Reducing water consumption in the wholesale food industry through water monitoring systems and awareness campaigns

Excellent Meat achieved a 30% reduction in water consumption between 2017 and 2020 by implementing smart water flow meters and internal awareness campaigns. These measures, which cost R 360,958, resulted in a total cost saving of R 1,500,312, including water and wastewater costs, yielding an overall benefit of R 1,139,355.

• Between 2017 and 2020, Excellent Meat reduced its overall water consumption by 30% while maintaining government and client water quality standards for food processing.
• The installation of five smart water flow meters and a monitoring system enabled the detection and repair of a leak in the Fresh Meat section in 2018. This specific action significantly lowered the water consumption rate from 4.0 kl/ton processed in 2018 to 2.1 kl/ton in 2019.
• Water consumption in the Deli section decreased from 13 kl/ton in 2017 to 8 kl/ton in 2020, while the Fresh Meat section saw a reduction from 3.8 kl/ton to 2.6 kl/ton over the same period.
• The financial impact of the water-saving initiatives included a total investment of R 360,958 and total cost savings of R 1,500,312, resulting in a net benefit of R 1,139,355. This includes R 809,346 saved in water costs and R 690,967 saved in wastewater costs.

APA

Botha, R., Bredenkamp, R., & Platt, B. (2021). Reducing water consumption in the wholesale food industry through water monitoring systems and awareness campaigns. GreenCape. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/EXCELLENT_MEAT_CASE_STUDY_31_3_21-3.pdf

Chicago

Botha, Rudi, Randall Bredenkamp, and Barry Platt. Reducing water consumption in the wholesale food industry through water monitoring systems and awareness campaigns. GreenCape, 2021. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/EXCELLENT_MEAT_CASE_STUDY_31_3_21-3.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Botha |first1=Rudi |last2=Bredenkamp |first2=Randall |last3=Platt |first3=Barry |title=Reducing water consumption in the wholesale food industry through water monitoring systems and awareness campaigns |publisher=GreenCape |date=2021 |url=https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/EXCELLENT_MEAT_CASE_STUDY_31_3_21-3.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{botha2021reducing, author = {Botha, Rudi and Bredenkamp, Randall and Platt, Barry}, title = {{Reducing water consumption in the wholesale food industry through water monitoring systems and awareness campaigns}}, institution = {GreenCape}, year = {2021}, url = {https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/EXCELLENT_MEAT_CASE_STUDY_31_3_21-3.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }