eWater supports Stokehouse Green Star Rating

eWater at the Stokehouse featured on Channel 9 News

After a devastating fire in 2014 tore through one of Melbourne’s most well-known hospitality institutions, Stokehouse owner Frank van Haandel set out to rebuild with the future in mind. The re-envisioned Stokehouse Restaurant was developed with sustainability core to the design and a target to achieve a 5-star Green Star rating.

One of the many sustainability initiatives at the new Stokehouse was eWater. Specified into the building from the outset, eWater provides a sustainable onsite alternative to everyday cleaning, food safety and infection control chemicals. For the project it also provided a valuable credit to their Green Star rating objective.

Requiring only salt, water and electricity, the onsite generation system utilises electrolysis to produce a ready-to-use solution for the team that is instantly available throughout the precinct via tapware and automatic handwash stations.

With hygiene management being reprioritised in our post pandemic world, along with the growing recognition that everyday chemicals used for cleaning and infection control are drivers of pollution, waste and indoor air toxicity, alternatives such as eWater provide robust commercial solutions.

Until recently there have been few cleaning and infection control solutions available for specifiers to include in projects. Traditionally a post build consumable item, new solutions like eWater provide a circular economy innovation that complements other sustainability initiatives tackling waste, pollution and well-being in indoor environments.

The transition of chemicals from an operating expense to a capital expense is a change of mindset to most organisations, but the business case stacks up with eWater delivering an 80% average savings on chemical expense leading to a direct capital payback typically within 36 months. At the Stokehouse, the team extensively integrated the system into their everyday operations and have calculated their investment was paid back within 24 months and is now providing compounding operational savings versus the traditional single use chemical model.

eWater today is found in almost every industry sector across Australia with half of all sites being specified from the outset. Founder, Phil Gregory, shares that eWater now well established in the healthcare, aged care and hospitality industries, with hotel, education, mining, commercial and government projects being the fast growing sectors investing in the technology today.

Back at the Stokehouse, today the product is integral to the day-to-day operations, underpinning the food safety program as well as providing a trusted cleaning and infection control solution for front of house.

“I’m really excited that the Chefs love it...they have told me that it’s better than what they could have ever anticipated” — Frank van Haandel, Owner

The team estimate that they are replacing the equivalent of 30,000L of diluted chemicals per year, removing thousands of single use plastic bottles from waste and reducing chemical toxicity on food, surfaces and in air circulation.