At Independent Water Networks Ltd (IWNL) we are leading an innovation project called “Water Neutrality” at one of our NAV sites – Bidwell West.
We want to work together as a community to make Bidwell West the world’s first ever water-neutral housing development.
What is Water Neutrality?
Water Neutrality aims to ensure the water usage on site can be the same as before the new homes were built. This means Bidwell West won’t be taking any extra water from local reserves than before it was built. And you’ll be helping to look after our water sources for generations to come.
This will be achieved by ensuring that for every new development, water demand should first be minimised then any remaining water demand “offset” by water savings.
Why do we need to save water?
In the South East, we actually get less rain each year than East Sudan or Melbourne, Australia. If we don’t change how much water we use now, in the future, we’ll have to take more from the environment – damaging our local water sources and countryside – Houghton Regis’s woods, fields and rivers, and Bidwell West’s own Ouzel Brook.

Achieving Water Neutrality at Bidwell West
Bidwell Water Savers was a trial to test the impact of a behaviour change campaign only (no technological interventions) on water use in the Bidwell West, 908-home new development in Houghton Regis, Bedfordshire.
A multi-channel marketing campaign asked residents to take one water-saving pledge that they felt they could manage. 382 residents (42%) took a pledge, and 55% of those showed an average of 32.9 litres a day savings vs. expected use post-campaign.
The campaign also impacted people who hadn’t done the digital journey to officially take a pledge, with 44% of non-pledged homes seeing an average saving of 22.8 litres a day.
The launch event drove 15% of households to sign up in 4 hours. More than 50% of the pledge sign-ups came from the door knocking activity, which saw 840/908 doors knocked, 335 answered and drove over 200 pledges. Those customers were also offered Wizso tablets, which can be used to save-a-flush. The results from the ‘Predictive Model’ show the combination of the doorstep conversation, pledge and Wizso tablets saw an average of 51.1 litres a day saving vs. average 24.9 litres a day across all residents (not just savers).
Post campaign, Bidwell West residents were using 105 litres per person, per day. To reach water neutrality, off-setting was done to account for this volume. The off-setting took place in local non-household (NHH) properties, and delivered a total saving of 246,836 litres (1.49 litres per £1 spent).

Bidwell's Final Report
If you’d like to see the results of this Water Neutrality campaign at Bidwell West, please take a look at this report.

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