[cross posted at blog.cleantech.com]
It’s so easy to get caught up in the comforts of life that at some point, we look up and realize how wasteful (or stupid) we are with such a precious resource. In my recently released report, Demand-based Water Use: Focus on Smart Irrigation, I came across several staggering data points that have underscored the critical need for better water resource management.
The first doozy: 58 percent of U.S. commercial and residential water is used for outdoor irrigation. Seriously? That’s a whole lot of water just to keep our landscapes looking pretty. At the very least, we should mitigate wasteful irrigation practices.
As I illustrate in this brief, there are five commercially available smart irrigation companies helping farmers, commercial building owners, corporations and homeowners conserve water, save energy and reduce pollution with a payback period of fewer than two years, to boot! Anything short of smart irrigation just seems…….criminal, if you want to get dramatic about it.
Investments in important supply-side solutions to water resource management like desalination cannot come at the cost of sensible demand-side conservation measures. Investors should look to the economic and water conservation breakthroughs smart irrigation has helped businesses achieve.
Mia Javier is a San Francisco-based analyst for the Cleantech Group.
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