WaterSense 2011 Partners of the Year Show How Savings Get Better With Time
Some people may say an anniversary is just another number, but some numbers can be quite meaningful. It seems like it was only yesterday that EPA’s WaterSense program was launched and shortly thereafter released its first specification for high-efficiency toilets. In the five years since the program’s launch, WaterSense-labeled products have helped consumers save 125 billion gallons of water and $2 billion on utility bills. These impressive numbers are a reflection of the effort WaterSense partners have undertaken to make the label synonymous with water efficiency.
Today, there are more than 2,200 WaterSense partners. Thanks to their efforts, the first 50 WaterSense-labeled homes have been built, and more than 4,000 models of plumbing products have earned the WaterSense label. Partners have made WaterSense-labeled products reliable, affordable, and easy to find, and discovered innovative ways to promote the program’s benefits and further its goals.
Each year, WaterSense recognizes an elite group of partners in several categories as its Partners of the Year. On October 5, 2011, EPA announced the following award winners at the WaterSmart Innovations Conference in Las Vegas, NV.
Promotional Partner of the Year:
Cobb County Water System
The Cobb County Water System in Metro Atlanta, GA, a 2009 WaterSense Partner of the Year, stepped up its water efficiency efforts in 2010 by introducing thousands of new consumers to WaterSense, promoting WaterSense-labeled new homes and training irrigation professionals.
In 2010 alone, the Cobb County Water System, which serves 680,000 citizens, gave 75 WaterSense-related presentations in the greater Atlanta community. When WaterSense’s We’re for Water campaign visited Atlanta, Cobb County helped lead an educational event at the Georgia Aquarium–utilizing WaterSense’s Check, Twist, and Replace message in a fun and engaging “Plinko” game.
“WaterSense makes what my staff and I do everyday possible,” says Senior Project Manager Kathy Nguyen. “The programs, materials, and products provide us the resources that help us maximize our time and outreach.”
The Cobb County Water System also chaired a committee to regionalize guidance for the outdoor portion of the WaterSense Specification for Single-Family New Homes, and trained local irrigation and landscape professionals on WaterSense new home criteria. Cobb County requires that any fixtures or toilets purchased by the County must bear the WaterSense label.
These outreach efforts have resulted in growing consumer awareness: A 2010 online survey showed that more than 80% of respondents were familiar with WaterSense, compared to just 10% a few years ago. Area retailers carry more and more WaterSense-labeled products because residents specifically ask for them. And awareness isn’t the only measure of success: Cobb County has seen per capita water use in the county drop from 126 gallons per person per day in 2005 when it began its water efficiency program, to 113 gallons per person per day in 2010.
Manufacturer Partner of the Year:
Delta Faucet Company
In 2010, Delta Faucet Company continued its commitment to increasing the number of its products in the marketplace that are WaterSense-labeled, including the first WaterSense-labeled showerheads. The company further distinguished itself by developing a methodology to verify the performance and water savings of WaterSense-labeled showerheads. Delta Faucet Company’s important role in this effort helped ensure that WaterSense-labeled showerheads meet consumers’ performance expectations.
By the end of 2010, nearly 40% of the company’s showerhead shipments and more than 85% of its lavatory faucets were WaterSense-labeled. More than two-thirds of Delta Faucet Company’s products from the Delta®, Brizo®, and Peerless® faucet brands offer WaterSense-labeled options, making it easy for consumers to save water with style.
“The WaterSense program shares the same belief as we do: that it is possible to provide the end user with a water efficient, high-performance product without taking anything away from the end user’s experience or decreasing the quality of performance,” says Paul Patton, a senior product development manager with Delta Faucet Company.
Delta Faucet Company supplemented its product development work with widespread promotion of water efficient products and practices last year. An e-mail campaign promoted the release of the WaterSense showerhead specification, while a new “Green at Delta” section of the company website provided customers with access to WaterSense-labeled products. In addition, during WaterSense’s Fix a Leak Week, Patton appeared on “Connecting with Carmel,” a local TV show, to encourage consumers to fix household leaks.
To encourage water industry professionals to experience a WaterSense-labeled showerhead first-hand, Delta Faucet Company gave away more than 6,000 at retail sales meetings, trade shows, municipal water utility training sessions, and other presentations. And Delta Faucet Company’s water efficient showerheads are garnering industry recognition, including a model that received Building Products magazine’s 2010 Green Product Award for being one of the best new eco-friendly products for the home.
