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Broward Water Partnership Wins 2019 WaterSense® Partner of the Year Award
  
  

LAS VEGAS, NV — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognized the Broward Water Partnership (BWP) with a 2019 WaterSense® Promotional Partner of the Year Award for its heroic efforts to defeat water waste and promote WaterSense® in 2018. The BWP received one of only 25 WaterSense® awards today at the WaterSmart Innovations Conference in Las Vegas.

Since 2006, the BWP and more than 2,000 other WaterSense partners have helped consumers save more than 3.4 trillion gallons of water. That’s enough water to supply all American households for four months! In addition to water savings, WaterSense® labeled products and homes have helped reduce the amount of energy needed to heat, pump, and treat water by 462.5 billion kilowatt hours—which is enough to power more than 44.4 million homes for a year—and save $84.2 billion in water and energy bills.

“Our partners have made water-saving products, homes, and programs accessible across the nation and have educated millions on the importance of water conservation,” said Veronica Blette, Chief, WaterSense® Branch. “These WaterSense® award winners are leading the fight against water waste to save our most precious resource.”

“Broward County and our Partner Municipalities have a very strong commitment to water conservation and educating our community about the value of water. Beyond diversification of our water sources, we understand water resilience is also achieved through managing the demand and achieving significant water savings through conservation practices” said Dr. Carolina Maran, Broward County Water Resources Manager.

The BWP was honored as a 2019 WaterSense® Partner of the Year Award winner for creative campaigns and outreach. This was its second Promotional Partner of the Year Award. In 2018, the Partnership created three new animated mascots to promote WaterSense® and water conservation and produced videos featured in both English and Spanish. Two of the characters, Steph and Steve the Plumbers, were a big hit on social media, with nearly 48,000 Facebook views and over 100,000 views on Twitter. For the third character, meant to promote pre-rinse spray valves, the Partnership created a contest for residents to name the mascot. With over 200 entries, the top three entries won prizes donated by local businesses, and "Prince Pre-Rinse" was crowned the winner!

In addition to mascots, the Partnership ran three other campaigns on social media to promote water conservation and WaterSense® labeled products. A total of 2,655 rebates were issued by the Conservation Pays program and the BWP media partners for WaterSense® labeled toilets and distributed over 2,700 WaterSense® labeled showerheads and aerators were distributed in 2018.

To further promote its WaterSense® labeled toilet rebate, Broward extended its rebate contest to 27 home improvement stores in the region. The store manager who was able to sell the most toilets that led to issued rebates received $1,000. Additionally, the Partnership provided each store with custom displays. To wrap up its efforts in 2018, the Broward Water Partnership started developing a game, "Play Conservation Pays and Win!" The Partnership created the game structure, quizzes, and graphics to promote its Conservation Pays program. The game and launched the game in February 2019.

For more information about WaterSense®, visit www.epa.gov/watersense.   

WaterSense®, a partnership program sponsored by EPA, seeks to protect the future of our nation's water supply by offering consumers and businesses simple ways to use less water with water-efficient products, homes, and services. 

DATE: October 3, 2019
MEDIA CONTACT: Samantha Baker
Environmental Planning and Community Resilience
PHONE: 954-519-1222
EMAIL: stbaker@broward.org