Old Mutual has announced that its Mutualpark offices in Pinelands, Cape Town is now operating off the water grid.

According to Old Mutual, Mutualpark is one of the largest corporate offices in South Africa currently covering 166,000m² and housing 9,000 employees and contractors.

The banking group has managed to get off the grid after it introduced the very first corporate-based waste-to-drinking Water Filtration Plant in South Africa.

“The launch of this waste-to-drinking Water Filtration Plant is providing a potential water-saving for the city of approximately 10 to 15,000 kilolitres a month,” it said.

According to Old Mutual, the filtration plant is earmarked to be office park’s main water source.

“It has the capacity to produce between 650,000 and 800,000 litres a day. Mutualpark’s average consumption is about 450,000 litres of water a day.

“We have been piloting the plant since July 2018 and the results have been impressive. Not only is it contributing towards essential water conservation in the drought-stricken Western Cape, it has also encouraged a wonderful uptake in community involvement and participation in some of our water-saving initiatives,” it said.

Through a range of effective water saving initiatives introduced since the beginning of 2016, water consumption at Mutualpark was reduced by 30% before the launch of the Water Filtration Plant, it said.

Some of the water conservation initiatives implemented by Old Mutual include:

Electronic meters were installed in critical water use areas to track misuse and trends, and also proactively manage any leaks.

Aerators were installed on taps and shower-heads to reduce usage, ultimately reducing water consumption.

Water pressure was optimised to reduce the length of flush time for all toilets.

Additional waterless hand sanitisers were installed in all bathrooms.

A greywater system to flush toilets was installed at the onsite crèche at Mutualpark, Greens’cool.

The air-conditioning system has been upgraded to ensure that waste water flushes the toilets. This will eventually mean savings of about 40% (approximately 20 000 litres) of water per day in the heat of summer.

The air-conditioning units in the Data Centre are now air based.

A water-less carwash was introduced and the water-based carwash upgraded with a water recycling plant that has reduced consumption by 80%.

A treated effluent water feed was introduced for irrigation of the sports fields and gardens.

Read: This Cape Town building just went completely off the water grid