SEW Water Saver App recognised as awards finalist
South East Water’s Water Saver App, developed in partnership with The University of Melbourne, has been recognised as a finalist in the Customer Experience category of the Australian Water Association’s Australian Water Awards.
The mobile application, likened to a ‘smart watch for water’, combines technology and behavioural science to empower customers to save water and reduce their bills.
The app has progressed through three pilot trials, with feedback from users being overwhelmingly positive and water usage reducing by up to 47 L per day, per participating household. In 2023–24, South East Water helped customers save 683 million litres of water.
“We’re proud to be recognised nationally for putting customer experience at the centre of water innovation,” said South East Water General Manager Research, Innovation and Commercialisation Daniel Sullivan. “The Water Saver App is a great example of how we can help customers take control of their water use with simple, actionable insights while supporting sustainability for the broader community.”
The app was defined and delivered through years of planning, research-driven insights and collaboration. To build on this momentum, South East Water has renewed its partnership with The University of Melbourne.
The recognition complements South East Water and The University of Melbourne’s earlier success with their Water Sensitive Cities research into irrigation for urban cooling, which won the Victorian Water Award for Research and Development Excellence.
The urban cooling research is also a finalist in the upcoming Australian Water Awards under the Research and Development Excellence category.
In addition to these projects, South East Water’s Customer Experience Optimisation technical paper, by Christopher Riddle and Peter Hiransi from Customer Strategy and Design, has been selected as an OzWater’25 Best Paper Finalist.
The Australian Water Association will announce the winners of the Australian Water Awards at Ozwater’25 in Adelaide this month.
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