Participants in the one-day water and energy summit in Chicago felt a turning point in relations between the two groups. The timing was right: as energy and water efficiency initiatives target many of the same products, practices, and economic sectors, exploiting these synergies in program design and delivery is a very attractive way to create new opportunities and increase overall program cost effectiveness. Many attendees agreed that the moment has arrived to exploit joint opportunities.

Erinn Monroe, a commercial program manager for Commonwealth Edison, said, “The workshop was definitely eye-opening for me, and it made me more cognizant of the linkages between our two industries.”

Elizabeth Newell, representing San Diego Gas and Electric, added, “I was glad to be a part of the process and enjoyed meeting some players in the water-energy world.”

EPA Office of Water and Office of Air and Radiation hosted the workshop in Chicago on March 5 to bring together leaders from each field. CEE staff coordinated member involvement and helped develop the agenda—which focused on appliances, commercial kitchens, and residential “whole house” programs. Jim Grevatt from Efficiency Vermont (EVT) presented an overview of the energy efficiency industry and highlighted a commitment by energy companies to pursue partnerships to increase their energy savings.

Jerrel Gustaffson (Austin Energy), Doug Holton (Salt River Project), and Melissa Marks (Southern California Gas) presented ways their programs partner with a water utility in whole house and commercial kitchens initiatives. Their leadership should help other organizations pursue similarly effective partnerships.

Kicking off the day, attendees exchanged information and strategies to achieve a shared understanding of logical next steps, discussed opportunities that both groups recognized, and also candidly identified challenges to overcome.

Summit Attendees

Education Efforts
Cooperating on educational efforts for employees, customers, and trade allies about water and energy savings is a large area of opportunity. Research into new tools to establish life cycle costs and benefits of energy and water efficiency investments would also be helpful. Sharing information about successful program models, ways to offer financing mechanisms, and adding water and energy research to the CEE Clearinghouse would bring the two communities closer together through information exchange. Marketing also provides opportunities, through promoting advanced metering and smart grid technology or linking water and energy efficiency to sustainability initiatives such as LEED or Green Restaurant Association awards. Opportunities within evaluation included better ways to measure energy savings from reduced water use and ensuring that efficiency is evaluated on a level playing field against supply-side options.

Challenges
Challenges to working together continue to exist, and participants clearly named them. There are institutional barriers, such as the differences in cultures, priorities, timelines, and risk tolerance, along with regulatory barriers. Service territories for water and energy utilities often do not overlap and there can multiple utilities that need to coordinate within a given geographic area. Financial barriers include the difficulty of establishing budget responsibilities for a joint program and conveying savings to customers through the current billing structure. While it could be essential to share data for effective collaboration, it may be difficult to overcome concerns about confidentiality and proprietary information. While there are no quick and easy solutions, recognizing that these barriers exist is a good step to working around them.

In that frame of mind, participants agreed to actively pursue a list of next steps in the areas of programs and practices, metrics, and policy. CEE will be working with its members and water utilities to explore how to merge water efficiency opportunities into comprehensive programs such as Home Performance with ENERGY STAR. Also, CEE will be aggregating all existing commercial food service program design tools and documents related to energy and water efficiency.

Overall, everyone was enthusiastic about this first meeting, and found it a valuable opportunity to exchange information and generate new ideas. EPA will continue to facilitate ongoing dialogue through quarterly conference calls, and, potentially, another meeting.

CEE is looking forward to supporting members in their efforts to address the energy efficiency gains in conserving water. “While we’ve understood the synergies between water and energy for a while, particularly as we facilitated initiatives in appliances and commercial kitchens, this meeting felt like the kickoff for something big,” noted John Taylor. “The willingness to work together is there, and it will be exciting to watch as ideas and activities develop.” Complete coverage of the meeting is available on the ENERGY STAR Web site.

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