look for
2017 WaterSense3
Excellence Award Winners
Are Saving Water Together
WaterSense's nearly 2,000 partners have helped consumers and businesses save 2.1
trillion gallons of water over the past decade, but some organizations in particular
have excelled at making the program successful in their area. Through education
and outreach, promoting WaterSense labeled products, and strategic collaboration,
several partners have demonstrated their commitment to saving water together.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is pleased to recognize eight
Excellence Award winners for helping to advance and promote specific aspects of the
WaterSense program in 2016.
EXCELLENCE IN PROMOTING WATERSENSE LABELED PRODUCTS
City of Fort Worth (Texas)
Fort Worth,
The City of Fort Worth Water Department promotes WaterSense labeled products
to properties big and small. The department's SmartFlush Toilet Program, which
focuses on residential, low-income, elderly and commercial properties, distributed
more than 2,800 free WaterSense labeled, dual-flush toilets to Fort Worth residents
in 2016. The water conservation staff also began using a geographic information
system (GIS) to target properties to receive free WaterSense labeled toilets for replacement based on the age
of buildings that might have older toilets installed. To reach Fort Worth's commercial customers, the department
provided free facility water evaluations through its SmartWater Industrial, Commercial, and Institutional (ICI)
Assessment Program. Department staff identified water-saving opportunities and made recommendations
projected to save more than 11 million gallons of water, based on WaterSense's suggested best management
practices for commercial and institutional facilities.
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California offers a comprehensive program
of incentives and rebates to advance conservation and promote WaterSense labeled
products throughout its large service area. Metropolitan's research-based advertising
and outreach campaign uses a variety of creative, high-impact messaging with
billboards, video, print, radio, digital marketing, and social media to promote water
savings in many ways, including rebates for WaterSense labeled products, to Southern
Californians. The agency's online water conservation portal, www.bewaterwise.com,
provides an extensive list of WaterSense labeled products. Residents and businesses
have taken advantage of rebates to purchase more than 114,000 WaterSense labeled
toilets and nearly 15,000 weather-based irrigation controllers.
PHONE (866) WTR-SENS (987-7367) WEBSITEvwvw.epa.gov/watersense EMAILwatersense@epa.gov	oEPA
EPA-832-F-17-012
October 2017

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2017 Excellence Award Winners Are Saving Water Together
EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION AND OUTREACH
City of Durham (North Carolina) Water Management
The City of Durham Department of Water Management used myriad outreach channels to
connect with a wide variety of community members. To spread the word about Fix a Leak
Week 2016, the department held conservation clinics at The Home Depot and Lowe's Home
Improvement and provided WaterSense activity books and materials to schools, reaching
more than 400 adults and students. In April 2016, Durham took part in the National Mayor's
Challenge for Water Conservation, promoting WaterSense at public events such as the
Durham Earth Day Festival and a Durham Bulls baseball game, and in television and online
advertisements featuring Durham's mayor. The department also hosted three fall pop-up
events in different neighborhoods, distributing free WaterSense labeled showerheads to
promote the Shower Better campaign. Social media has also proven to be an essential tool for
engaging with younger members of the community.
DURHAM
18 6 9
CITY OF MEDICINE
Sonoma-Marin (California) Saving Water Partnership


%
SAVING WATER
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The Sonoma-Marin Saving Water Partnership
in California focused on public events to
educate residents about water conservation
and WaterSense labeled products. Its Water
Smart Home exhibit at the Sonoma County
Home and Garden Show displayed home
improvement projects that prioritize water
conservation and promoted rebates for
WaterSense labeled products. The Partnership worked with The
Home Depot, where industry experts educated customers about
WaterSense labeled irrigation controllers and how to select and
plant low-water-use species. The Partnership also collaborated
with other Sonoma area organizations to pilot the Do-It-Yourself
Home Energy and Water Savings Toolkit program, which gave
residents tools to measure energy and water use and to make
easy, money-saving home upgrades. Located at Sonoma County
libraries, the kits have some items to keep, such as WaterSense
labeled showerheads and faucet aerators, and some items to
borrow, such as pliers and pipe thread seal tape for replacing
showerheads and fixing leaks.
