If you are a water supplier committed to customer service and water efficiency, you are welcome to join.  Partners pay small annual fee.  You will be able to:

• Join water supplier experts and drivers of water efficiency
•  Access a valuable national network
• Share resources
• Include your customer information in the Water Compare project

Yes, different geographical locations experience different climates, which influence water use, particularly in agriculture, irrigation, cooling towers and aquatic centres.

Yes, water use in similar industry sectors does vary across Australia.  Climatic conditions are the primary reason for the variance.  Water Compare correlates benchmarks against three main climatic regions of Australia to address this matter.  Sectors most impacted by climate are those that irrigate and rely more on cooling towers.

Benchmarking water use is measuring your water consumption against your output or production unit measure, and comparing your performance with other similar industries.
 
By understanding your benchmark and the uses of water or processes that contribute to it, you may be able to improve productivity and establish a realistic water use production target. This will lead to improved efficiency and reduced utility costs.

The project has been funded jointly by all the partners.  The website development was funded by the Victorian Smart Water Fund.
 
Smart Water Fund (SWF)
Established in 2002 the Smart Water Fund is an initiative of Victorian water industry and the Victorian Government. It invests in water industry led research and innovation in urban water management. The Fund has two key aims to:

•  invest in industry led applied research projects that deliver commercially focused outcomes and quantifiable return on investment.
•  relentlessly pursue knowledge transfer opportunities that drive knowledge uptake and utilisation, for the benefit of Victoria's water utilities and the customers they serve

Smart Water Fund provided funding for the project and oversees the contract management and key governance aspects of the Water Compare Portal . For more information: http://www.smartwater.com.au

Australian water use is around 64,000 gigalitres (GL) per year.
In 2009–10, agriculture accounted for 52% of total water consumption. The water supply, sewerage and drainage services industry and household sector were the next highest (14% each), followed by the manufacturing industry (5%).
 
www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/

The information used to develop Water Compare benchmarks is confidential and we adhere to all state and national privacy laws. No individual business information is accessible via the website.  Data entered by a business to calculate its own benchmark is not saved or retained in any way. 
Only aggregated sector wide data is available on the website to facilitate understanding of high, medium or low benchmarks for a specific industry type.
 
Please refer to the privacy statement on the website for further information on how information is used and protected.

Benchmarks are developed by pooling a minimum of 10 individual similar business’ information together to produce industry average information. There may not be a benchmark for your industry if:

•  there is not enough businesses in your sector for a benchmark to be calculated; or data has been unavailable from enough    businesses in your sector to calculate a benchmark.
• You can contribute to the establishment of a benchmark for your industry sector by sending Water Compare information about your business via the Contact Us form on this website.

If you use the contact us form please include:

•  the type of business
•  year that the benchmark applies to
•  your KBAI ( students, guests/nights/tonnes/irrigated hectare etc)
•  your annual production/output measure
•  your contact details 

Water Compare uses 3 Climate Zones.  Temperate, Warm Humid and Hot Arid.  These climate zones are based on Bureau of Meteorology zones.  The post code provided is automatically linked to a specific climate zone.    Climate zones ensure an additional level of privacy for customers and facilitate the development of benchmarks for areas with significantly different climates.

•  Improve understanding of water use across your business
• Compare productivity and water use with other similar businesses
•  Can provide a business with incentive to reduce operating costs by improving productivity and using water as efficiently as possible

Key Business Activity Indicator. Also referred to as a Key Performance Measure or Key Performance Indicator.  The indicator is used to measure a business’ output or activity. For example, KBAIs could be measured in tonnes or kilolitres of product per annum, irrigated hectare, number of customers or guests per night.

Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification.
The classification provides the grouping of businesses carrying out similar activities.  To develop benchmarks for various industrial, commercial and institutions sectors across Australia Water Compare uses the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification
 
More information about ANZSIC codes can be found at www.abs.gov.au/ANZSIC

Benchmarking is comparing your performance with similar industry practices and best practices.
 
Benchmarking your water use means measuring your annual water use against your annual productivity measure or Key Business Activity Indicator (KBAI).

Conserving is to avoid waste, save and use the lowest possible amount and is often associated with water restrictions in times of low water supply security.
 
Efficient water use is defined as using no more or less than is required to produce goods or services or run a business

  Water Compare is a business water efficiency benchmark website tool. Developed in collaboration by leading water utilities and partners across Australia to assist businesses to improve their productivity by using water efficiently.

Key business activity measures.

Sector	KBAI	Water efficiency benchmark
Aged care	resident	kL of water per resident
Beverage manufacturing	kL of beverage produced	kL of water per volume of beverage
Chemical manufacturing	onne of product	kL of water per tonne of product
Dairy cattle farming	Cattle - head	kL of water per cattle head
Dairy product manufacturing	kL of milk processed	kL of water per kL of milk processed
Glass and glass product manufacturing	m2 finished product	kL of water per m2 finished product
Hotel	Bed day/night	kL of water per bed day/night
Hospital	Patient Day	kL or water per patient day
Iron smelting and steel manufacturing	Tonne of product	kL of water per tonne of product
Meat processing	Carcass	kL of water per carcass
Non-residential property operators	Gross lettable area (m2)	kL of water per GLA (m2)
Polymer product manufacturing	Tonne of product	kL of water per tonne of product
Ready-mixed concrete manufacturing	Cubic metre of concrete	kL of water per cubic metre of concrete
Restaurant	Customer	kL of water per customer

• Data is provided to Water Suppliers by their customers
• Occasionally the source of the benchmark data may have been obtained from a peak industry body or government department.   
• Benchmarks from external sources will be used when their data is more statistically valid than Water Supplier data, or the external data source provides information that Water Compare cannot obtain from Water Suppliers.

The partners are water suppliers across Australia committed to customer services, water efficiency and a liveable future.  A list of the project partners can be found on the Partners page of the website. 

• Some ANZSIC codes cover a broad range of activities, for example sportsgrounds include swimming pools.  
• We will therefore develop appropriate sub-categories for ANZSIC codes where this occurs and we have adequate data to develop benchmarks.  
• Sub categories only apply to a small number of ANZSIC codes.