Positive trends to water and energy commitments
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.
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 are concerned 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. For those who need further convincing or for those of you still unsure, our cover story on page 8 may assist you.
Expert opinion
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.