The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) presented 20 WaterSense partners with Sustained Excellence, Partner of the Year, and Excellence Awards on October 4 during the WaterSmart Innovations conference in Las Vegas.
Following is just a sample of the many innovative ways these award-winning organizations helped consumers save water, energy, and money by producing and promoting WaterSense labeled products, programs, and homes in 2017:
Sustained Excellence Awards
· American Standard—Part of LIXIL distributed WaterSense labeled products to over 11,000 U.S. retail outlets—a 34 percent increase over 2016—and received multiple design awards for its WaterSense labeled fixtures.
· Athens-Clarke County (Georgia) Public Utilities Department hosted a local fire hydrant art contest and announced the winner at the “Tappy Hour” event at a local brewery during Fix a Leak Week 2017 to promote WaterSense and water conservation.
· The City of Charlottesville (Virginia) initiated a social media campaign with #WaterTipWednesday posts and used targeted ads on the weather.com app to help combat the region’s first significant drought in over 10 years.
· Cobb County (Georgia) Water System created the Drought Busters campaign using the Ghost Busters theme song and catch phrases in short videos to promote WaterSense labeled products and water-saving practices during a Level 2 drought in the area.
· Delta Faucet Company collaborated with the American Water Works Association to promote the WaterSense program to water districts and offered a promotion on repair parts to encourage more plumbers to find and fix leaks during Fix a Leak Week 2017.
· Energy Inspectors Corporation trained 12 raters on the WaterSense new home specification in 2017 and regularly recruits new builders to the WaterSense program as it inspects over 60,000 homes each year.
· KB Home is the leading builder of WaterSense labeled homes—completing 170 homes last year that met the WaterSense labeled home criteria—and they included WaterSense labeled fixtures in all the homes it built in 2017.
· The Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District worked with its 55 member utilities to promote water efficiency in commercial facilities and hosted the fifth annual Water Drop Dash 5k race and water festival during Fix a Leak Week 2017, which had over 600 participants.
· The Sonoma-Marin (California) Saving Water Partnership worked with the California Community College (CCC) system to offer its Qualified Water Efficiency Landscaper program and vocational training to California community college students in 2017.
Promotional Partners of the Year
· The City of Fort Worth (Texas) worked with WaterSense on a Fix a Leak Week Hispanic outreach pilot program with culturally-relevant outreach materials modeled after the Mexican game of chance Loteria, and participated in events that reached over 17,000 people in 2017.
· The City of Plano (Texas) conducted a three-part course and an online module for Sprinkler Spruce-Up that had 160 resident participants; a post-course survey found that 83 percent of them planned to check their irrigation systems for leaks.
· Citrus County (Florida) Utilities created We’re for Water and Shower Better photo frames and props to use at events to increase attendee engagement and promote water conservation and the WaterSense program.
· The Broward (Florida) Water Partnership rebated more than 2,600 WaterSense labeled toilets and distributed 2,100 WaterSense labeled showerheads, nearly 2,000 faucet aerators, and hundreds of leak detection tablets for free to residents over the course of 2017.
Excellence Awards
· City of Durham (North Carolina) Water Management, City of Frisco (Texas), and Sacramento (California) Suburban Water District, for Excellence in Education and Outreach.
· The Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) for Excellence in Strategic Collaboration.
· Sonoma Marin Saving Water Partnership for Excellence in Promoting WaterSense Labeled Products.
· The Toro Company for Excellence in Education and Public Relations.
· Hunter Industries for Excellence in Labeled Products in the Marketplace.
· San Diego (California) County Water Authority (SDCWA) for Excellence in Certification Program Growth.
