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We Are Colorado WaterWise

Addressing the state's water challenges by improving water efficiency through diverse community connections, innovative solutions and valuable member resources

  

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Have news to share with the Colorado water conservation community? Email us and we will share the information here.

  • Thursday, January 07, 2016 8:44 AM | Laura Wing (Administrator)

    Colorado WaterWise exists to stimulate and support water conservation in Colorado.  Over the last year, the Colorado Water Wise Board (CWW) has been working hard to develop a strategic plan to ensure that CWW will remain sustainable.  As part of that effort, we have revised our membership structure. 

    Colorado WaterWise does five things;

    ü  Creates conservation tools,

    ü  Connects water efficiency professionals,

    ü  Collaborates with partners on efficiency projects,

    ü  Contributes to water efficiency policy,

    ü  Communicates these initiatives to the Colorado water conservation community.

    Through past support Colorado WaterWise has:

    • Created award-winning materials for the Colorado Water: Live Like You Love It Toolkit (visit http://lovecoloradowater.org/);
    • Created a Colorado Outdoor Water Regulation Guide Smart Phone App that puts accurate and current landscape and water rules at the fingertips of landscape professionals;
    • Connected over 100 efficiency professionals through our Water Efficiency Workshops for Colorado Plumbing and  Lunch n’ Learn series;
    • Collaborated with the Rocky Mountain Section of the American Water Works Association (AWWA), the Water Research Foundation, the Colorado Water Conservation Board, and Cavanaugh & Associates to host five AWWA M36 Water Audit and Loss Control Workshops in September 2015;
    • Provided expert testimony to the Colorado legislature regarding efficiency proposals; and
    • Hosted an informative, engaging and inspiring annual Summit  in the fall.

    In order to sustain this work, a new annual membership structure for utilities has been put in place.  It looks like this:

    • Student Membership ($50)
    • Basic Membership ($250)
    • Industry Membership ($1,000)
    • Small Utilities, with 10 or fewer employees, have a membership fee of $500.  Included in this membership are:
      • Quarterly Newsletter;
      • Case Study Library;
      • BP Guidebook;
      • A discount for 1 registration to the Annual Event; and
      • Access to CWW Utility Tools including the Smart Phone App and the Live Like You Love It (LLYLI) Toolkit materials.  You can learn more about LLYLI participation levels here: http://lovecoloradowater.org/participation-levels/.
    • Medium Utilities, with between 11 and 50 employees, have a membership fee of $1,000.  Included in this membership are everything included for the Small Utilities as well as a discount on a second registration (2 total) to the Annual Event.
    • Large Utilities, with more than 50 employees, have a membership fee of $1,500.  Included in this membership are everything included for the Small Utilities plus a discount on a total of 3 registrations for the Annual Event.
    Take advantage of valuable benefits by joining Colorado WaterWise today!
  • Thursday, October 29, 2015 8:15 AM | Deleted user

     


    Thursday, October 29, 2015
    Police Protective Association Event Center
    2105 Decatur Street Denver, Colorado
     

    Summit Event8:15 a.m. - 3:45 p.m.
    Great Divide Movie Premiere: 4 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

    Keynote Speaker
    Dr. Wallace J. Nichols
    NY Times Best Selling Author of "A Blue Mind"

    View the Full Event Program

    Register Online and learn more about the event.

    Early Bird Member Rate: $150
    Member Rate (after September 19): $200
    Early Bird Non-Member Rate: $200
    Non-Member Rate: $275
    Become a Colorado WaterWise Member!

    Sponsors are needed to make the event a success. Learn more about sponsorship opportunities.

  • Thursday, September 10, 2015 6:00 PM | Deleted user


  • Friday, August 07, 2015 12:48 PM | Deleted user

     

    National Survey Utility CII Water Efficiency Programs

    The American Water Works Association (AWWA) requests your utility’s participation in a web-based survey of the Utility Commercial, Industrial and Institutional (CII) Water Efficiency Programs to help us better meet the water conservation planning needs of our Members.

    The survey may be accessed via SurveyMonkey.

    The survey is being conducted by the Water EfficiencyPrograms and Technology Committee (WEPTC) of AWWA and seeks to:

    a)  identify and describe the design and effects of existing CII efficiency programs

    b)  assemble a compendium of existing principles and practices for planning, implementing, and evaluating CII water use and conservation potential, and 

    c)  assist conservation planners providing a basis for development of best management practice (BMP), educational efforts, and conducting additional research on water use efficiency in the CII sector.

