Commercial water use spans offices, retail, schools, healthcare, hospitality, public institutions, and industrial facilities. The statistics below distinguish building-sector estimates, utility surveys, voluntary benchmarking data, and industrial withdrawals so that each figure keeps its original geography, period, unit, and definition.
Key Commercial Water Use Statistics
The most broadly useful figures include:
- In 1985, U.S. commercial building-sector water use was estimated at 6.9 billion gallons per day.
- In 1990, U.S. commercial building-sector water use was estimated at 8.3 billion gallons per day.
- In 1995, U.S. commercial building-sector water use was estimated at 9.6 billion gallons per day.
- In 2000, U.S. commercial building-sector water use was estimated at 10.3 billion gallons per day.
- In 2005, U.S. commercial building-sector water use was estimated at 10.2 billion gallons per day.
- A 2000 report estimated that commercial and institutional users represented 15% to 25% of U.S. municipal water demand.
- In a 2000 AWWA survey, nonresidential users represented 44% of metered urban water use across 331 large water agencies.
- In 1995, the USGS estimated commercial and institutional users at 17% of water drawn from U.S. public supplies.
- In 2015, U.S. industrial withdrawals were estimated at 14,800 million gallons per day.
- Between 1985 and 2015, U.S. self-supplied industrial withdrawals fell about 43%.
- Through June 2012, ENERGY STAR water tracking covered 53,306 properties representing 6.2 billion square feet.
- Through June 2012, offices accounted for 13,144 tracked properties, or 25% of the ENERGY STAR dataset.
- Through June 2012, retail properties accounted for 9,582 tracked properties, or 18% of the ENERGY STAR dataset.
- In buildings benchmarked from 2006 through 2012, the median hospital used 315 gallons per bed per day indoors.
- In an EPA compilation, office plumbing represented 37.21% of weighted-average office water use.
- In the same office-building compilation, cooling towers represented 27.15% of weighted-average office water use.
- As of June 2012, 31,280 ENERGY STAR buildings, or 59%, tracked indoor water only.
- As of June 2012, 21,396 ENERGY STAR buildings, or 40%, tracked both indoor and outdoor water.
Contents
- Commercial water use statistics: national scale and long-term trends
- Commercial water use data by building type and business activity
- Commercial water use statistics for offices, schools, healthcare, and hospitality
- Commercial water use end uses and fixture demand
- Commercial water use tracking, benchmarking, and measurement
- Industrial and commercial water withdrawals by source and geography
Commercial Water Use Statistics: National Scale and Long-Term Trends
The EPA’s Status and Trends in Land Use, Buildings, and Travel Behavior reports a historical estimate for the U.S. commercial building sector. It rose from 6.9 billion gallons per day in 1985 to 8.3 billion in 1990, 9.6 billion in 1995, 10.3 billion in 2000, and 10.2 billion in 2005.
| Period | Estimated commercial building-sector use | Geography and unit |
|---|---|---|
| 1985 | 6.9 billion gallons per day | United States commercial building sector |
| 1990 | 8.3 billion gallons per day | United States commercial building sector |
| 1995 | 9.6 billion gallons per day | United States commercial building sector |
| 2000 | 10.3 billion gallons per day | United States commercial building sector |
| 2005 | 10.2 billion gallons per day | United States commercial building sector |
Source: Status and Trends in Land Use, Buildings, and Travel Behavior. The 2000 and 2005 commercial/residential split was extrapolated from 1995 data, so these are historical estimates rather than direct current measurements.
Definitions change the apparent scale. A 2000 report estimated commercial and institutional users at 15% to 25% of U.S. municipal water demand, while a 2000 AWWA survey of 331 large water agencies found nonresidential users represented 44% of metered urban water use; nonresidential is broader than commercial-only.
A Southern California survey summarized in a 2008 EPA report estimated commercial uses at 18.8% and public uses at 5.1% of metered urban water use across 28 agencies. The USGS estimated the commercial and institutional sector at 17% of water drawn from U.S. public supplies in 1995, using a category that included hotels, motels, restaurants, offices, institutions, golf courses, other commercial facilities, and some fish hatcheries.
Source: Water Efficiency in the Commercial and Institutional Sector: Considerations for a WaterSense Program. These survey and report figures use different populations and category boundaries.
Commercial Water Use Data by Building Type and Business Activity
ENERGY STAR’s cumulative water-tracking dataset through June 2012 covered 53,306 properties and 6.2 billion square feet. It describes Portfolio Manager users, not a random national sample, and the entries were self-reported or locally mandated.
| Building type | Tracked properties | Share of dataset |
|---|---|---|
| Offices | 13,144 | 25% |
| Retail | 9,582 | 18% |
| K-12 schools | 5,662 | 11% |
| Banks and financial institutions | 3,094 | 6% |
| Hotels | 1,572 | 3% |
| Unrefrigerated warehouses | 1,007 | 2% |
| Hospitals | 960 | 2% |
| Medical offices | 840 | 2% |
| All other building types | 13,742 | 26% |
Source: DataTrends: Water Use Tracking. The categories show participation in the tracking platform rather than the national distribution of commercial buildings.
