SDS SECURES £100K FUNDING TO DELIVER SMART RAINWATER MANAGEMENT BLUEPRINT FOR SCHOOL

SDS in partnership with Affinity Water, has been awarded £100,000 through the Water Efficiency Cambridgeshire Fund (weCB Fund) to deliver an innovative project that will demonstrate how smart rainwater management can help schools reduce water consumption, lower costs and improve resilience to climate change.

For the Smart Rainwater Management Blueprint for Schools project SDS will design and install large-scale smart rainwater harvesting systems at two schools in Cambridge, creating a practical model that can be replicated across the education sector nationwide.

Funded through the weCB, the project will combine rainwater harvesting with SDS’s Intellistorm® smart control technology to reduce reliance on mains water while helping to ease pressure on local drainage networks during periods of heavy rainfall.

The systems will harvest rainwater from large school roof areas for reuse in non-potable applications, including toilet flushing, while intelligent forecasting software will automatically create storage capacity ahead of anticipated storms. By releasing an appropriate volume of stored water before rainfall arrives, the system ensures sufficient capacity is available to capture incoming rainwater, reducing the amount of surface water entering the drainage network during peak storm conditions.

The project is expected to save approximately 797 litres of potable water every day, helping schools reduce water bills while demonstrating how smart rainwater management can contribute to both water efficiency and flood resilience.

As well as delivering measurable environmental benefits, the installations will include public-facing digital displays showing real-time water savings, creating an engaging educational resource that supports STEM learning and helps pupils understand sustainable water management in practice.

Stuart Stevenson, Sustainable Homes Manager, Affinity Water, said:

“We are pleased to partner with SDS in our successful bid under the WECB to create a Smart Rainwater for Schools Blueprint. This project will demonstrate how innovative rainwater management can help schools reduce water consumption, cut costs, improve resilience and inspire the next generation to think differently about sustainable water use.”

Representing SDS, Mark Manning, National Specification Manager, said:

“Schools present an ideal opportunity for smart rainwater management. By capturing and reusing rainwater for toilet flushing, schools can significantly reduce their potable water consumption while also lowering running costs. At a time when school budgets are under increasing pressure, any savings on utilities can be redirected towards teaching and learning.

Smart rainwater management goes a step further than traditional rainwater harvesting by using rainfall forecasts to proactively release water from storage tanks before a storm arrives, creating capacity to capture the upcoming rainfall. This is particularly effective in schools, where the large roof areas can generate significant volumes of runoff during heavy rain. By reducing the quantity of water in the tanks while the downstream drainage network is under relatively low demand, the system creates space to capture rainwater that would otherwise overwhelm the drainage network during peak storm conditions, reducing pressure on drainage infrastructure when it is needed most.

This project will create a blueprint for best practice in smart rainwater management for schools, demonstrating how these systems can be successfully implemented across Cambridge and, ultimately, rolled out nationally. As well as helping schools reduce costs and improve water efficiency, it will support wider efforts to address the increasingly significant challenge of water scarcity and improve resilience during periods of heavy rainfall.”

By demonstrating how intelligent rainwater harvesting systems can reduce demand for treated drinking water while helping to manage stormwater at source, the initiative is expected to support wider adoption of the technology across the city and beyond.

This initiative reinforces SDS’s position at the forefront of integrated water management innovation, with multi-award-winning Intellistorm® continuing to demonstrate how digital technology can transform conventional rainwater harvesting into a smarter, more resilient solution for the built environment.

John Gilbert, Head of Planning and Project Management at MOSL (the market operator for England’s non-household water retail market charged with delivering the weCB Fund), said:  

“The weCB Fund Team is delighted to be working with SDS as part of a cohort of successful applicants for our first round of funding. Between them, the cohort is aiming to save an estimated 628,000 litres of water per day in Cambridgeshire by March 2027.  

“Once contracts are finalised, they will kick off a whole range of water saving projects within three months. We want to thank SDS and all successful applicants for applying to the weCB Fund- we can’t wait to get started on unlocking Cambridgeshire’s growth potential through water saving.”