    The survey should take approximately 30 minutes to complete. The target respondents for this survey are utility personnel working with water use and conservation including General Managers, Utility Directors, Planners, Financial Managers and Conservation Coordinators.

    Your utility responses will be strictly confidential and will be grouped with information from other utilities for statistical purposes only. If you have any questions about the survey, or if you believe this survey is best directed elsewhere in your organization, please contact Lindsey Geiger.

    Thanks in advance for your contribution to this collective effort and for supporting AWWA's mission to provide solutions to effectively manage water, the world's most important resource.

     


  • Wednesday, July 15, 2015 4:18 PM | Laura Wing (Administrator)

    Just tell us how you Live Like You Love Colorado Water here:  http://lovecoloradowater.org/contest/.

  • Wednesday, June 24, 2015 12:03 PM | Laura Wing (Administrator)

     

    Colorado WaterWise is thrilled to inform you we have officially launched LoveColoradoWater.org to bring our award-winning Colorado Water – Live Like You Love It campaign to a broader audience and provide you another compelling resource for water education.                                                                                   

                                  

    The Colorado Water -- Live Like You Love It  campaign was launched last year to deliver a unified, consistent message about the value of Colorado water and the need to conserve, care for and commit to becoming more informed about this critical resource. This content filled a need for simple, fun and professionally produced educational tools.

    Public opinion research shows many Coloradans don’t understand the value of our water. LoveColoradoWater.org is now a hub for information on how to conserve and care for our water. The new website compliments our LoveColoradoWater Facebook page.

    Help us spread the love! LoveColoradoWater.org contains information on how you and can JOIN THE CAMPAIGN to ensure that this message continues to flow. These tools are essential in helping you communicate with customers, students, and businesses about the value of our water.                                               

    By pooling funds and resources and streamlining messaging, we can collectively make a much bigger splash in educating Coloradans about the one thing no one can live without.

     

    Please check out the new website and become part of this powerful movement to encourage Coloradans to love their water!

  • Monday, April 20, 2015 10:04 AM | Deleted user

    By Jay Adams, Denver Water

    The state has legalized marijuana for medicinal and recreational use and those plants need water to grow. The plants are part of Colorado - there is no denying it. 

    With the legalization of recreational marijuana, Jeff Tejral, Manager of Conservation, and Michael Thomas, Conservation Office Technician, want to know how much water growers in the blossoming industry are using. 

    In an effort to start gathering data on the cannabis industry’s water use, the conservation team reviewed 16 grow facilities in Denver Water’s service area that were registered with the state in 2014. Thomas traced consumption at the addresses back to 2005. 

    While the research was not able to determine how long the grow operations were in business at each address, it did reveal a steady increase in water consumption during key periods when laws changed in Colorado.  Although the amount of water the growers use is only a small portion of Denver Water’s overall supply, Tejral wants to have a good understanding of the industry and where it’s heading. "They are our customers and the people who use their product are also our customers," he said. 

    Tejral is reaching out to growers, including Denver Relief in northeast Denver. He found that Denver Water and cannabis growers have a common goal — use only what you need. For Denver Water, conservation is a long-held practice. At Denver Relief, using the right amount of water is important because it builds healthy plants, and healthy plants lead to good sales and good business. 

    “We want to know if we are over-feeding these plants," said Nick Hice, Denver Relief co-owner. Denver Relief is constantly experimenting with the amount of water, light and nutrients plants receive. Some of the experiments have resulted in reduced water consumption. "Two years ago we used 80 gallons of water per week for a table of 21 plants. Today we use only 60 gallons a week," Hice said. Denver Relief will continue experimenting with water use to see if it can keep plants just as healthy or even healthier with less water. 

    Another benefit of reduced consumption is that it requires less labor. "If we don't have to water as much, our staff can spend more time monitoring the plants for disease and overall health," Hice said. 

    Denver Relief and Denver Water have another common goal: both would like to see the marijuana industry develop a list of best practices for the water-related aspects of growing cannabis. The list would include promoting the use of charcoal water filters instead of reverse osmosis to remove chemicals from tap water that plants do not need, such as fluoride and chlorine. Charcoal filtration not only removes the chemicals, but also uses less water. 

  • Thursday, April 02, 2015 4:50 PM | Laura Wing (Administrator)

    What do the communities of Aspen, Brighton and Fort Collins have in common? They all want to save energy over the next two years, an effort that could result in a $5 million prize from Georgetown University.