Retailer Partner of the Year:
The Home Depot
The Home Depot calculates that it saved its customers 27 billion gallons of water and $174 million on water utility bills in 2010 by offering a complete line of WaterSense-labeled products. The Home Depot was not only the first major retailer to sell only WaterSense-labeled lavatory faucets, it now sells WaterSense-labeled products in all of its 2,000 retail locations across the US, with more than two-thirds of its bathroom fixture stock carrying the label. On Earth Day 2010, the company gave away nearly half a million WaterSense-labeled faucet aerators as part of an attention-grabbing display in New York City’s Times Square.
“EPA’s WaterSense label brings confidence and a sense of well-being to consumers looking for quality and a reduced environmental impact,” says Ron Jarvis, vice president of merchandising/sustainability.
The Home Depot also supports pocketbook savings by ensuring that WaterSense-labeled products are made available at a variety of price points. The average store carries approximately 75 labeled products in stock, complemented by more than 2,000 products offered online.
While new displays and in-aisle signage amplified the company’s promotion of WaterSense-labeled products, store demonstrations and customer workshops drove the message home at a personal level. To ensure its employees understand the benefits of WaterSense-labeled products, The Home Depot offers product knowledge classes, seasonal apron cards, training courses, and discussion on the company intranet’s social network.
Online, The Home Depot included WaterSense in its “Lowering the Cost of Maintaining Your Home” campaign, which was blasted across all of the company’s social marketing vehicles. The company’s website collected 1.1 billion impressions for the WaterSense program in 2010, often through visits to WaterSense educational “pods” or through the Eco Options microsite. These efforts supported an increase in online sales of WaterSense-labeled toilets by more than 500% last year.
Irrigation Partner of the Year:
Christopher Curry
Christopher Curry, a principal at Sweeney + Associates Irrigation Design and Consulting in Orange, CA, has been designing water efficient irrigation systems for a decade. Ranging in size from small residences to large regional parks, all of his projects have two things in common: They take advantage of smart irrigation technology, and they use watering schedules and annual water budgets.
In 2010, Curry caught the attention of Riverside, CA, when he provided the city with a water usage chart comparing standard spray irrigation nozzles with a drip irrigation plan for some of the city’s medians. With a projected savings of 1 million gallons of water per year, less overflow into the streets, and more cost-effective installation, Riverside decided to install drip irrigation systems not only in those medians, but in all of their medians across the city.
Curry also helped the San Diego Parks & Recreation Department acquire a new rotor system that uses recycled water and a central control system. The project is expected to save the city up to 3 million gallons of water per year on just 10 acres of turf.
“My professional career has always been irrigation consulting, and for me this award is one of the top honors an irrigation consultant can receive,” says Curry. “The WaterSense program brings a whole new level of professionalism to the irrigation consulting industry.”
Curry serves as a tireless advocate for WaterSense-labeled certification programs for irrigation professionals. As a design member of the American Society of Irrigation Consultants, he promotes certification by WaterSense-labeled programs and the benefits of performing audits after installing design projects. His emphasis on auditing also led Curry to participate in Irrigation Association webinars to discuss standards for irrigation efficiencies and irrigation audit guidelines, which are the backbone of the calculations used to determine water budgets.
Builder Partner of the Year:
KB Home
In November 2010, national builder KB Home made history at its Springwood community in Roseville, CA, when it completed construction of the first new homes built to the WaterSense Specification for Single-Family New Homes. In addition to committing to build every home in the Springwood community to earn the WaterSense label, KB Home quickly expanded its offerings of WaterSense-labeled new homes to other communities in Florida and Texas.
Each WaterSense-labeled home is designed to use 20% less water than a typical new home inside and out–for a family of four, that’s a difference of about 50,000 gallons of water per year compared to a traditional home, or enough for nearly 2,000 loads of laundry!
In addition to building some of the first WaterSense-labeled homes, the company has incorporated WaterSense-labeled products into every one of the thousands of homes it builds each year across the country. “Including WaterSense-labeled faucets, toilets, and showerheads in every KB Home at no additional cost to our buyers helps them save water and energy,” says Dan Bridleman, KB Home senior vice president of sustainability, technology, and strategic sourcing. “We believe water efficiency is important for our business, our customers, and our natural environment.”
To educate homeowners on the benefits of saving water, KB Home placed displays highlighting WaterSense in its sales offices. As part of the company’s Built to Order™ program, homebuyers can select WaterSense-labeled products and additional water efficient features at the KB Home Studio–a retail-like showroom where consumers meet with personal design consultants. To further demonstrate water conservation in its model homes, KB Home’s Architecture Department prepared a “waterwise” landscaping guide for all its divisions, with mandatory implementation in every community in 2010.
