Seven Strategies for Reducing Water Use!

1. Full Cost Accounting, Metering & Leak Repair: Get your accounts in order! Understanding how much water is being distributed and how much is being lost is the most important aspect of water management for municipalities today. Fully metered communities can now "manage what is measured" and this means that you can now understand the cost of creating, distributing, and losing water in your system. In addition to being able to develop a leak repair strategy, communities that are fully metered are able to be truly accountable to citizen tax payers for system upgrades, conservation strategies, and stewardship initiatives.  Metering also makes people conscious of how much they're using and encourages conservation behaviors.

2. Pricing Structure: Once fully metered, consider tweaking the pricing structure! A conservation-oriented pricing structure could encourage residents to be more conscious of their water use, and has been shown to curb demand more effectively than outdoor watering restrictions and rebates on low-flow toilets. Conservation-based pricing will encourage people to moderate their usage of potable water on their own. It's important to note that household water use changes slowly. It takes a while for people to get around to changing either fixtures or their behavour. This is a powerful lever to align household's incentives with conserving water. There are many examples of conservation pricing in Alberta, including inclining block rates, excess use rates, seasonal surcharges and more. For more information on how to design a conservation-based price system for your community contact us!

3. Community Based Social Marketing: Creating community around responsible water use and stewardship of our limited resources involves meeting community residents one on one and gaining commitment to do one small thing for our communities. CBSM is a tool that has been developed and refined to assist behavior changes for environmental responsibility across Canada. This program is a great way to engage citizens and gain commitment to reductions in water use!

4. Xeriscaping: Converting lawns into landscapes that don't require watering can beautify the neighbourhood while reducing water use. Creating development incentives for landscaping that requires minimal water is a key ingredient in managing future water use. These types of strategies are becoming the norm in municipalities like Calgary, Okotoks and Cochrane. With the right developer incentives and land use policies around landscaping and environmental conditions, community landscape design for commercial, multi-family, and urban development can become examples of truly sustainable design and be a great demonstration of municipal leadership!

5. Rain Barrels: Encouraging residents to use rain barrels are a great way of slowing down the stormwater discharge from the streets and taking advantage of the water resource that comes from the sky rather than the water treatment plant. It's great for plants, and takes the burden of watering the plants off the system, saving the potable water  for uses where it needs to be potable. Rain barrel programs can be developed to promote the use of rain barrels. Contact us for more information on how to create a rain-water harvesting program for your community!

6. Low Impact Development & Bio-Swales: The City of Calgary has adopted low-impact design principles for the protection of wetlands, riparian areas, and for the management of storm water in the city. At the community level, citizens can be encouraged through education to use bio-swales to help manage water on property. These can help augment water supply to gardens and green areas typically irrigated by homeowners.

7. Fixture Bylaws & Exchange: Another tactic worth exploring is a fixture policies that prevent high-flow fixtures in the installation of homes in new developments. Creating an incentive program for existing home-owners with exchange rebates also helps to remove those large 16liter water wasters from your community- saving water every time they flush. The Town of Cochrane has a dual flush and low flow fixture bylaw that is complemented by fixture exchange incentives that top out at $200!

These strategies (full cost accounting, conservation-oriented pricing, community-based social marketing, xeriscaping bylaws, rain barrel programs, developer incentives to create bio-swales and riparian setbacks, and policies and programs for water efficient fixtures) can all help you keep your community water use from exceeding your supply.

*Learn how Sustainability Resources can help your community create programs, initiatives, policies, and city bylaws to encourage and stimulate water conservation behaviors in your community... Contact us today!