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New report: CA businesses can save water & money – Making Every Drop Work

2009-05-26T23:59:05Z

Ronnie Cohen, NRDC alum

Are you in your office right now? Check out the restroom. Are there low flow toilets? Faucet aerators? How about in the kitchen? Is there an efficient dishwasher?

Are you in a hotel? Is there information in your room about how you can help reduce the amount of laundry they wash? Are they using efficient washing machines?

Will you be playing golf this weekend? Does the golf course irrigate with recycled water?

So many of us have taken measures to reduce the amount of water we use in our homes, but think about the tremendous amount of time you spend in other settings. About one third of urban water use takes place in non-residential settings - this is water used in the state's commercial, industrial and institutional sector (think office buildings, hotels, oil refineries, golf courses, schools and universities, gyms, restaurants and manufacturers). In California, these places use over 2 million acre feet-- enough water to fill more than one million Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Right now there is legislation pending in the California Assembly (AB 49) that would reduce urban water use 20 percent by 2020, including the commercial, industrial and institutional (CII)sector.

Today, NRDC released a new report that shows the CII sector how they can help California meet that goal with water efficiency measures - improving the state's water supply and saving themselves money at the same time.

The report, entitled, Making Every Drop Work , describes water efficiency measures, and includes case studies of leading California businesses and industries that are using those measures - saving water and money at the same time. The report also highlights some water agency programs that have been successful in reaching CII water users.

Cumulatively, California's CII sector can save enough water to meet the annual needs of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego. And you can take that to the bank (and the office, and the factory, and the university...)

Follow the Leader: Thoughts on Water Efficiency From the World Water Forum

2009-03-17T16:34:23Z

Ronnie Cohen, NRDC alum

While California is often thought of as trendy and cutting edge, sometimes you have to get out of town, way out of town, for some fresh perspective. So I find myself at the 5th World Water Forum, in Istanbul, Turkey. For more news on the main conference, you can check out the blog of my NRDC colleague, Melanie Nakagawa.

I came to Istanbul to participate in the CEO Water Mandate, a UN Global Compact initiative designed to help the private sector better understand and address its impacts on and management of water resources. The focus of this meeting is Engaging in Public Policy to Advance Sustainable Water Management by Business.

There are some widespread areas of agreement, including the need for better information about river basins and water use, and more transparency by business, as well as the need to address agricultural water use. There are also some inspiring examples of improvements in water efficiency by some companies, and impressive commitments to additional improvements in the near term. For example:

SAB Miller has committed to reducing its water use 25% by 2015.
2/3 of Unilever sites in India recycle all of their processing water for reuse in manufacturing or on-site irrigation, and globally, Unilever has decreased their water use per ton of production by 60% since 1995.
Coca-Cola reduced its water use per liter of beverage 20% by 2002 and has committed to reducing it an additional 20% by 2012.

While some of these companies may be criticized in other areas, they have reported notable progress on water efficiency.

NRDC recently completed an issue paper on the tremendous opportunities for water efficiency by business and industry in California. Yet for some reason, some water agencies and businesses in the state object to setting more modest goals with a longer time horizon, as proposed by AB 49 (Feuer-Huffman). This bill would require a 20 percent per capita reduction in urban water use by 2020 and require best management practices for agricultural water use.

Urban agencies and the business community should support this bill, to strengthen California's economy and environment, and to reduce water-related business risks. Otherwise, California will soon have to play follow the leader on water efficiency issues.

Wasting Water Isn’t the Answer

2008-11-19T18:39:19Z

Ronnie Cohen, NRDC alum

How bizarre. As many regions around the United States grapple with drought, the New York Times publishes the results of a study lauding the benefits of wasting water.

