/aterSense Partners of the Year Consumers saved more than 36 billion gallons of water and $267 million on water and sewer bills in 2009 by using WaterSense labeled products. But they didn't do it alone. More than 2,000 utilities, government entities, nonprofit organizations, manufacturers, retailers, distribu- tors, builders, and certified irrigation professionals help promote the WaterSense label and spread the word about the importance of water efficiency. Each year, the WaterSense Partner of the Year awards recognize organizations and individuals in four categories who have made extraordinary efforts to: • Advance the WaterSense mission; • Increase awareness about WaterSense in a measurable way; and • Demonstrate overall excellence in the water-efficiency arena. The following partners stood out among the others for undertaking heroic efforts in 2009 to help consumers save water. EPA WaterSense PARTNER OE THE YEAR Promotional Partner of the Year Cascade Water Alliance CASCADE WATER ALLIANCE With only one full-time staff member overseeing water conservation programs, Cascade Water Alliance successfully used its Water- Sense partnership to help stretch limited resources and expand into an even more comprehensive water conservation program for its eight member agencies in King County, Washington. Collaborat- ing with local retailers and professionals, Cascade was able to promote WaterSense and the impor- tance of water efficiency to the 400,000 residents and 22,000 businesses it serves, without breaking the bank. Cascade worked with nearly 100 plumbers and prominent retailers including The Home Depot, Lowe's, and Ace Hardware to help make WaterSense a permanent fixture in more than 2,000 households and local businesses. Cascade promoted its toilet rebate program by working closely with these organizations and even filmed an informational video to educate residents about the benefits of WaterSense labeled toilets. Cascade also recognized the importance of edu- cating consumers at the point of purchase and provided free training for retailer staff; issued point-of-purchase materials; and conducted regu- lar, in-store visits, which helped establish strong relationships and encouraged promotion of the Cascade Water Alliance took WaterSense on the road educating residents about WaterSense and the impor- tance of water efficiency. ------- WaterSense label. According to sales staff, some retailers estimated that thanks to Cascade's rebate program, 75 to 90 percent of their toilet sales are WaterSense labeled toilets—up from virtually zero a couple years ago. Ninety-four percent of custom- ers surveyed by Cascade said their new toilets perform as well as or better than their previous models, affirming EPA's performance criteria for WaterSense labeled products. Cascade also collab- orated with Seattle Public Utilities to achieve water savings outdoors, offering $50 rebates to consum- ers hiring primarily WaterSense irrigation partners to install rain sensors. Cascade also took WaterSense on the road with the WaterSense Road Show—a traveling display that visits public events distributing free water-saving plumbing fixtures and educating residents about using less with WaterSense. During WaterSense's Fix a Leak Week, Cascade distributed more than 100,000 toilet leak detection kits by mail to encour- age families to check for leaks and look for the WaterSense label when considering new fixtures. The leak detection kit won the Pacific Northwest Section of the American Waterworks Association's Excellence in Communications and Best in Show awards. Manufacturer Partner of the Year C&JMOEN Buy it for looks. Buy it for life* Moen Incorporated Plumbing fixture manufacturer Moen pulled out all the stops in 2009 to promote WaterSense and increase the number of labeled products in the marketplace. In fact, Moen earned the WaterSense label for 100 percent of its new bathroom faucets in 2009. But that's not all: Moen, its multifamily brand, and its luxury brand upgraded all existing faucet models to earn the WaterSense label too. Together, the company's three brands now offer nine times more WaterSense labeled faucets than were available in 2008. The fau- cets are available in a wide range of prices, making them affordable for most consumers. Moen used WaterSense partner materials to pro- mote its WaterSense labeled products and water efficiency on media tours to the Today show and in publications from Good Housekeeping and Elle Decor to Handy Magazine and Fine Homebuilding. Moen This year, Moen earned the WaterSense label for all of its bathroom faucet models and promoted Water- Sense at trade shows and to national media. showcased its ShowHouse WaterSense labeled faucets at the Eco Luxe Media event, educating more than 200 reporters about WaterSense. The manufacturer also worked with Tom Kraeutler from The Money Pit, a national home improvement radio show, to promote WaterSense savings to more than 25 million listeners in the top 50 U.S. media markets. In addition to a strong media presence and promo- tion of WaterSense on packaging, in catalogs, and online, Moen highlighted WaterSense labeled prod- ucts at trade shows and made them discussion top- ics in an online forum for builders and remodelers. The forum includes materials such as sell sheets, product photography, and product messaging so builders can easily communicate the benefits of WaterSense labeled products to their customers. Finally, Moen doesn't just preach water efficiency; the company also practices it. In 2009, Moen reused 70 percent of the water used for product testing and educated its key marketing and sales associ- ates about WaterSense. Retail/Distributor Partner of the Year Lowe's Companies Inc. Taking WaterSense promotions to new heights in 2009, Lowe's won the WaterSense Partner of the Year award for the second time in a row. In fact, the Fortune 50 company calcu- lated that efforts to promote WaterSense tripled in 2009, from increasing its stock of Let's Build Something Together' labeled products; exten- sively marketing and advertising the WaterSense brand; and introducing an entirely new"Build Your LOWE'S ------- Savings" campaign to educate consumers on how they can save water, energy, and money. In 2009, Lowe's sold enough WaterSense labeled products to save customers $13 million on their utility bills. The Build Your Savings campaign includes a micro website that prominently features WaterSense labeled