Beyond the Hotel: Why Care Homes and Schools Are Making the Switch to Filtered Water
The quiet majority
Think of EcoPure Waters and you probably picture a five-star hotel with a branded bottle on the nightstand. Hospitality is 58% of our client usage, so that is a fair guess. But look at the rest and a different picture appears. Education and care homes together account for close to two-thirds of the usage outside hospitality.
They are the quiet majority of our non-hospitality clients, and they rarely get written about. They also do not buy for the same reasons a hotel does. That is worth understanding, because the case for switching looks different when the people drinking the water are residents and pupils.
Different settings, different reasons
In a hotel, the logo on the bottle is often the headline. In a care home or a school, three other things come first.
Water is a duty, not an amenity. In England, a care provider’s duty to meet residents’ hydration needs is a legal requirement, set out in Regulation 14 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 and inspected by the Care Quality Commission. It is one of the fundamental standards, and the CQC can prosecute where a failure causes avoidable harm. State-funded schools face a similar obligation: drinking water must be provided free of charge at all times on school premises. When water is a legal duty, the question stops being whether you can afford to change supplier and becomes how you make sure it is always there. Regulations for service providers and managers +4
Budgets are fixed, so predictability matters. A hotel can absorb a rise in the price of bought-in water or pass it on to guests. A care home or a school usually cannot. A known running cost per bottle, rather than a price you do not control, is worth more than a headline saving. Our own report says as much: in both sectors, cost predictability and duty of care around water quality matter as much as sustainability.
The experience still counts. The glass of water at the table is part of how a home feels to a resident, and how a school feels to a parent on an open day. Nobody should have to accept a lesser experience because they are in care or in class. Signature’s fuller testimonial makes the same point, talking about residents benefiting from a premium and luxury experience.
What the switch has looked like
Two of our clients show what this looks like in practice.
Signature Senior Lifestyle saves around 32,000 single-use bottles a year and an estimated £23,000 annually. Its procurement coordinator calls easy access to cold still and sparkling water for residents an absolute must-have, both for sustainability and to give residents a premium experience.
Stowe School saves around 25,000 bottles and £18,000 a year. Its operations manager puts it simply: the school requires quality of service from its partners, and that is what it gets.
These are not hotel numbers. They are real ones, and for an organisation with a fixed budget they recur every year. Our client community also includes the University of Oxford.
More than one site
A care group or a school trust rarely has a single site. When every home or school orders its own water, you can end up with the fragmentation we described in The Unified Estate: several suppliers, several prices and no single figure to show the board or the governors. One approach across all sites, each configured for its own size and use, means one relationship, one engineer who knows the estate and one set of numbers.
That matters more in these sectors than most, because the person responsible for water is rarely a water specialist. A care home manager or a school bursar has a hundred other things to run. The best thing a supplier can do is take water off their list.
What it looks like on the ground
A switch in these settings needs to be simple for the people using it and easy for the people running it.
For residents and pupils, self-serve is often the answer. Our corridor solutions come as wall-mounted, built-in or freestanding units, with simple buttons for chilled still and sparkling, or ambient and chilled still, depending on the model. They are designed to be robust and minimalist, which suits places where hundreds of people use the same point every day. In smaller spaces, the Blu Soda dispenses straight into a glass or one of our shorter bottles.
Behind the scenes, reuse only works if the routine is clear. Our guides on daily cleaning, bottle washing, capping and storage and food safety and personal hygiene set it out step by step. Our bottle washer also has a fixed nozzle kit for cleaning the necks of bottles used for direct drinking.
And it needs to add no work. Care home and school teams are already stretched. A switch that adds to their workload will not last. That is why every client has a 24-hour fix and a dedicated engineer who knows the site by name, rather than a ticket number.
Four questions I would ask
If I were running a care home or a school, I would ask any supplier these:
Will it be there when it matters? Ask who fixes a fault, how fast, and whether they know your building.
Does the cost stay put? Ask for the running cost per bottle and how it changes with volume. In our report, the cost per bottle falls from 27p at 50 bottles a day to 19p at 200. Payback is typically within 12 months once usage passes 25 bottles a day against glass or premium plastic. Against the cheapest plastic it takes around 75 bottles a day, so be wary of anyone who tells you it works for everyone.
Can everyone use it independently? Residents, pupils and staff should be able to help themselves without asking for help.
Can you show the evidence? A school or university answering to parents, students and governors, or a care home answering to inspectors, benefits from a supplier who can show real numbers. Ours are in the EcoPure Effect 2026 report.
The same principle, a different setting
I believe premium and responsible are not a trade-off. In a hotel that means a guest who enjoys the stay and a general manager who can say they have done the work on sustainability. In a care home it means a resident who enjoys a good glass of water and a manager who knows the duty is being met. In a school it means pupils with water always to hand and a bursar who can show where the savings went.
The principle is the same in each. Only the people change.
If you are weighing it up for a care home, a school or a group of either, see how it works in our care home and education sections, model your own numbers with the savings calculator, or talk to us.
FAQ
Why are care homes and schools switching to on-site filtered water?
The reasons differ from hospitality. Water is a legal duty in both settings, budgets are fixed so a predictable running cost matters, and the experience of residents, pupils and parents still counts. Reducing single-use waste is a benefit alongside those, not the only reason.
What are the legal requirements for drinking water in care homes and schools?
In England, care providers must meet residents’ nutritional and hydration needs under Regulation 14, which the Care Quality Commission inspects. State-funded schools must provide free drinking water at all times. Requirements can differ in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and for independent schools, so check the rules that apply to you.
How much can a care home or school save?
Signature Senior Lifestyle saves an estimated £23,000 a year and Stowe School an estimated £18,000. Across our client base, savings run from around £3,000 a year at 50 bottles a day against the cheapest plastic to over £115,000 at 200 bottles a day against premium glass. The savings calculator models your own numbers.
Can residents and pupils use it without help?
Yes. Our self-serve corridor units come wall-mounted, built-in or freestanding, with simple buttons for chilled still and sparkling water.
Does it add to staff workload?
It shouldn’t. Every client has a 24-hour fix, a dedicated engineer who knows the site, and a real person on the phone. Our guides set out the day-to-day routine.
Do we need branded bottles?
No, but our reusable glass bottles can carry your own logo, which many clients value as a branded touchpoint. See the bottle designs for the options.