October 4, 2016

Five federal agencies are working to increase consumers’ awareness of the benefits of switching to water- and energy-efficient fixtures and building codes.

The U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have released statements encouraging homeowners to install WaterSense-certified fixtures in their homes and providing relevant consumer information about their benefits. The EPA’s WaterSense program labels products that have a “potential for significant water savings on a national level” and has saved the U.S. upwards of 1.5 trillion gallons of water since its introduction in 2006. HUD has also announced that they will begin collecting data on 2.2 million multi-family homes to determine how much energy and water they use. These data will help inform consumers, create benchmarks for home efficiency, and improve future HUD programs.

The Department of Energy also recently commissioned an analysis from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to assess the benefits of keeping up to date on the latest building energy codes. The analysis is yet to be released, but if consistently employed, the White House estimates that the codes could decrease national carbon emissions by more than 800 million metric tons over the next 25 years.

The White House will also do its part to increase its water- and energy-efficiency: it plans to seek $2 billion in energy performance contracts within the next three years and to save 2 billion gallons of water.

Sources: Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, Whitehouse.gov