Yesterday, the New York Times ran an article entitled "Drip Irrigation May Not Be Efficient, Analysis Finds." The reasoning of that analysis appears to be deeply flawed. The author of the study cited in the article says that encouraging drip irrigation is bad because:

1) it limits groundwater recharge from excess irrigation, and
2) since drip irrigation increases yields, farmers will be encouraged to bring more acres into production, thus using even more water.

The first argument basically offers profligacy as a substitute for deliberation. Water resources are precious and limited, and need to be carefully managed. Incidental recharge is not a substitute for groundwater management. There are better ways to recharge groundwater than excessive irrigation. For example, we shouldn't be recharging groundwater during a drought; that is when we should be using groundwater that we banked during wetter periods. Also, groundwater recharge or runoff from excessive irrigation tends to be laden with pesticides, fertilizers, and sediment, polluting our rivers. This agricultural drainage, laden with selenium, was responsible for the death of thousands of waterfowl in the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge in the 1980s.

The second point is downright wacky: that we should encourage wasteful practices lest efficiency increase demands for water. Global warming is likely to increase the frequency of water shortages in most regions. Increasing crop yields is a good thing, and can allow farmers to produce the same amount of crops/income even with reduced water supplies. This will be important to the world food supply as we adapt to a changed climate. Concerns about bringing additional lands into production are not a good reason to continue with inefficient irrigation practices.

Farmers around the world have successfully stretched limited water supplies, increased yields, decreased use of pesticides and fertilizers, and reduced polluted runoff, through use of drip irrigation. We should continue to encourage them to do so.

Chinatown, the Sequel

2008-06-02T16:20:59Z

Ronnie Cohen, NRDC alum

I guess it’s time to remake the movie Chinatown, which told the classic tale of Los Angeles stealing water from the far off Owens River basin. Finding new sources of water has always been critical to the continuation of the California dream. Unfortunately, the results of that search have often been devastating to California’s rivers and the San Francisco Bay-Delta. Recently though, Los Angeles has announced an ambitious plan to meet all of its future water needs through water conservation and recycling, as well as innovative approaches that include cleaning up contaminated groundwater and capturing stormwater.

The plan wisely focuses on where the waste is. Since half or more of urban water use goes to watering landscapes, a lot of water can be saved by choosing regionally appropriate landscaping and watering it efficiently. This can include installation of a “smart” controller that adjusts for weather conditions. No more sprinklers going in the rain. These smart controllers can save homeowners over 40 gallons per day and cut polluted runoff in half, and many California water agencies offer rebates to help cover the cost. The new LA plan notes that these controllers are already used in parks and golf courses around Los Angeles, and that it is now time to extend this innovative technology to residential use. The new plan calls for the city to install 5,250 smart controllers per year, with a total of 63,500 by 2020.

Saving water indoors can include installing efficient fixtures and appliances, and checking for leaks. The U.S. EPA has a new rating program called WaterSense (like Energy Star) to help you indentify these products. EPA estimates that by giving your bathroom a WaterSense makeover, you can save 11,000 gallons of water per year. The LA plan includes raising rebate levels for homeowners and businesses that purchase water-saving technology.

Other key elements of the plan include

expanding water recycling sixfold by 2020, for irrigation and industrial use and groundwater replenishment,
increasing stormwater capture
cleaning up contaminated groundwater in the San Fernando Basin where over 47 percent of the wells have been closed due to contamination.

All of these approaches reflect an ethic of making the best use of existing resources. The new Los Angeles Plan has a lot less intrigue than the old approach, (and it doesn’t have Jack Nicholson) but boy is it smarter. Environmental groups like NRDC have long touted these alternatives as cheaper and faster than the expensive and destructive dams that the governor and some legislators want to build. The LA approach will also save us all money, stretch limited water supplies, save energy and reduce water pollution.

Los Angeles has often been held up as an example of a city that shouldn’t exist, living, as it were, on “borrowed” water. But LA has taken responsibility and announced a plan that should be a model for the rest of California, and indeed for the rest of the country. I guess we won’t have LA to kick around anymore.