It is fascinating when a new study or event contradicts common practice, and maybe even common sense. This article provides a few examples that might lead us to question some common water conservation practices.
When communicating with the public, we have to choose our words carefully. Use the ‘Kryptonite Factor’ to identify words and phrases that might be misunderstood. Terms we use within the industry may not resonate with the average person or, may turn them off entirely from what we hope to accomplish.
Faster than a speeding bullet, school children in the Okanagan are learning how to be good environmental citizens, thanks to the EECO Heroes. EECO stands for Environmental Educators of the Central Okanagan. In real life, the EECO Heroes are five ordinary City of Kelowna and Central Okanagan Regional District educators, who realized that combining their creative energy, ideas and budgets into one big, splashy elementary/middle school program could be more effective than offering five separate programs.
Why do some people spend thousands of hours and dollars to grow a plant that is not even native to North America? In American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn, historian Ted Steinberg traces it to three factors: indoor plumbing, suburbia, and clever marketing on the part of the lawn care industry.
In the summer of 2006, the City of Kelowna attempted something innovative that involved risk. It removed 20,000 square feet of perfectly good turf at a high profile downtown location and planted Zoysia sprigs in its place. Zoysia is a drought-tolerant grass that should thrive in the Okanagan Valley, but unseasonable rain followed the planting and washed most of the sprigs away before they could root.
To help homeowners conserve water and save energy costs, the City of Surrey has implemented a voluntary water metering incentive program. The public outreach program that outlined the benefits of metering over flat rate services was key to the City of Surrey making the switch to water metering.
Durham Region in partnership with Tribute Communities, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, is attempting to define a new standard in efficiency in new home construction. The goal of this project is to establish new standards of water efficiency for low-density residential development
Many of the early generation 6-litre toilet models sold in North America performed poorly and failed to meet consumer expectations for flushing performance. Yet virtually all of these models met all of the prevailing performance requirements to become certified. Water utilities were concerned over the negative customer feedback they were receiving regarding toilet fixtures that they had encouraged (through rebates) their customers to install. In response, 22 U.S. and Canadian utilities and other water interests, recognizing that toilet certification did not guarantee a high level of performance, sponsored the development of the independent Maximum Performance (MaP) Testing Program. This is now considered the de facto methodology for toilet performance testing throughout North America.
The goal of this project was to look at how tourist accommodation operators on Salt Spring Island could adopt best water conservation practices. This tied into the 'Green Accommodations' initiative developed by the local Chamber of Commerce, one of the goals of which was to ensure that tourism on Salt Spring Island would become a beacon of environmental stewardship and a model for sustainability which the rest of the Gulf Islands could look to as an example of best practice in the industry.
