Water Use and Green Building

Among green building professionals, the relative importance of water conservation has increased as a topic of concern during the past two years. As energy-efficiency measures have become more widely adopted in new construction, the green building industry has shifted more of its focus to water conservation. In the LEED 2009 rating system, for example, certification requires that buildings reduce water use by at least 20 percent from a baseline or “code” building. A 2008 survey found that 85 percent of real estate professionals believed that water efficiency would be a very important aspect of green building in 2013, compared to 69 percent who said that it was in 2008.

The same survey found that early adopters of new water-conservation technologies are building owners/occupiers, with 42 percent of owners reporting in the same survey that more than three-quarters of their projects have water-efficient practices incorporated in the design. This compares with only 28 percent of architecture and design firms and 20 percent of contractors who reported that they used water-efficient technologies in their projects. One possible explanation is that owner/occupiers have likely inflated their own adoption figures owing to the utility cost saving they have already decided to pursue.