EPA Honors Top Advocates for Water Efficiency

The Environmental Protection Agency (www.epa.gov) announced its inaugural WaterSense Partners of the Year award winners this week. The awards are designed to honor companies and individuals for encouraging Americans to tap into their water resources more efficiently.

Promotional Partner of the Year: The Saving Water Partnership (www.savingwater.org)
Manufacturer Partner of the Year: Kohler Co. (www.kohler.com)
Retailer and Distributor Partner of the Year: Ferguson (www.ferguson.com)
Irrigation Partner of the Year: Timothy Malooly of Shorewood, Minn.

These organizations and individual represent the best of WaterSense”s four partner categories, according to the EPA. The Saving Water Partnership is a collaboration between Seattle Public Utilities and 17 participating local water utilities. Kohler Co. is a bathroom and kitchen product manufacturer. Ferguson is one of the country”s largest wholesale distributors of plumbing supplies. Timothy Malooly is a WaterSense irrigation partner and president of two Minnesota-based irrigation firms: Irrigation Consultants & Control and Irrigation By Design.

The 2008 Partners of the Year program is designed to help advance the WaterSense mission by demonstrating creativity and collaboration and promoting water efficiency from New York City”s Times Square to the Minnesota Zoological Garden. Three of the winning organizations have also worked together to educate plumbers and consumers on the benefits of WaterSense labeled products.

In 2007, WaterSense partners were responsible for labeling, selling and promoting more than 193,400 WaterSense labeled products, saving the United States more than 277 million gallons of water annually, according to the EPA.
WaterSense is a partnership program launched in 2006 with the aim of protecting the future of our nation”s water supply by offering people a simple way to use less water.

For more info on the WaterSense Partner of the Year awards, visit www.epa.gov/watersense/awards.htm. For more information on the WaterSense program, visit www.epa.gov/watersense.