    The Georgetown University Energy Prize today announced the three Colorado cities as semi-finalists among the 50 communities in the national competition, which will include electrical and natural gas consumption. The winning community must reduce its residential, municipal and K-12 energy consumption by 2017 to be eligible for the $5 million purse. The competition will help Georgetown identify, study, and advance best practices, creating tools for other cities and counties across the country to drastically improve their energy efficiency. Finalists will be announced in 2017. The competition does not include businesses.

    “One of the best opportunities to conserve energy is by increasing the energy efficiency of our homes and buildings,” said Jeffrey Ackermann, Director of the Colorado Energy Office. “We applaud the cities of Fort Collins, Brighton, and Aspen in their efforts to lead by example and better their local communities by implementing long-term, sustainable measures to reduce energy consumption.”

    “Colorado is one of the few states where we have multiple communities competing – we know Colorado is an important state when it comes to energy policy, clean energy research and an interest in environmental sustainability,” said Christofer Nelson, program director for the Georgetown University’s Program on Science in the Public Interest, which is leading the contest. “We wish all three cities the best in the program.”

    Competing cities come from 27 states. They are diverse socioeconomically and demographically, ranging from 5,000 to 250,000 people.

    To win the competition, communities must:
    • Demonstrate a reduction in energy consumption that is sustainable over two years, illustrating significant improvements in adoption rates.
    • Demonstrate that their actions are replicable in other communities across the country.

    Meet the Colorado competitors:
    Aspen – 5,900 people, 220 miles west of Denver
    The City of Aspen Canary Initiative’s Climate Action Plan goal aims to reduce Aspen’s greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by 2020. To win the prize, the City, Holy Cross Energy, SourceGas, and Energy Smart Colorado at the Community Office for Resource Efficiency will offer residents rebates to complete energy efficiency upgrades, help them take control of their utility bills, make their buildings more comfortable and safe, and reduce their environmental impact. Ryland French, Utilities Efficiency Specialist for the City of Aspen, noted, “We are asking the Aspen community to get involved and help us show Fort Collins, Brighton, and the rest of the nation that Aspen is the leader in smart energy use.” French added, “The local energy savings will make every community competing in the Georgetown University Energy Prize a true winner, but we want Aspen to finish on top, and win that $5 million prize.”

    Brighton – 34,000 people, 20 miles north of Denver
    Brighton’s vision is to become an environmentally sustainable community by shaping and implementing achievable, multi-faceted and measureable strategies that maximize opportunity and efficiency while minimizing cost. To celebrate the City’s advancement in the Georgetown University Energy Prize competition, there will be a Brighton Sustainable Kick-off Event from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Saturday, February 21 at the Brighton Armory Performing Arts Center. “Brighton is a sustainable and livable city. We have three pillars of sustainability – economic viability, environmentally sound, and social equity. Being a semifinalist in the Georgetown University Energy Prize brings Brighton one step closer to achieving our energy reduction goals. This allows the City to continue to innovate viable resources to make Brighton a sustainable community for years to come,” said City of Brighton Mayor Dick McLean.

    Fort Collins – 155,000 people, 60 miles north of Denver
    Fort Collins has been recognized nationally as one of the first communities to organize the triple bottom line – the departments of Social Sustainability, Environmental Services and Economic Health - under one service area, known as Sustainability Services. The City also benefits from having its own municipal utility, which was the first municipal utility in the United States to register with the Global Reporting Initiative. The City aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050. “Fort Collins is already on the national map when it comes to contributing our knowledge about energy conservation and building a community that is resilient to climate change,’” said Fort Collins Mayor Karen Weitkunat. “We appreciate the efforts of Georgetown to take what we all learn from this competition and turn it into best practices that can serve our entire nation.”

    About the Georgetown University Energy Prize
    The Georgetown University Energy Prize is a multi-million dollar competition that is challenging small- to medium-size towns, cities, and counties to work together with their local governments, residents, utilities, and others to achieve innovative, replicable, scalable and continual reductions in the per account energy consumption of gas and electricity. Formally launched in April of 2014, the Georgetown University Energy Prize represents years of study and development that brought leading academics together with government officials, industry professionals, and top national and global non-governmental organizations.

    http://brightonco.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=186

Colorado WaterWise                                          
www.coloradowaterwise.org
management@coloradowaterwise.org 

PO Box 101012

Denver, CO 80250

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