by Brianna Crandall — October 30, 2013—Facilities managers looking for water efficiency products and eco-friendly shipping partners may find fitting companies to work with through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) announcement of its 2013 WaterSense Partners of the Year and its 2013 SmartWay Excellence Awards. The WaterSense Partner of the Year awards program recognizes the commitment of WaterSense partners in promoting water efficiency to the American public. The SmartWay Excellence Awards go to EPA SmartWay partners that have demonstrated outstanding achievements in reducing carbon pollution and other harmful emissions as they move goods across the United States more efficiently.
The 2013 WaterSense Partner of the Year awards include two partners who received the first-ever WaterSense Sustained Excellence awards in recognition of their continuous high level of support among the exemplary group of organizations that have consistently supported EPA’s mission to protect the future of the nation’s water supply. The award winners’ efforts, along with those of more than 2,700 other WaterSense partners, have reportedly helped Americans save 487 billion gallons of water and $8.9 billion in water and energy bills.
2013 WaterSense Sustained Excellence Award Winners:
- Kohler Co.
- Lowes, Inc.
2013 WaterSense Partners of the Year:
- Promotional Partner of the Year: Athens-Clarke County (GA) Public Utilities Department
- Large Manufacturer Partner of the Year: Delta Faucet Company
- Small Manufacturer Partner of the Year: Niagara Conservation Corp.
- Retailer Partner of the Year: The Home Depot
- Builder Partner of the Year: KB Home
- Professional Certifying Organization Partner of Year: The Irrigation Association (IA)
- Irrigation Partner of Year: John Taylor, president of Taylor Irrigation Service, Inc., Houston, TX
2013 WaterSense Excellence Awards:
- Excellence in Promoting WaterSense-labeled Products: City of Boulder (CO) Department of Public Works/Utilities
- Excellence in Strategic Collaboration: Colorado Springs (CO) Utilities
- Excellence in Education and Outreach: Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, and Town of Sharon, MA
- Excellence in Promoting WaterSense and Water-Efficient Irrigation Practices: Sonoma-Marin (CA) Saving Water Partnership
- Excellence in Construction of Affordable WaterSense-labeled New Homes: Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver (CO)
EPA’s 2013 SmartWay Excellence Awards honor 55 companies as freight industry leaders in supply chain environmental and energy efficiency. The 2013 award assessments were based on environmental performance as demonstrated by partner data submissions with the SmartWay freight assessment and carbon tracking tools.
The annual SmartWay Excellence Award honors top truck, intermodal and rail carrier partners that are setting efficiency benchmarks in how they move products and supplies. EPA recognizes eligible partners in the following categories: Shipper Awards, Logistics Awards and Carrier Awards. Shipping and logistics partners also are recognized for superior efficiency and additional actions to reduce freight emissions through effective collaboration, advanced technology and operational practices, a robust system for validating and reporting their SmartWay data and communications and public outreach.
EPA launched the SmartWay partnership program in 2004 to help the freight industry improve environmental performance. Since then, SmartWay Partners have saved 65 million barrels of oil—equivalent to taking over 5 million cars off the road for a year, says EPA. SmartWay’s clean air achievements (28 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, 478,000 tons nitrogen oxides, and 22,000 tons of particulate matter reduced) are said to help to protect the health and well-being of citizens and provide for a more competitive business environment.
The complete list of SmartWay Excellence Award recipients is available on the EPA Web site.