products and provides users with an infor- mative home audit tool, which calculates the savings potential of switching to water- and energy-efficient products. In stores, the company issued more than 960,000 Build Your Savings Guides, which also included valuable information on WaterSense. It sup- ported the new campaign with extensive in-store signage and announcements to increase consumer awareness of the water, energy, and monetary sav- ings associated with using labeled products. To ensure integration of WaterSense in all depart- ments, Lowe's focused on educating its more than 238,000 employees in its 1,700 North American stores with information on WaterSense messaging. The company used online trainings and encour- aged its employees to try the labeled products for themselves, adding valuable perspective to the staff serving the company's 15 million customers each week. In 2009, Lowe's supported tax-free events in Loui- siana and Virginia for WaterSense labeled products and joined forces with fellow 2009 WaterSense Partner of the Year Kohler Co. to offer customers online coupons for 10 percent off their labeled product purchases. In addition to these local events, Lowe's publicized WaterSense in national and local television spots, circulars, magazine ads, and online. Irrigation Partner of the Year Judy Benson As the founder of Clear Water Products & Services Inc. (Clear Water PSI), a company specializing in irrigation efficiency, Judy Benson's partnership with WaterSense aligned well with her professional mission: to educate oth- ers about outdoor water efficiency through the use of efficient systems and techniques. Judy Benson helped this estate save more than $2,100 on water bills in six months by installing soil moisture sensors. Specializing in older irrigation system renovations, Ms. Benson and Clear Water PSI have helped central Florida residents and businesses save thousands of gallons. To comply with her company's standard, new irrigation systems must meet or exceed 70 percent distribution uniformity (a measure of how evenly irrigation is applied to a landscape). Ms. Ben- son also uses remote technology on some larger systems, allowing her to work proactively with clients to manage consumption and save water, while preventing yard damage from malfunction- ing equipment. Ms. Benson, an Irrigation Association certified train- er, saw a need for more education in the irrigation industry, because she felt some aspects can be com- plicated and therefore misunderstood. She created a working display of irrigation products as a tool for trade events and to show clients how to properly operate their current equipment and demonstrate the newest, most efficient technologies. As an ambassador for WaterSense in her commu- nity, Ms. Benson drew from the WaterSense website and partner tools to ensure that her staff had cred- ible knowledge about outdoor water efficiency. Benson realized the benefits of partnership shortly after joining and even received a contract award partially because one of her WaterSense labeled irrigation certifications. Since then, Benson has made it a priority to incorporate WaterSense into her business and has participated in various Wa- terSense promotions, such as Fix a Leak Week. She also spoke of incentivizing the use of WaterSense irrigation partners with the local soil and water conservation board, county commissioners, local municipalities, water purveyors, and water man- agement districts. ------- 2010 Excellence Awards ~1\ /I ore tnan 2-000 promotional, irrigation, manufacturer, and retailer partners have joined I \ / I WaterSense in the last four years.To acknowledge the outstanding accomplishments I V I of this growing partnership, WaterSense has expanded its Partner of the Year awards program. In 2010, for the first time, WaterSense included Excellence Awards, which recognize addi- tional organizations and individuals whose support of WaterSense stood out in one or more of the Partner of the Year evaluation categories. 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—a more than 12,000 percent increase! The water authority also partnered with larger customers such as Albuquer- que 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, continuing its leadership in the water-efficiency field. Collaborat- ing with national retailers and its robust distribution network, Kohler reached out to consumers and trained more than 8,000 professionals on water efficiency. Robert Dobson: Mr. Dobson is president of Middle- town Sprinkler Company, an irrigation contracting firm in Port Monmouth, New Jersey. In 2009, Mr. Dobson helped lead the New Jersey irrigation con- tractor licensure program to earn the WaterSense label for its professional certification program—the first state licensure program to achieve this recog- nition. Because of this, all licensed irrigation con- tractors in New Jersey will be eligible to become WaterSense irrigation partners. He also encouraged irrigation professionals in his area to become Water- Sense partners and authored a model conservation ordinance to promote hiring WaterSense irrigation partners for installation projects in the state. Drains Plus, Inc.: Drains Plus, a plumbing and drain cleaning company serving Durham and the sur- rounding areas of North Carolina, gave presenta- tions 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, a member of both the U.S. Green Building Council and Green Plumb- ers, made personal contact with clients ranging from the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association to the Chamber of Commerce to resi- dents around the Research Triangle region to edu- cate them on the bottom line savings that could be achieved by installing WaterSense labeled products. Labeled Products in the Marketplace Caroma: Every single one of plumbing manufactur- er Caroma's 47 floor-mount, dual-flush toilet models have earned the WaterSense label. Caroma estimat- ed that 99 percent of its toilet sales in 2009 in the United States were WaterSense labeled models. Demonstrated Results Bryan Condray: Mr. Condray, irrigation opera- tions manager for the Arizona- and Nevada-based landscape management company DLC Resources, Inc., 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 bud- get to demonstrate success of conservation efforts and to identify areas for further improvement. October 2010 (866) WTR-SENS (987-7367) • www.epa.gov/watersense • watersense@epa.gov &ER& ------- |