Rainwater usage at city hotel in Birmingham

Hotel Ibis Budget Birmingham Centre (formerly Etap Hotel Birmingham Centre) is a 250-room establishment owned by AccorHotels Group. Like most hotels, the Birmingham Ibis (Etap) has considerable demand for water, including toilet and shower facilities, kitchen, cleaning, washing, etc.

Determined to find ways to save fresh water and reduce costs, hotel’s management decided to introduce a run-off system on the property's roof to divert rainfall into storage tanks. The harvested water is now used for non-drinking purposes such as toilet flushing, washing machines, cooling towers or general cleaning activities.

The hotel installed a rainwater catchment system, which saves up to 780 m3 of potable water per year. The simple water recycling system reduces fresh water consumption at the property by 5 % to 10 %.