Posted by Heidi Schwartz
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency‘s (EPA) WaterSense program has released its final WaterSense Professional Certification Program Labeling System and three revised specifications for professional certification programs. Together, the program labeling system and revised program specifications are designed to:
- Give professional certifying organizations a consolidated and consistent set of requirements.
- Extend program benefits and opportunities to all irrigation professionals certified by WaterSense labeled programs.
- Provide the program with a more sustainable framework to accommodate program growth.
These changes allow the EPA program to provide better recognition and credibility for WaterSense labeled certification programs and the professionals who are certified by them.
With the new system, WaterSense will no longer enter into partnership agreements with individual professionals. This is because the changes extend the benefits of the WaterSense program to all irrigation professionals certified by WaterSense labeled programs.
The effective date for the program labeling system and certification program specifications is July 24, 2014. Professional certifying organizations offering certification programs that earned the WaterSense label prior to the effective date have one year to comply with the program labeling system.
For facility management professionals, WaterSense at Work coordinates with ENERGY STAR to promote use of Portfolio Manager for water tracking and to improve opportunities for collecting water use data in government and industry data collections of energy use.
