WaterScan — Sustainable Water Management Consultancy

The challenge

WaterScan Ltd, a British company specializing in sustainable water management, needed a digital platform that would allow their enterprise clients to visualize, analyze and optimize their water consumption. The challenge included working in a fully international context, with documentation and communication in English, and complying with reporting standards such as CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project).

Our solution

We provided external development consultancy to build a data platform focused on efficient enterprise water management, covering everything from data capture to sustainability report generation.

What we built

• Consumption dashboards with real-time data visualization by site, department and period
• Efficiency audit module to identify water-saving opportunities
• Leak detection system with automatic alerts based on anomalous consumption patterns
• Report generation aligned with sustainability frameworks (CDP, UN Global Compact)
• B2B portal for enterprise clients with multi-user access and roles

Data processing pipeline

The platform processes water data from multiple sources with a pipeline designed to handle high-volume time series:

• Multi-source ingestion: data from smart meters, IoT sensors, manual readings and water provider APIs, normalized to a unified format
• Time series database optimized for temporal range queries, period aggregations (hourly, daily, monthly) and year-over-year comparisons
• Anomaly detection engine that compares current consumption against historical baselines, identifying statistical deviations that may indicate leaks or misuse
• Benchmarking engine: each reading is contextualized against sector reference metrics (hospitality, retail, manufacturing, education), allowing clients to compare their water efficiency with their industry average

Sectors served

The platform was designed to serve multiple verticals: hospitality (hotels and restaurants), retail (store chains), manufacturing (industrial plants) and education (university campuses), each with industry-specific metrics and benchmarks.

Reporting and compliance

The reporting module automates the generation of reports aligned with international standards:

• CDP Water Security: automated questionnaire with data pre-populated from the platform
• UN Global Compact: SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) metrics extracted directly from consumption data
• Audit reports with recommendations prioritized by impact and implementation cost
• PDF export with client-customized branding for stakeholder presentations

Technical architecture

Results

WaterScan operates in the British market with CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) accreditation and UN Global Compact alignment, positioning itself as a benchmark in sustainable water management for enterprises. The platform enables its enterprise clients to make data-driven decisions to reduce their water footprint.

• Operation in the UK market with enterprise clients across multiple verticals
• CDP accreditation with automated reporting that reduces manual compliance effort
• Anomaly detection with automatic alerts that identify potential leaks before they escalate
• Multi-vertical: hospitality, retail, manufacturing and education, each with sector benchmarks
• Multi-tenant portal with role management by organization, site and department

Key technical decisions

• Time series database: chosen over traditional relational databases for its superior performance in temporal range queries and aggregations, fundamental for water consumption analysis
• React with interactive dashboards: data visualization is the platform’s core; React enables efficient updating of complex charts with large data point volumes
• Node.js for the backend: full-stack JavaScript consistency that facilitates collaboration with the WaterScan team and simplifies maintenance
• Multi-tenant architecture: a single deployment serves multiple organizations with data isolation, reducing operational costs
• Sector benchmarking: instead of generic metrics, each vertical has its own reference standards, making recommendations more actionable

Tech stack

• React (Frontend with interactive dashboards)
• Node.js (Backend API)
• Time series database
• Data visualization (consumption and trend charts)
• Integration with IoT sensors and smart meters
• Automated reporting (CDP, UN Global Compact, PDF)