As a significant consumer of water the University is committed to water conservation, harvesting and reuse across all its campuses. Over the past ten years as a direct response to climate change the University has significantly reduced water consumption levels by implementing the following conservation and infrastructure initiatives:
- replacing all single flush toilets with dual flush systems, saving us an estimated 2.5 million litres a year
- capturing and reusing stale water output by air conditioners for irrigation purposes
- installation of a 16 mega litre retention basin to capture stormwater overflow for irrigation use
- stormwater collection for use in maintaining the Japanese Gardens Lake
- re-plumbing buildings to be operational on 100% harvested rainwater.
To balance demand with compliance obligations, the central focus over the next five year will be on the development and implementation of a long-term sustainable water strategy.