LIFEH2OBUS - Arriva Italia
Brescia Bergamo – Lecco Cremona Valle d’Aosta Torino Arriva Udine Arriva Veneto ASF Autolinee Trieste Trasporti

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LIFEH2OBUS

LIFEH2OBUS is a project co-founded by the European Union, with the aim of building a European best practice for water management amongst bus operators, working within the public transport sector, with the aim of reducing water consumption to the lowest possible level. This is the first time the EU has initiated a water management project within the public transport sector.

During the three-year project, water consumption data will be gathered through the use of an innovative software system which will assess and determine best practice. The best practice will be flexible enough to adapt to different economic and geographical/climate contexts.

A project to reduce waste of water

It is hoped that the best practise processes established through this project will then be shared and adopted throughout European bus operators and be implemented as widely as possible.

It is expected that the LIFEH2OBUS initiative will contribute to the transport sector moving closer towards its sustainability and circularity objectives, while providing the bus operator community with guidelines to successfully implement the most impactful solutions as well as highlighting publicly the importance of water conservation as part of the sustainability agenda.

LIFEH2OBUS project goals and purpose

Wastewater reclamation and re-cyling
Wastewater reclamation and re-cyling in combination with rainwater harvesting systems
Trial of a new external waxing technique which removes the need for water to be used in vehicle cleaning
An international project

During the life of the project, three different water-saving solutions will be tested and compared in three different Arriva depots in Europe.

The depots have been selected to provide a variety of economic, geographic and climate conditions so that the data is relevant across all parts of Europe.

The depots to take part will be located in Grugliasco, Italy, in Budapest, Hungary and in Požega, Croatia.

 

Innovative partners

Arriva will be working in partnership with two other organisations during the project: Pluservice will implement and customise the Intelligent Garage Management system, which will gather and monitor the testing framework while University La Sapienza will analyse the operational, environmental and economic data and provide a final matrix, analysing each location and the techniques used with an efficiency score, as well as documenting the costs and the pros and cons in their application.

A new set of Best practices

LIFEH2OBUS will eventually provide all bus transport operators with a dashboard function that could help them to choose the best water management solution for them, demonstrating also that shifting from a preventive to a predictive cleaning maintenance activity can truly help to reduce water consumption, better manage water resources and save time.

 

Final Results of the LIFE H2OBUS Project

The LIFE H2OBUS project successfully demonstrated innovative solutions for water management in bus depots across Italy, Hungary and Croatia.

Key results include:
• Up to 85% reduction in water consumption for bus washing operations
• Significant reductions in energy use and CO₂ emissions
• Improved operational efficiency without affecting service quality
• Identification of best available technologies (BAT) adaptable to different operational contexts
• Strong potential for replication across European transport operators

These results confirm the effectiveness and replicability of sustainable water management solutions in public transport, contributing to EU environmental and circular economy objectives.

Final Results and Key Deliverables

The main project results are documented in the following deliverables:

D5.2 – Evaluation of findings (Final results report) D5.3 – Extract of the project data from the LIFE KPI webtool (Final indicators)

Project Sustainability and After LIFE Plan

The long-term sustainability of the project results beyond its duration is ensured through the After LIFE Conservation Plan (D6.4).

The plan focuses on:
• operational integration of the LIFE H2OBUS solutions within Arriva depots
• replication of the technologies across additional European locations
• continued monitoring of environmental and operational performance through KPIs
• ongoing dissemination and stakeholder engagement at European level

The full After LIFE Conservation Plan is not publicly available due to sensitive content and can be shared upon request.

Final Project Event

The final results of the LIFE H2OBUS project were presented during the Final Conference held in Rome in January 2026, involving project partners, institutional stakeholders and transport sector representatives.

The event marked the conclusion of the project and provided an opportunity to present its environmental and operational impacts,
as well as future replication perspectives at European level.

Discover the project with the introductory video
of the Arriva Italia depot in Grugliasco (Turin – Italy)

LIFEH2OBUS – achieve european sustainability goals

LIFEH2OBUS will help the transport sector move towards its sustainability and circularity goals, while providing the bus operator community with guidelines.

It is expected that LIFEH2OBUS will reduce water consumption by 84 per cent on average. This equates to a saving of 37 million litres of water.

Project results will be shared across both public and private transportation sectors to encourage the largest possible uptake across the industry, while providing public authorities with solid data and a valuable tool to generate new protocols or guidelines for water saving in the transport sector.

Discover more about LIFE

Partners

Arriva operates in Italy since 2002, operating local public transport services mainly in northern Italy, as well as airport connections, private hire and commercial services and mobility for large events.
Arriva Italia operates local public transport services in the Aosta Valley and in the provinces of Turin, Brescia, Bergamo, Lecco and Cremona, as well as airport connections and the transport service for reduced mobility students in the municipality of Roma Capitale. As a holding, Arriva Italia got the majority stakes in Arriva Udine and Arriva Veneto and minority shares in ASF Autolinee and Trieste Trasporti.

ArrivaBus is one of the leading players in the Hungarian public transport sector: with its four locations, it operates the most modern and renovated bus fleet in Hungary.

Arriva has had a strong presence in Hungary, starting in Budapest, since 1999, when its formal bid for local services was accepted as part of a competitive bidding process. Since May 2012, ArrivaBus has been operating as an independent public transport service provider for BKK, the capital’s public transport company, providing about 300 million passenger journeys in Budapest each year.

Arriva is the leading provider of passenger transport in Croatia, running a wide range of services including local and regional buses, inter-urban and international coaches, providing their passengers with daily safe and comfortable mobility solutions.
With a fleet of 600 buses, Arriva operates local, regional and long-distance services linking 1,000s of destinations across the country, offering great connections to European countries like Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Serbia and serving 11.5m passengers a year.

Founded in 1303, Sapienza is the oldest university in Rome and the largest in Europe. Its mission is to contribute to the development of a knowledge society through research, excellence, quality education and international cooperation. Scientific research activity at Sapienza covers an extremely broad spectrum of disciplines, reaching levels of excellence in many areas.

Within these, transportation studies at DICEA, the Department of Civil, Constructional and Environmental Engineering, is involved in several research projects funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, and other supranational agencies and bodies (among the latter, the EU-funded projects EBSF, EBSF2, 3iBS, ZeEUS and ELIPTIC, to develop the “Bus of the Future”).

Since 1988, Pluservice has been developing and producing management information systems for transportation companies, occupying a leading position on the national scene, with more than 300 active clients and about 2,000 applications installed.

This project has received funds by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Climate Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.