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.
Why do some people conserve water, while others do not? Take two people living on the same street. They have the same income, the same formal education, the same general background. Yet, one plants a drought-tolerant garden and waters sparingly, while the other rings his yard with cedars and waters twice a day. What gives?
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.
On July 20, 2005, the Village of Lumby launched its Water-use Efficiency Program. In keeping with the newly adopted Water Conservation and Drought Contingency Plan, a Stage-1 water conservation threshold was declared that introduced water sprinkling regulations, a public education program, and a more stringent water level monitoring program for village wells. This was well received by residents, and resulted in excellent voluntary compliance.
