As an employer in the UK, you are mandated by the Workplace Health, Safety and Welfare Regulations of 1992, Regulation 22, to ensure that an adequate supply of wholesome drinking water is provided for all persons at work in the workplace. The source must also be conspicuously marked and a sufficient number of suitable cups or other drinking vessels must be supplied unless the supply of drinking water is in a jet from which persons can drink easily.

One of the best methods of ensuring that you abide by the above regulation is to invest in an office water cooler for your employees. The type of water cooler that will be best-suited to your situation will depend on the type and size of the workplace:

  • Factory Floor – A bottled water cooler may be better suited to this type of space as there are not always mains water pipes to which a Point of Use (POU) water can be plumbed into. All that is needed for a bottled water cooler is a plug-point and space to store both empty and full water bottles.
  • Small Offices or Shops – One could install either a bottled water cooler or a mains water cooler, depending on how many people need to be supplied with drinking water and how much space there is.
  • Large Offices/Sports Venues/Schools – These all require a lot of water, so it is better to install a mains water cooler that is plumbed directly into the main water line. A mains water cooler can supply water virtually non-stop.

It is important to ensure that your office is a green as possible, and one way to do this is to ensure that your water supply company cares about the environment and is green.

If you are London-based, this is very easy to do as Living-Water, London’s premier water cooler company, is an accredited member of the British Water Cooler Association (BWCA), a member of the European Independent Mains and Bottled Cooler Association (EIMBCA), committed to the environment, worked with Carbon Digest to cut power consumption, planted a tree for every additional water cooler we have supplied since 2008, and has been a carbon neutral company since 2009.