The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has named three organizations and one individual as WaterSense Partners of the Year for exceptional efforts in promoting water efficiency and WaterSense labeled products during 2009. This EPA program helps to protect the nation’s water supply by offering people a way to use less water with water efficient products, new homes, and services.
The partners of the year are:
- Promotional Partner of the Year: Cascade Water Alliance, King County, WA — Cascade Water Alliance collaborated with retailers and plumbers to promote water efficiency in the Puget Sound region and rebated more than 3,000 WaterSense labeled toilets for households and local businesses
- Manufacturer Partner of the Year: Moen Incorporated — Moen earned the WaterSense label for all of its 267 bathroom faucet fixtures, ensuring availability of water-saving faucets for consumers at every price point, and garnered significant national media attention for WaterSense.
- Retailer Partner of the Year: Lowe’s Companies, Inc. — Lowe’s launched a “Build Your Savings” program to help customers select products that save energy, water, and money, winning WaterSense Retail/Distributor Partner of the Year for the second year in a row.
- Irrigation Partner of the Year: Judy Benson of Clear Water Products and Services, Inc. (Clear Water PSI), Florida — Benson educated businesses and consumers on outdoor water efficiency and encouraged other irrigation professionals in the central Florida region to partner with WaterSense.
Excellence Awards Introduced For 2010
This year, WaterSense expanded its Partner of the Year awards program to include its first Excellence Awards, which recognize additional organizations and individuals whose WaterSense support stood out in one or more of the evaluation categories.
For Strategic Collaboration
Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority: The authority visited every toilet retailer in Albuquerque to provide them with display materials and promote the Flush Rush toilet rebate program. As a result, the number of stores carrying WaterSense labeled products increased from two in 2007 to 245 in 2009. The water authority also partnered with larger customers such as Albuquerque Public Schools and the City of Albuquerque to retrofit old, inefficient toilets with WaterSense labeled models
Kohler Co.: After winning a WaterSense Partner of the Year award for two consecutive years, Kohler went on to host 49 education and promotional events across the country in 2009. Collaborating with national retailers and its distribution network, Kohler reached out to consumers and trained more than 8,000 professionals on water efficiency.
Robert Dobson: As president of Middletown Sprinkler Company, an irrigation contracting firm in Port Monmouth, NJ, Dobson helped lead the New Jersey irrigation contractor licensure program to earn the WaterSense label for its professional certification program—the first state licensure program to achieve this recognition. Because of this, all licensed irrigation contractors in New Jersey will be eligible to become WaterSense irrigation partners. He also encouraged irrigation professionals in his area to become WaterSense partners and authored a model conservation ordinance to promote hiring WaterSense irrigation partners for installation projects in the state.
Drains Plus, Inc.: This plumbing and drain cleaning company serving Durham, NC and the surrounding areas gave presentations on WaterSense labeled products to encourage water conservation and retrofits and coordinated with the City of Raleigh to expedite water-efficient product rebates. The company made personal contact with clients ranging from the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association to the Chamber of Commerce to residents around the Research Triangle region to educate them on the bottom line savings that could be achieved by installing WaterSense labeled products.
Labeled Products In The Marketplace
Caroma: Every one of the company’s 47 floor-mount, dual-flush toilet models have earned the WaterSense label. Caroma estimated that 99% of its toilet sales in 2009 in the United States were WaterSense labeled models.
Demonstrated Results
Bryan Condray: As irrigation operations manager for the Arizona- and Nevada-based landscape management company DLC Resources, Inc., Condray helped 17 of the communities served by his company reduce outdoor water use by a combined 529 million gallons. As a WaterSense irrigation partner, Mr. Condray played a key role in leading DLC Resources to develop water programming logs to track systems’ run times and irrigation water use. This data is compared to a community’s water budget to demonstrate success of conservation efforts and to identify areas for further improvement.