As individuals, we are all aware of the ways we can work towards using less water; turning off taps, noticing and stopping any leaks and investing in water saving devices such as water butts.

However, it is equally important for businesses to take stock and understand the improvements they can make in the way water is used.

It’s often difficult to understand the real and immediate need to reduce the amount of water we consume, but the UK has less available water per person than almost every other European country.

At B&Q we are no longer willing to ignore this stark reality and feel it is our duty to actively monitor and reduce water consumption across our store estate. Water conservation is something we incorporate into the development of our stores and also into how we operate.

This year, we signed a three-year partnership with sustainability experts BioRegional to become a One Planet Living Business, working to make improvements in ten key areas, one of which is sustainable water.

We have several water saving initiatives in place to help us meet our targets. One of them is our rainwater harvesting project. At our store in New Malden, a rainwater harvesting system is used to irrigate the garden centre and flush toilets. The system is designed to recover 50 per cent of the water required for toilet flushing and irrigation from the roof, meaning up to 30,000 litres can be collected naturally. We have also installed two 20,000 litre underground tanks to recover rainwater from store roofs at our stores in Stevenage and Norwich.

However, these measures will only be successful if we constantly review our activity and track water usage across our stores. In February, we appointed a group of environment champions, one for every store, to report back on our progress and suggest further improvements to reduce our energy and water consumption.

As part of this we have introduced Smart water metering in 27 Scottish stores – a system that enables us to identify leaks in real time. This has resulted in a saving on our water bill of£18,000 and we hope to roll this initiative out across the UK.

At B&Q, we not only have an environmental interest in saving water but a commercial interest. We will pay less as we consume less and an efficient use of water helps to safeguard our stock.

The Government plans to deal with the water shortage crisis by introducing compulsory water metering across England’s most vulnerable areas, but it is business that has the power to act now and really make a difference.

Terry Hartwell, B&Q group property director