Sept. 30, 2024

Northern Water Wins Sustained Excellence Award from EPA

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has honored Northern Water with a WaterSense Sustained Excellence Award for its work promoting WaterSense and water efficiency in 2023.

WaterSense recognized its Sustained Excellence, Partner of the Year and Excellence Award winners during the WaterSmart Innovations (WSI) Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Sept. 26. Northern Water was one of 19 Sustained Excellence Award winners. This is the fifth year that Northern Water has been a recipient of a WaterSense award.

WaterSense, a voluntary partnership program sponsored by the EPA, is both a label for water-efficient products and a resource for helping consumers learn ways to save water. More than 2,100 manufacturers, builders, retailers, utilities, government, and nonprofit organizations partner with WaterSense to produce and promote water-efficient products, programs, and homes.

Frank Kinder on stage accepting WaterSense award

Northern Water developed six complete residential water efficient landscape plans to assist homeowners in rebuilding following the devastation of the December 2021 Marshall Fire and hosted three Irrigation Association classes and one certification testing day to help irrigation and landscape professionals obtain water efficiency skills and certification. Northern Water also collaborated with WaterSense throughout 2023 to provide recommendations to revise the best practices in the WaterSense at Work guide and connected WaterSense staff with their Collaborative Water Efficiency Landscape Grantees at HOAs who could provide input on new HOA tools and case studies for the program.

Through the Collaborative Water Efficiency Landscape Grant program, which specifically requires WaterSense labeled equipment be installed, Northern Water awarded more than $300,000 in grants to 19 new projects covering more than 500,000 square feet within its boundaries.

“WaterSense provides an ideal platform for everyone involved in urban water,” said Frank Kinder, Northern Water’s Water Efficiency Department Manager. “Users, utilities and partners all benefit from a brand, language and collaboration that magnifies our investment, and makes participation easy and productive. Conserving water works with WaterSense.”  

Since EPA launched the program in 2006, nearly 46,000 WaterSense labeled models of plumbing and irrigation products have helped consumers and businesses save 8.7 trillion gallons of water; the amount of energy needed to pump, treat, and heat water by 997 billion kilowatt hours; and $207 billion in water and energy bills. These savings also helped prevent 379 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, which is equivalent to planting 6.3 billion trees.

“More than ever, consumers and businesses are looking to conserve resources, cut costs, and reduce their carbon footprint,” said Veronica Blette, acting associate director of the Water Infrastructure Division in the EPA Office of Wastewater Management. “Our WaterSense Award winners for 2024 made it easy for Americans to make water-efficient choices and find WaterSense labeled products and homes that save water, energy, and money while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”

For more information about WaterSense, visit www.epa.gov/watersense.