The National Ground Water Association and the Green Builder ® Coalition have signed a two-year agreement for the promotion of sustainable groundwater practices through the Water Efficiency Rating Score (WERS) program. WERS is a tool developed to help improve residential water use practices. The current NGWA long-range plan has an emphasis on groundwater sustainability, with a specific objective to help address water conservation practices.
“NGWA seeks partners to help us explain the importance of the resource and the things we each can do to use the resource wisely, including among our homes, our farms, and in industry,” says NGWA CEO Kevin McCray, CAE. “We are excited to partner with the Green Builder Coalition to provide promotional assistance on the benefits of sustainable groundwater practices as a way to further water efficiency.”
“One of the big themes of the WERS program is to utilize the water that falls on the site. For rural homeowners, this is vitally important,” said Mike Collignon, Executive Director of the coalition. “It makes a lot of sense for us to partner with NGWA, since both organizations have a message that is relevant to a variety of audiences, from individual well owners to municipal planners.”
The agreement calls for support of Protect Your Groundwater Day, as well as cross-promotion of NGWA and WERS events to members of NGWA and the coalition. There will also be a session on WERS during NGWA’s Groundwater Week, December 6-8, in Las Vegas, NV.
Since February 2014, the coalition has helped develop the WERS program for new and existing residential properties. The first WERS verifier-training course was held in March, with more courses coming throughout the year. Other NGWA efforts undertaken in 2016 on groundwater sustainability include two international social media campaigns on water and energy efficiency for agricultural irrigation using groundwater, and for public supply systems dependent upon the resource.