The dataset’s largest named groups were offices, retail, and K-12 schools. Hotels, hospitals, medical offices, and warehouses each formed smaller shares, while the residual “all other” category represented 13,742 properties, or 26%.
Commercial Water Use Statistics for Offices, Schools, Healthcare, and Hospitality
EPA’s historical compilation of three primary source families gives ranges for identified commercial water use by subsector. The ranges reflect differences in study definitions and samples, not a precise current national allocation.
| Subsector | Range of identified commercial water use | EPA-compilation weighted average |
|---|---|---|
| Hospitals and healthcare | 2%–20% | 7.32% |
| Offices | 8%–17% | 9.2% |
| Schools | 5%–13% | 5.88% |
| Hospitality | 6%–16% | 14.8% |
| Commercial laundries | 1%–4% | 1.73% |
| Car washes | 0%–2% | 0.28% |
Source: Water Efficiency in the Commercial and Institutional Sector: Considerations for a WaterSense Program. The weighted averages are EPA compilations of historical source families, not new national measurements; hospitality includes restaurants and lodging in the cited studies.
The Portfolio Manager building counts add a separate participation perspective: offices represented 25% of tracked properties, K-12 schools 11%, hotels 3%, hospitals 2%, and medical offices 2% through June 2012. Those shares should not be substituted for sector water-use shares because the dataset reflects who tracked water and which property types entered the platform.
Commercial Water Use End Uses and Fixture Demand
The EPA report’s office-building end-use table identifies plumbing, cooling towers, and landscapes as major components of weighted-average office use. The underlying weighted-average sample contained 16 establishments, and its average office use was 139,150 gallons per day per establishment.
| Office end use or measure | Figure | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Plumbing | 37.21% | Weighted-average office-building water use |
| Cooling towers | 27.15% | Weighted-average office-building water use |
| Landscape use | 20.06% | Weighted-average office-building water use |
| Sample size | 16 establishments | Weighted-average office-building sample |
| Average use | 139,150 gallons per day per establishment | Same historical sample |
Source: Water Efficiency in the Commercial and Institutional Sector: Considerations for a WaterSense Program. Plumbing includes lavatory faucets, toilets, urinals, and showerheads, and the study was based on a small utility-study sample weighted by service-area share.
The same EPA appendix reports 64,090 gallons per day per establishment for its weighted-average commercial-laundry sample. That figure comes from a small historical sample, and the appendix notes that the source was an earlier AWWA-based study.
These end-use figures help explain why a commercial water program may need more than fixture replacement alone: the cited office sample also assigned substantial shares to cooling towers and landscapes. They should remain sample-specific rather than being presented as a universal office profile.
Commercial Water Use Tracking, Benchmarking, and Measurement
ENERGY STAR’s June 2012 tracking data show how participating buildings measured water. Nearly 60% of Portfolio Manager users tracked indoor water only, while just over 40% tracked a combination of indoor and outdoor water.
| Tracking approach | Buildings | Share of tracked buildings |
|---|---|---|
| Indoor water only | 31,280 | 59% |
| Indoor and outdoor water | 21,396 | 40% |
| Outdoor water only | 480 | 0.9% |
| Other combinations | 150 | 0.3% |
Source: DataTrends: Water Use Tracking. The dataset is self-reported, filtered, self-selected, and nonrandom.
The benchmarked hospital result provides one building-specific intensity measure: the median hospital in the ENERGY STAR sample used 315 gallons per bed per day indoors for buildings benchmarked from 2006 through 2012. It is a median from self-reported, nonrandom buildings rather than a national healthcare average.
Federal guidance provides a measurement threshold rather than an observed sector average. The guidance requires water meters for federal buildings with water-using processes and whole-building consumption above 1,000 gallons per day.
Source: Estimating Methods for Determining End-Use Water Consumption. The 1,000-gallon threshold applies to federal building metering guidance.
Industrial and Commercial Water Withdrawals by Source and Geography
Industrial withdrawals are related to commercial water discussions but are not interchangeable with commercial-building consumption. USGS figures describe withdrawals, including self-supplied water, and do not represent water consumed after return flows.
In 2015, U.S. industrial withdrawals were estimated at 14,800 million gallons per day, about 5% of total U.S. withdrawals. The 2015 figure was about 43% below 1985 self-supplied industrial-withdrawal levels, and surface water supplied 82% of total U.S. industrial withdrawals.
Source: Industrial Water Use. The USGS industrial category excludes the separate thermoelectric category.
| State | Share of U.S. self-supplied industrial withdrawals in 2015 |
|---|---|
| Indiana | 15% |
| Louisiana | 14% |
| Texas | 6% |
| Tennessee | 5% |
| Pennsylvania | 4% |
Source: Industrial Water Use. These are state shares within the USGS industrial-withdrawal series, not commercial-building shares.
The geographic concentration illustrates why national commercial water statistics need category labels. A state’s position in self-supplied industrial withdrawals cannot be used to infer its office, retail, hospitality, or institutional water demand without a separate building-sector measure.