FROM THE EDITOR

“Water is plentiful. Except where it’s not.” – Bill Hoffman, water efficiency expert

Sadly, the places where water is not plentiful are increasingly rapidly — we’ve all heard about or experienced the droughts across lots of the country in recent months. Simple economics dictate that a shortage drives up prices.

But even in places where water is assumed to be plentiful, prices are skyrocketing as well. Here in Chicago, for instance, a city right on a lake where water is indeed plentiful, municipal water rates will more than double by 2015.

You may have heard it said that water is the new energy in terms of advocacy and focus on reduction. While we may not quite be to the where water gets the same level of investment and intention — after all, water costs are still a drop in the bucket (apologies!) in compared to energy — we are certainly getting closer.

 

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Even in LEED, water efficiency had historically gotten short shrift. But in the new version of LEED — LEED version 4 — water efficiency includes a new prerequisite for building-level water metering and more stringent requirements for reduction of water use compared to a calculated baseline. Most experts agree that this is a step forward.

Additionally, there are more resources than ever before for facility managers looking to get a handle on how their facilities use water, and then how to reduce that use. One important one is EPA’s WaterSense program – often described as “Energy Star for water.” WaterSense rates water-using products that meet certain efficiency standards.

And so here’s the point, which you’ve probably already guessed: To be a truly high-performance building, a building must be more than just energy efficient. It must be resource efficient. And that includes water. Even if water is still relatively inexpensive in your area, it won’t be for long. So planning water efficiency projects now is one way to future-proof your budget.

As always, I’d love to hear from you. Is water efficiency a priority for your organization? How do you justify water efficiency projects if water is still relatively inexpensive in your area? 

Cheers,

Greg Zimmerman, editor  

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