Optimize your water use and minimize your cost! Join Troy Aichele, LEED AP (O+M) of Aichele and Associates LLC for Water Auditing 101 exploring the key attributes, uses, and efficiency/cost opportunities of water audits. Join Aichele for a discussion of what a water audit includes, who performs the audit, where and when they should and can be performed, and the opportunities that exist in performing a water audit.

According to the U.S. Government, 36 U.S. states are already or soon will be facing water shortages including some of our largest cities (e.g., Los Angeles, Houston, Orlando, etc.). With utility rates skyrocketing and cost-effective, reliable, water efficient products on the market for all fixtures and equipment, every facility is a new opportunity for water auditing.

Join Aichele for an introduction to water auditing's features, uses, potential savings and rebates, and how quickly this unobtrusive work can be implemented from audit to installation to optimize your water use and minimize your cost...all through saving water and with relatively minimal investment.

"In a short timeframe, WaterSense has become a national symbol for water efficiency," said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in her justification for the EPA budget submitted to congressional leaders. "Awareness of WaterSense is growing every day...and a strong network of stakeholders across the nation will build awareness of the need for efficient use of water."

Despite President Obama proposing the third consecutive decrease in overall EPA spending, Jackson cited WaterSense as an example of the agency's efforts to ensure long-term sustainable water infrastructure. The president's budget asked for an $8 million increase in funding for Surface Water Protection programs, which include WaterSense, without specifying the funding level for WaterSense.

"WaterSense gives consumers a reference tool to identify and select water-efficient products with the intent of reducing national water and wastewater infrastructure needs by reducing water demand and wastewater flow, allowing for deferred or downsized capital projects," said Jackson in the justification for the EPA budget submitted to congressional leaders.

She reported that through January 2012, EPA had issued voluntary specifications for three water-efficient service categories (certification programs for irrigation system auditors, designers, and installation and maintenance professionals) and five product categories (residential toilets, bathroom faucets and accessories, residential showerheads, commercial flushing urinals, and weather-based irrigation controllers). WaterSense also has a new homes specification that provides benchmark criteria for water-efficient new homes, designed to save water indoors as well as outdoors. Products may only bear the WaterSense label after being independently certified to ensure that they meet WaterSense specifications.

Jackson reported that more than nine hundred different models of high-efficiency toilets, more than three thousand faucet models and accessories, 90 models of flushing urinals, and five hundred models of showerheads had earned the WaterSense label. Cumulative savings  in the program due to products shipped through the end of 2010 (the most recent year for which there is data) exceeds 125 billion gallons and $2.0 billion in water, sewer, and energy bill savings. The program is continuing to build participation in its labeling program for residential new homes.

As of January 2012, the program had signed up more than one hundred builders and labeled more than 83 homes, Jackson reported.
She said EPA anticipates that the market for water-efficient homes will improve as market surveys indicate that construction of green homes is recovering from the economic downturn more quickly than standard homes.

"In addition to working with manufacturers, retailers, and builders to deliver labeled products and homes to consumers, the EPA continues to partner with utilities, irrigation professionals, and community organizations to educate consumers on the benefits of switching to water-efficient products," Jackson said. "As of January 2012, the program had more than 2,400 partners, including utilities from across the country, that are adopting WaterSense as a key component of their water-efficiency, energy efficiency, and climate adaptation efforts."