureco has been designed to reduce the amount of water flushing through washroom urinals to just 4 flushes per day.
This is done through the unique design of the product and a blend of natural bio enzymes to ‘eat away’ at waste product within the waste pipework. The Ureco also has other filters and a patented ‘odour lock’ system which controls odours within urinal pipework.
Ureco works alongside the Uretech water manager which incorporates many unique features that allow the user to adjust water consumption in urinals based on their business type and usage requirements.
The Result
By adopting the Ureco system, Birmingham Museums Trust have reduced daily water usage from 16,674 litres to just 628 litres.
This will equate to an annual saving of 5.8 million litres of water a year – saving the charity more than £14,500 a year in utility bills and even more in costly maintenance work.
Facilities Manager Jeremy Ross said: “Our vision is to reflect Birmingham to the world and the world to Birmingham. Sustainability and the whole visitor experience is important to us – right down to the washrooms.
“HSG has found the ideal solution to our on-going issue of issues in the male washrooms. As well as improving the washroom experience, Ureco will improve our environmental credentials by reducing water usage and save us money in both maintenance and utility bills.
“We look forward to customer feedback using the Cleen App which will help us monitor and address any other issues highlighted by visitors quickly and efficiently.”
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