The Environmental Protection Agency presented Delta Faucet Co. its 2011WaterSenseManufacturer Partner of the Year Award at the WaterSmart Innovations Conference in Las Vegas during the annualWaterSense AwardsBanquet. Not only has a significant portion of the company’s product line earned the WaterSense label, Delta played an integral role in the WaterSense showerhead specification development process by leading the effort to develop testing equipment and procedures to certify WaterSense-labeled showerheads.
The company also supplemented its product development work with widespread promotion of water-efficient products and practices. An email campaign promoted the release of the WaterSense showerhead specification, while a new “Green at Delta” section of the company website provided customers with access to WaterSense-labeled products.
In addition, during WaterSense’s Fix a Leak Week,Paul Patton, a Delta Faucet Co. senior product development manager, appeared on a local TV show to encourage consumers to fix household leaks.
By the end of 2010, nearly 40 percent of the company’s showerhead shipments and more than 85 percent of its lavatory faucets were WaterSense-labeled. More than two-thirds of Delta Faucet’s products from the Delta, Brizo and Peerless faucet brands now offer WaterSense-labeled options.
Other WaterSense Partners of the Year are:
- Retailer Partner: The Home Depot.
The retail chain sells only WaterSense-labeled lavatory faucets in its 2,000
locations across the country and calculates that customers saved roughly 27
billion gallons of water and $174 million on water utility bills in 2010.
To ensure that its employees understand the benefits of WaterSense-labeled products, The Home Depot offers product knowledge classes, seasonal apron cards, training courses and discussions on its internal social network. On Earth Day 2010, the company gave away nearly half a million WaterSense-labeled faucet aerators as part of a display in New York City’s Times Square.
The Home Depot included WaterSense in its “Lowering the Cost of Maintaining Your Home” campaign, which was promoted across all of the company’s social marketing vehicles. The company’s website collected 1.1 billion impressions for the WaterSense program in 2010, often through visits to WaterSense educational “pods” or through the Eco Options microsite. These online efforts supported an increase in online sales of WaterSense-labeled toilets by more than 500 percent last year. - Promotional Partner: Cobb County Water System.
This two-time WaterSense Partner of the Year educates Georgia consumers on
water-efficiency through events and presentations, leading to an 80 percent
familiarity of WaterSense among area consumers.
The water system, which serves 680,000 residents, gave 75 WaterSense-related presentations in 2010 and coordinated with other WaterSense partners to host a “We’re for Water” educational event at the Georgia Aquarium, featuring a fun and engaging Plinko game with WaterSense’s “Check, Twist, and Replace” messaging.
To support WaterSense-labeled new homes, Cobb County Water System chaired a committee to regionalize the guidance for the outdoor portion of the WaterSense New Homes Specification and trained local irrigation and landscape professionals on WaterSense new homes criteria. Working with the Georgia Homebuilders Association and the Metro Atlanta Home Builders Association, Cobb County’s efforts were vital to educating the Atlanta builder community on the WaterSense specification. - Builder Partner: KB Home. This national
home-building company unveiled the first WaterSense-labeled homes in November
2010 at its Springwood community in Roseville, Calif., quickly expanding the
program to other communities in Florida and Texas.
In addition to building the first WaterSense-labeled homes, the company has incorporated WaterSense-labeled products into every one of the thousands of homes it builds each year across the country.
To educate homeowners on the benefits of saving water, KB Home placed displays highlighting WaterSense in its sales offices. As part of the company’s Built to Order program, homebuyers can select WaterSense-labeled products and additional water-efficient features at the KB Home Studio. To further demonstrate water savings in its model homes, KB Home’s Architecture Department prepared a “waterwise” landscaping guide for all its divisions, calling for mandatory implementation in every community in 2010. - Licensed Certification Provider for WaterSense Labeled
New Homes: Energy Inspectors Corp. Working closely with
WaterSense partner KB Home, the corporation inspected and certified the first
WaterSense-labeled new homes and recruited additional builder partners.
Realizing the important role of plumbers and landscape irrigation professionals in the new home construction process, Energy Inspectors Corp. presented a three-hour educational seminar with the EPA to KB Home Southern California’s landscape and plumbing trade professionals, providing important program information to everyone involved in creating a WaterSense-labeled new home. - Irrigation Partner: Christopher Curry. The
sole individual Partner of the Year, Curry, a principal at Sweeney + Associates
Irrigation Design and Consulting (Orange, Calif.), practices water-efficient
irrigation design and helps the San Diego Parks & Recreation Department
save 3 million gallons of water per year.
In 2010, Curry presented Riverside, Calif., with a drip irrigation plan for some of the city’s medians. With a projected savings of one million gallons of water per year, reduced overflow into the streets, and more cost-effective installation, Riverside decided not only to install drip irrigation systems in those medians, but in all of the medians across the city.
