Our Work

The Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) partners with our members and other organizations to produce the research, tools, resources, and information they need to advance water efficiency in their communities. Our work has helped water professionals seize new opportunities, uncover challenges, and break down barriers to achieve sustainable water use. To get involved and help define the work we do, join the AWE network today.

2021

Annual Report (2021)

2021 was another challenging year for the Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) and our partners as drought – both prolonged and seasonal - continued across much of North America, with the prospect of increasing water supply instability because of climate change. At the same time, political divisions strained the ties that bind our nation together and threatened to prevent action on a host of pressing challenges, including the growing water crisis.

Learn more about AWE's eventful 2021 in the full report.

Conservation Tracking Tool

Need help in planning your water conservation programs? The Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) has a solution for you. First released in 2009 after a successful beta testing period with a number of water utilities, the Tracking Tool is now in Version 4.0 (2021) and has over 400 users. The Tracking Tool is an Excel-based model that can evaluate the water savings, costs, and benefits of conservation programs for a specific water utility, using either English or Metric units.

Examining the Water and Land Use Connection in Water Utility Planning Requirements: An Inventory of the Laws of all 50 States

The Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) partnered with the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) to examine and evaluate the legal requirements for water utility plans in each of the 50 states. AWE and ELI surveyed the statutes and regulations of each state, with a specific emphasis on how water utility plans intersect with land use policy and planning. This report reviewed relevant laws and conducted case study interviews to answer a series of questions on how community land use factors are considered in the requirements of water utility plans.

Annual Report (2020)

Despite the challenging circumstances of 2020, the Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) persevered to provide research, member support, and policy advocacy that advanced sustainable water use across North America. As the world abruptly shifted to remote working, we collaborated with our partners to exchange ideas and strategies for navigating the new reality.

Learn more about AWE's eventful 2020 in the full report.

Annual Report (2019)

2019 was a year of production. AWE released studies, reports, manuals, handbooks, user guides, and webinars.

We successfully mobilized our community to help ensure a place for EPA’s WaterSense program in the FY2020 national budget.

We collaborated with Plumbing Manufacturers International (PMI) to establish strict guidelines for installing multiple showerheads in a single stall, thus closing a significant loophole in codes and ensuring effective water efficiency standards.

Sustainable Landscapes: A Utility Program Guide

The Alliance for Water Efficiency's (AWE) Landscape Transformation Study found that consumers are ready for sustainable, water-efficient landscapes—but they need help from their water providers.

landscape transformation executive summary cover

Landscape Transformation: Assessment of Water Utility Programs and Market Readiness Evaluation

The Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) initiated its Outdoor Water Savings Research Initiative in 2015 to identify and clarify what programs, practices, and irrigation technologies can support effective utility-driven outdoor water efficiency programs.

Annual Report (2018)

2018 has been a fabulous year for us at the Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE). Our years of hard work are bearing fruit in building partnerships and highlighting our ongoing efforts to provide cutting-edge research and technical assistance. Our members tell us that we are making a difference...Making a difference is why we exist. It is gratifying to see our efforts working in so many geographies and with so many partners.

Colorado river basin regional scorecard cover

State-Level Water Efficiency and Conservation Laws in the Colorado River Basin

This report takes a closer look at the results of the 2017 AWE report, "The Water Efficiency and Conservation State Scorecard: An Assessment of Laws" for the seven Colorado River Basin states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. It recognizes successes, and identifies opportunities where laws and programs can be strengthened to advance the sustainable use of water in the Colorado River Basin.

Study Demonstrates Water Conservation Pay-off for Ratepayers

Are Los Angeles ratepayers better off by conserving water over the long term? That’s the question explored in a new study released by AWE and the California Water Efficiency Partnership (CalWEP) in partnership with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP).

Annual Report (2017)

2017 was a landmark year for us at AWE. We completed a year-long process of negotiating, creating legal frameworks, and strategic planning to lay the groundwork for the California Water Efficiency Partnership to become the Alliance for Water Efficiency’s first-ever state chapter. There is great synergy in the work of both organizations, and we will be stronger by having an explicit and cooperative platform for working together.

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Water Efficiency and Conservation State Scorecard

The Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) and the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) have released a five-year update to the 2012 Water Efficiency and Conservation State Scorecard: An Assessment of Laws and Policies. As with the 2012 State Scorecard, the 2017 update reviewed, scored, graded states for laws supporting water conservation and efficiency. In addition, the 2017 report added a new component for climate resiliency planning and performed a parallel evaluation, scoring, and grading process.

Transforming Water: Water Efficiency as Infrastructure Investment

The Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) has prepared a position paper titled, Transforming Water: Water Efficiency as Infrastructure Investment. The paper quantitatively examines the short-term economic growth impacts of water efficiency investments, specifically in terms of job creation, income, GDP, national output, water savings, and other benefits. For example:

California Water Policy Challenge

Bridging the Gap Between Water Innovation and Regulation in California: Stakeholder Outreach in the State of California

The Alliance for Water Efficiency and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission convened three stakeholder workshops on the topic of decentralized onsite non-potable water system and the development of a statewide policy. Feedback garnered during and directly following the workshops is contained in this report. Included is a copy of the draft model state regulation for onsite-non-potable water systems.

Videos Communicating the Value of Water

The Alliance for Water Efficiency’s (AWE) Water: What You Pay For video is an animated video that seeks to communicate the value of water service, by explaining why safe drinking water has a cost.

This short video explains the least customers should know about the water that they not only love, but need to survive! It describes the water service a typical residential water bill covers, and the costs of delivering a consistent, reliable flow of safe and affordable drinking water to faucets.

Peak Day Water Demand Management Study

Grabbing a page from the energy efficiency playbook, a new report from the Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) describes an innovative load shifting experiment carried out during the summer of 2016 by New Jersey American Water (NJAW), Rachio, and WaterDM.

Water Conservation Keeps Rates Low in Arizona

Water conservation has helped keep water rates lower in two U.S. communities, according to new research released by the Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE).

Water Savings and Financial Benefits

Associated with Single-Family Package Graywater Systems

Planners, designers, decision makers, and researchers currently lack the information necessary to determine if graywater reuse systems are viable, safe, and provide cost-effective potable water savings. At the same time, these professionals and other stakeholders are increasingly under pressure to promote and/or incentivize the use of single-family packaged graywater reuse systems.

Policy Statement, Managing Water Loss and Recovering Revenue

A Water Loss or Non-Revenue Water Policy Template for Local Adoption.

Report on Australia Drought

What California Can Learn from Australia's Millennium Drought

Lessons learned during Australia’s worst drought on record are helping California through its own water crisis.

A 2016 report shows that strategies developed and mistakes made during Australia’s decade-long millennium drought provide a powerful resource for California, as the state enters its fifth year of severe drought.

Our Work

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

Bridging the Gap Between Water Innovation and Regulation in California: Stakeholder Outreach in the State of California

Associated with Single-Family Package Graywater Systems

2016

What California Can Learn from Australia's Millennium Drought

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