The Value of Value Engineering - Part 3

Recap - Parts 1 & 2

So to date, I've talked about paradigm shifts, easy buttons, LEED and sites. This week, it's water. I've written about water before in this blog -see my Water Follies post. But I don't think you can ever talk too much about water, especially our increasing lack of it. And water use is the second LEED category -Water Efficiency that is.

Water, Water Everywhere...??

Each day, we in the United States use an estimated 340 billion gallons of water to support our daily lives, from sewage conveyance, to water for drinking and cooking and washing, to irrigation, to manufacturing and more. We view water as an abundant resource and are used to turning on the tap or shower and having clean, fresh water at our disposal. We need water –we cannot live without it. It quenches, cleanses, nourishes and cultivates. But where does all this water come from? Generally, from lakes, rivers, and aquifers, whose health and balance, if you remember from Part 2 of this series, are tied directly to how much water infiltrates into the ground on site and how much runs off. And we are currently running at a deficit, using about 10 billion gallons more each day than what is really available to us.

Now you might think that 10 billion gallons a day over what we have isn’t really a lot. But that is based on the current population, estimated at around 304,000,000; predictions for 2050 hover around 402 million, with some predictions of US population topping 1 billion by 2100. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that the water deficit will continue to rise. In fact we are already starting to see hints of water wars, a significant one occurring in late summer of 2007.

Our Use and Misuse
So how do we use water?

Landscaping. We love manicured, landscaped lawns, whether it be our house, a campus, or an office park. But often we have landscaped with non-native species, inappropriate grasses, trees, shrubs and flowers all which require more water for irrigation, because we like the look or wish to win an award for best landscaped office park.

But what if we value engineered the landscaping to be a more natural landscape, like grasses and wildflowers, native species only. It would require less water –if any at all beyond natural rainfall. It would also reduce the need for lawn maintenance, and support restoration of ecosystems on site.

Then there’s toilets, sinks, urinals. There are quality low-flow fixtures out there, yet so often I hear people complain that they don’t flush –that you need two or three flushes, waterless urinals smell or plumbers fight their installation because they’ll lose work. Often however, the toilets which don’t flush correctly are the cheaper low flush toilets –because believe me, there are good toilets and there are bad toilets. Or waterless urinals aren’t maintained properly –you need to pour very hot, almost boiling water down into the pipes to help melt the calcified stuff. Or the cheaper sensor operated toilet or faucet is installed, because again, there are quality sensors and well, really bad sensors.

So in all of this, you save money in first costs on installation, but you spend more money in maintenance and to boot your water bills are higher. And with our water supplies dwindling, the cost of water will only rise.

And where is the value in any of this?

Water Reflections During Lent

I think during this time, Lent, it is especially important to consider water, and what it means. In the Episcopal church today, the readings all centered around water. Genesis 9:8-17, God's covenant with mankind after the devastating flood that wiped out all of humanity, creation really, save Noah and his family and the animals on the Ark. Never again, God promises, will a flood destroy all of humanity, of creation. Then 1 Peter 3:18-22, which talks about baptism and water, "...not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for good conscience..." And finally, the Gospel According to Matthew, 1:9-15, which talks about Jesus' baptism by John. It might be a good time for us to reflect on our use of -and abuse of, water. Are we destroying ourselves, our own humanity, by our misuse of water? Are we acting in good conscience in our use of water, no matter your faith or spritual belief? And, do we need 40 days of being in the wilderness to reflect on this, to emerge anew?

Water Follies

I thought a lot about water Thanksgiving week. I spent it in Scottsdale, AZ, which is, basically, in the desert. I do my best to be conscious of how much water I use at home (Collingswood, NJ), though I’m far from perfect and could do better. And although I inherently understand the increased challenges cities in arid climates face with respect to getting water, actually “living” in the desert for a week made me to think about water much differently. Out there I felt a heightened awareness to how much I was using each time I turned on the tap or shower or flushed the toilet. Even more so, I felt a heightened sensitivity to the lack of water. So I thought a lot about water.

We are used to turning on the tap and having clean, fresh water at our disposal. Humans –as well as every other creature on Earth, need water to survive. It quenches, cleanses, purifies, nourishes, and cultivates, to name a few. And we actually have a finite amount on Earth –precipitation aside. We can’t make water easily either -from scratch that is (okay, actually we can, but it isn’t easy http://science.howstuffworks.com/manufacture-water.htm), although there are some interesting experiments for turning water vapor back into liquid water in large quantities (http://www.waterunlimited.com.au/index.html).

Not to knock Phoenix and Scottsdale, but I spent some time last week reading their 2005 Water Resources Plan (http://phoenix.gov/WATER/wtrpln05.html). The report states that Phoenix has enough to meet current demands for the next 50 years and beyond –although how long beyond equates to isn’t stipulated. They are approaching this very responsibly too, but 50 years is hardly a generation. What about a plan that looks at minimum, say, 500 years into the future? How would this change the approach to and thinking about the plan, as well as future growth for the city?

Thinking about all this also got me musing about resources we use to produce energy. Our current priorities are focused on having enough oil, coal and natural gas. However, we can actually live without these (and although it would require adaptation and change, it wouldn’t mean a return to the Dark Ages). Rarely though, do we hear enough about water and dwindling supplies in the news. We cannot live without water.

The giving of water by one person to another in need is often seen as one of the most charitable acts of humanity. We are taking vast quantities of water from Earth, and even changing the very ecology and hydrology of Earth’s waterways and groundwater sources to meet current demand without replacing in kind. Most of our sources are dwindling. Many are polluted. Do we see the provision of water by Earth as a charitable act? Taking this a step further, are there moral questions around water we as a collective global society need to be asking and answering? Such as, how much growth for a city is too much and what does it need to be limited to or, how does the taking of water for City X deprive flora and fauna both near and far and what steps are we going to take now to ensure that there is enough water for all living things, not just humans, or, what is the long term, i.e.: 500 year, environmental impact of any new commercial or residential building which conducts business as usual with respect to water usage, i.e.: merely meeting minimum standards?

The next version of the LEED rating system, LEED 2009, calls for a mandatory 20 percent water use reduction. That’s a step in the right direction, but we can do better. In reality, we must do better to even consider having water 500 years from now, and beyond. For buildings, this means moving towards a closed loop system, striving to capture and recycle every molecule of water which can possibly be so, for both new and existing buildings. We also need to continue to think outside the box, challenging current accepted standards, codes and practices as well as repairing and restoring our waterways and groundwater supplies. Finally, we need to see water as a gift from Earth for us and for all living things, one to be used with the utmost judiciousness, and the giving of it by Earth understood to be one of the most benevolent acts bestowed upon humankind.