As part of its ongoing commitment to the program, KB Home not only provided insight during the development of the WaterSense Specification for Single-Family New Homes, but it continues to provide WaterSense with practical feedback from the field that contributes to the success of the WaterSense new homes program.
Licensed Certification Provider Partner of the Year:
Energy Inspectors Corporation
Energy Inspectors Corporation, a leading residential energy efficiency and construction quality assurance consultant, joined forces with WaterSense in 2010 to recruit and support WaterSense builder partners by inspecting and certifying new homes. In just its first year as a WaterSense-licensed certification provider partner, Energy Inspectors Corporation introduced multiple builders to the opportunities of building homes to earn the WaterSense label.
“As much as we can promote WaterSense-labeled new homes to our partners, we are doing so,” says Brendan Ong, vice president of operations.
As part of its certification provider responsibilities, Energy Inspectors Corporation’s inspector training process uses a hands-on approach: Trainees are required to perform a full inspection of a model home using the WaterSense Labeled New Home Inspection Checklist. Only after a professional has gained this experience is he or she allowed to inspect a WaterSense-labeled new home.
Training occurs in the same community where the builder will construct the WaterSense-labeled new home. The familiarity with the local climate that inspectors gain from this approach enables them to accurately evaluate outdoor components of the WaterSense new homes criteria.
Throughout 2010, Energy Inspectors Corporation stayed in close communication with fellow Partner of the Year KB Home’s corporate and regional offices to discuss how the builder could integrate WaterSense into its production cycle. Energy Inspectors Corporation provided support to both KB Home’s superintendents and installing trades. The partnership between Energy Inspectors Corporation and KB Home resulted in the first WaterSense-labeled new home in the country and eventually an entire community of homes that will earn the WaterSense label.
Realizing the important role of plumbers and landscape irrigation professionals in the new home construction process, Energy Inspectors Corporation also presented a three-hour educational seminar with EPA to KB Home Southern California’s landscape and plumbing trade professionals, providing important program information to everyone involved in creating a WaterSense-labeled new home.
Thanks to the efforts of partners like these and many others, WaterSense is looking forward to helping consumers save billions more gallons of water for years to come. For more information about the 2011 WaterSense Partners of the Year, visit www.epa.gov/watersense.
blue
WaterSense also presented Excellence Awards to a select group of partners whose support contributed to the program’s success in 2010. This year, the following organizations were recognized:American Water. In addition to cosponsoring the kick-off and closing events for the We’re for Water campaign, American Water and its subsidiaries distributed leak detection kits and bill inserts with the WaterSense label, offered online and in-school education programs, and operated rebate programs to get WaterSense-labeled products into households and businesses.
City of Dallas Water Utilities. The Great Dallas Fix a Leak Roundup was the main attraction for the 2010 WaterSense Fix a Leak Week festivities. Local plumbers fixed leaks in more than 100 low-income households, and Dallas estimates that repairs and renovations made during that week will save more than two million gallons of water annually.
Kohler Co. As both a two-time Partner of the Year and an Excellence Award winner, the company’s displays of WaterSense-labeled fixtures were featured in 884 wholesale showrooms and 500 retail outlets in 2010, as well as at PGA Tour events, Yellowstone National Park, and the We’re for Water and Fix a Leak Week events.
Lowe’s Companies, Inc. Another two-time Partner of the Year, Lowe’s continued its tradition of collaboration by being an exemplary strategic partner. Lowe’s support was critical to some of the most successful promotional events of 2010, including The Great Dallas Fix a Leak Week Roundup and the grand opening of a new store in College Station, TX, coordinated with a stop on WaterSense’s We’re for Water road trip.
Moen Inc. Moen designed, built, and sponsored a custom two-sink vanity display for the We’re for Water campaign events in 2010, expanding on its 2010 WaterSense Partner of the Year success by selling only WaterSense-labeled lavatory faucets for the second year in a row.
Niagara Conservation Corp. To increase public awareness of the WaterSense label, in 2010 Niagara placed billboard advertisements in Times Square and Las Vegas, NV; donated products to the We’re for Water campaign; and produced marketing materials, product guides, and Web content.
Public Service Commission of Wisconsin. This organization developed and promoted a toilet payback calculator with the Wisconsin Rural Water Association and approved five new utility rebate programs for WaterSense-labeled products across the state.