Cover Story: Water Wise, Part 1
1 Aug, 2008 By: Landscape Management Staff Landscape ManagementEditor's note: When the rains fail, lawmakers and agencies too often react with watering restrictions or, in the most drastic cases, watering bans rather offering incentives and developing other programs to encourage conservation. That's been the case in much of the Southeast the past two years, and it's been a huge challenge to any business involved in the green plant business there.
We start our three-part investigation of water issues with challenges faced by Atlanta, and we look at one example of a company in the West that's learned to deal with drought in a profitable way.
Consensus conservation
Chicago-based Alliance for Water Efficiency is poised to lead North America to a more sustainable use of its fresh water resources.
The Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) became active in September 2007. In that respect, it's in its infancy. But it's also well on its way to igniting a broad-based effort aimed at boosting the efficient and sustainable use of North America's fresh water resources.
 Mary Ann Dickinson |
The AWE, headquartered in Chicago, intends to be the organization "pulling everybody together" toward a sustainable water future, says Executive Director Mary Ann Dickinson.
And when she says "everyone," you can almost take that literally.
"We put together a stakeholder discussion process," says Dickinson, noting that it led to the formation of the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. "We held workshops and focus groups with industry leaders. We asked them, 'What do you need to participate in water efficiency more actively?' They said they needed a national organization to coordinate them. They said they needed a non-profit to represent every stakeholder group."
 Regional water usage |
A 23-member board of directors guides the AWE. Two board members — Warren Gorowitz, national water management products sales manager, Ewing Irrigation Products, and Ron Wolfarth, director of Rain Bird Corp.'s landscape management division — are from the irrigation industry. The other 21 board members represent a diverse group of public and private organizations, including water utility officials, conservation managers, academics and private industry, among others.
"We want to achieve our goals with input from all sides," says Dickinson, who has worked with water issues for 35 years prior to founding the AWE.
Dickinson lists water shortages, the cost of providing additional supplies of potable water, continuing urban development and population growth, and the need for more efficient landscape irrigation, as among the largest water challenges facing North America.
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