In 2016, the Sonoma-Marin Saving Water
Partnership piloted Do-It-Yourself Home Energy
and Water Savings Toolkits, which gave residents
access to tools to make easy, money-saving home
upgrades, at Sonoma County libraries.
The Toro Company
The Toro Company supports product training and outdoor water efficiency education
for homeowners, irrigation professionals, and businesses. As a sponsor of the
Irrigation Association's E3 Program, which educates irrigation students and faculty
and provides hands-on experience, Toro helped provide student scholarships to
the Irrigation Association show, where they received demonstrations of the latest
outdoor water conservation products. Toro also participated in or conducted training
events for thousands of homeowners and contractors featuring its WaterSense
labeled controllers. In 2016, Toro continued sponsorship of The Water Zone, a
weekly radio/online streaming program that covers outdoor water use best practices and reaches a Southern
California audience of about 5 million people.
TORft
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2017 Excellence Award Winners Are Saving Water Together
EXCELLENCE IN STRATEGIC COLLABORATION
Alliance for Water Efficiency
Alliance
for Water
Efficiency
Leveraging its member network, the Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) worked with
WaterSense and other partners to provide research and tools that highlight the importance
of the WaterSense program and water efficiency. AWE collaborated with Plumbing
Manufacturers International to conduct a study, released in 2017, that determined replacing
older toilets with high-efficiency models in Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, and
Texas could save about 170 billion potable gallons of water per year, which is the equivalent
of taking 10 billion showers! AWE also partnered with WaterSense in 2016 to present a
series of four outdoor water efficiency webinars, which had more than 700 attendees,
featuring topics such as sustainable landscapes, building relationships between irrigation
professionals and utilities, and connecting homeowners to their irrigation controllers.
<®
NIAGARA
CONSERVATION®
Niagara Conservation Corp.
Niagara Conservation Corp., a previous Manufacturer Partner of the Year Award and
Excellence in Participation and Collaboration in Promotional Events Award winner,
launched the #WhatTheFlush campaign in April 2016 with The Home Depot as a
creative approach to promote reducing water waste and Niagara's WaterSense labeled
Original Stealth toilet. Niagara created a "Potty Talk" video, which reached 12 million
people on Facebook, and launched whattheflush.com with a media day in Los Angeles
hosted by Jenni Pulos from Bravo's "Flipping Out." Increased sales of Stealth toilets at The Home Depot in
the first six months of the campaign were projected to save more than 700 million gallons of water. Niagara
also partnered with The Home Depot to promote water conservation in collaboration with six West Coast water
utilities and districts. Niagara held one-day events with each utility in local Home Depot parking lots to promote
WaterSense labeled products, encourage water conservation, and help customers fill out rebate forms. Each
event raffled off $100 gift cards to The Home Depot and Niagara's "Ultra-High-Efficiency-Technology" kits, which
include WaterSense labeled toilets and other bathroom fixtures.
The City of Piano (Texas)
	TYI _	The City of Piano collaborated with utilities,
lt\HQ	councils, businesses, and other WaterSense
r'H frr n	partners to emphasize the value of WaterSense
« CityojtxceLLence	tQ ^dents, especially related to outdoor water
efficiency. The city worked with Rachio, a WaterSense partner, to conduct a pilot
study on the usability and water use trends of Rachio's WaterSense labeled
"smart" sprinkler controller in 60 residences. Nearly all of the participants
reported that the new controllers helped them learn about efficient irrigation. The
city also held its fourth WaterWise Landscape Tour in October 2016. The tour
showcased native and adapted plants at five Piano residences and the city's
Environmental Education Center. In addition to touring beautiful, sustainable
landscapes, attendees engaged with experts on water-smart irrigation,
composting, plant selection, and landscape design, including professionals from
a local sprinkler company who were certified by a WaterSense labeled program.
Piano worked with The Home Depot to offer free water conservation-focused workshops in conjunction with Fix a
Leak Week through a regional partnership with the North Central Texas Council of Governments.
For Fix a Leak Week, the City
of Piano worked with The Home
Depot to offer free workshops.
Learn More
WaterSense congratulates all of the 2017 Excellence Award winners. For more information about the
WaterSense Partner of the Year awards and to learn about all the benefits of partnership,
visit www.epa.gov/watersense.
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