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- Downpours beaten
- Lead law' update
- Reality check
- On the hunt
- Health check
- Survey results
- Fire goes green
- Double dipping
- Flow reduction
- UK farming misery
- Bugs eating through fat
- 'Super' solution
- Luxury goes green
- O2 overcomes, too
- Norway shows the way
- Dubai: Changing landscape
- Harsh environment
- Democracy brings water
- Government leads the way
- Extracting oil from stand
- Heat Pumps: The new era
- Sao Paulo's hotel unique
- Masquerading dummies
- Testing times 'down-under'
- iFlush: The digital revolution
- Much more to good design
- New lead policy
- India's modern sanitation
- Fire suppression systems
- From Hutong to high-rise
- Attracting woman engineers
- Contemplating the future
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Telling it like it is.
Obviously, with any such survey
that is run across borders and
continents, there are many
local issues that can affect answers, such
as climatic conditions and local methods,
so please take this as being an indicative
snapshot.
The full report can be viewed at www.wpr.com.au.
There were a few responses to some of our
questions, which confirmed some anecdotal
thoughts, but equally, there were a few
surprises. We have endeavored to encapsulate
the highlights in the following few paragraphs.
We asked you about your level of
commitment to water and energy conservation
on all plumbing projects you are working on.
Approximately half of you (the respondents)
were very committed and, thankfully, the
majority of you are committed to the causes.
And when challenged about the relevance of
your existing local plumbing codes to climate
change issues, roughly 30% of you responded
with ‘very committed’. This was practically
the same for ‘neutral’ or ‘committed’. Does it
surprise anyone that almost half of you would
like a global code?
In answers relating to gray water usage, most
of you thought gray water could make a major
contribution to saving potable water, especially
on industrial projects, although 53% of you say
your own region’s codes don’t effectively allow
you to provide gray water solutions for your
clients. Many of you expressed public health
concerns about gray water usage in
domestic housing multi dwelling (53.7%);
domestic housing single dwelling (43.8) and
less for commercial and industrial. But doubts
exist. It will be interesting to see if this figure
decreases in the next 12 months or more
research reveals greater health scares. Is that
why 77% of respondents are not specifying
gray water solutions for their projects? And
green roof solutions seem a fair way off with
only pockets of interest worldwide.
It’s great to know that the majority of you areconcerned about the effects reduced-flush toilets and waterless
urinals have on drain line performance. But what is surprising is that
while 54.5% of respondents believe waterless urinals and low-flush
toilets should be supplemented with upstream water, 48% of you
admitted to not surveying drain lines, even though 39% believe drain line
clearance performance levels are affected.
We asked leading water-conservation industry consultant John
Koeller from the US who consultants to many water regions and
government groups, how he viewed some of the results.
“Given that nearly 60% of respondents are from North America, I
am quite surprised at the few people who are less than ‘quite aware’ of
LEED (around 60%),” says Koeller.
“I’m also surprised that more than 90% are not LEED accredited,
although the WPR readership is made up of many design professionals
and specifiers and installers. However, responses to Q32 indicate that
75% are specifying products for projects, so I am somewhat puzzled by
the response to the LEED questions.”
Perhaps this industry is guilty of ‘green washing’ its projects rather
than actually fulfilling the proper needs of the community?
Koeller adds: “Then, to top it off, only 30%+ of those in the US
actually reference LEED in any way.
Depending upon what reference/
means to the respondents, this could be confusing.
“I am shocked that so many people thought that the water
efficiency aspects of LEED were average or very good. Water-efficiency
professionals who know the LEED program requirements very well would
all respond ‘very poor’!”
Perhaps this highlights the sizeable gap between the high level of the
industry and what they think is going on versus what really happens out
on the suburbs?
Koeller says: “As I expected, respondents think that gray water is or
will make an ‘effective’ contribution. The high percentages here show me
that much is coming in this category in the near future.
“Not a very high percentage of professionals are recommending
waterless solutions. This is as I would expect. “As mentioned earlier, I find one of the biggest shocks in the survey
results is that nearly half of the respondents don’t survey drain lines before
doing a retrofit (install of waterless urinals and low-flush toilets)! This is a
major oversight that, in my opinion, leads or will lead to many subsequent
problems. How can an engineer or other plumbing professional fail to
practice due diligence in this regard? This is a clear indicator to me that
there is a lot of incompetence out there,” states Koeller.
“It looks like the confidence in waterless urinals is exceedingly
low! That’s not too unexpected. Unfortunately, one of the key options,
that of cost effectiveness, was left out of the survey.
“It would have been good to hear more about these supposed problems
with waterless urinals and low-flow toilets. In fact, there is no empirical
evidence that I have seen that corroborates the ‘opinions’ expressed in the
answers to any issues related to them. Customer satisfaction has been
outstanding and no drain line issues have been disclosed that were caused
by the fixture,” says Koeller, summing up his findings.
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