August/September 2008
Water Efficiency
C O N T E N T S
ED Corner: Chapter Progress and Five Year Anniversary Celebration
LEED 2009: Regional Credits
The Business of Green: Take Control of Your Lighting Costs
Materials & Resources: What You Need to Know About Environmentally Friendly Paint
Water Efficiency :Reduce Potable Water Through Grey Water Systems
Walking the Talk: FSC Certification for Chapter LEED Study Guide
Regional Update: Metro Denver Branch Leadership
VISION
Promote responsibility for Colorado's environmental legacy.
MISSION
Advance and promote sustainable planning, design, construction and operation of the built environment through education, improving industry guidelines, policy advocacy, and information and resource sharing.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Tom Hootman, President
RNL Design
Dana Kose, Vice Chair
M.A. Mortenson
Megan Christensen, Secretary
Bovis Lend Lease
Jim Bradburn, Treasurer
RMH Group
Mike Lowell, Advocacy Chair
US GSA
Bobby Molinari, Membership Chair Hyatt Select
Josh Radoff, Director At Large
YRG Consultants
Sue McFaddin, Director At Large Seven Generations
Ted Caulkins , Education Chair
Silvertip Integrated Engineering
Daniele Loffreda, Communications Chair
Plateau Enviro Associates
Conor Merrigan, EGB Chair
C2 Sustainable Development Consultants
Deb Kleinman
Executive Director
Colorado Building Green is the official newsletter of the U.S. Green Building Council – Colorado Chapter, and is published bi-monthly. If you are interested in submiting a story, ideas or other information for publication, please contact the editor at dgloffreda@msn.com
Water Conservation Through Residential Greywater Reuse
Building a secure water future for Colorado
By Michael Vail, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, Water Legacy
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We are all in agreement that water is a precious and limited natural resource. Colorado being a headwater State has special concerns that other states don’t have. We all know that population growth, climate change and drought are all causing enormous stress on Colorado’s water system. What we don’t know is How much, How bad and How soon these things will get worse. What we do know is that it is happening and we should be doing everything we can to help remediate the problem today.
Water reuse on a municipal scale is in full swing in arid regions across the globe. Water managers strapped for fresh water resources are turning toward the reliable supply of waste water for meeting numerous non-potable needs. An often overlooked aspect in waste water management is the residential on-site treatment and reuse of greywater. I am here to talk about a home grown solution to reduce the stress on our water supplies that will not take public funds but will ensure water conservation. I am specifically referring to stopping the use of fresh water to flush toilets. We need to make it possible for the public to have the ability to make the decision to stop using freshwater to flush toilets on their own.
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Homes take in fresh water and use it to drink, bath, wash clothes and irrigate landscaping. That used water becomes two distinct types of waste water. The bathing and laundry water is called greywater and the kitchen sink and toilet water, which is full of organic waste materials, is called black water. Homes are currently constructed to treat these two types of water as one, when current technologies allow for the greywater to be safely separated and reused for other uses such as flushing a toilet. Plumbing products are currently available to seamlessly integrate in a non consumptive manner into a new home's plumbing system to take greywater filter it, disinfect it and safely store it to provide the water it takes to flush the toilet. Greywater reuse is another way of personally involving the public in the recycling of water.
A simple look at some numbers reveal the impact greywater reuse can have on conserving our fresh water resources. In-home water usage studies show that these greywater reuse systems can save 12,000 – 20,000 gallons of fresh water use in a typical 4 person household per year. If only one thousand homes utilized a greywater reuse system it would save 12- 20 million gallons of fresh water per year. If Colorado was having a normal building construction year and it was required that all 10,000 new homes had a greywater reuse system it would save 120 – 200 million gallons of fresh water per year. Giving the Colorado public the ability to choose to use one of these systems will save water, save money and help the state government reduce stress on the water system with no cost to the state.
CONTINUED: Why Isn't Everyone Doing This?
CONTINUED: Looking to Get Started?