The roles and opportunities for businesses to prevent water shortages

The companies account for about two thirds of the water consumption in Sweden and consume more water than the corresponding companies in southern Europe. This waste of resources needs to end, both because water supply is starting to become limited in many places in the Sweden and since unnecessary water consumption also leads to a the use of extra resources to pump and purify these diluted water streams, which loads both water sources and recipients.

The project is carried out together with Region Kalmar Län. Central to the project are interviews with companies and other actors in the Kalmar County to map the companies' conditions and obstacles to carry out water saving. Actors important to involve to create long-term synergy effects and maximize dissemination are integrated into the work.

This is a preparatory project that will build, evaluate and anchor the following initiatives which are then demonstrated in implementation projects, if granted:

• Demonstration of water saving at selected companies to verify systematic method for water mapping and to develop a calculation model that also shows indirect savings and added value with water savings.
• Build local collaboration and system solutions for water saving.
• Advisory services to companies within water saving.
• Regional/national business network to educate and exchange experiences in water saving.

All the methods and initiatives that will be developed will be directly scalable from regional to national level, to promote the effective dissemination of the project's results.