There is a lot of information out there when it comes to water quality, efficiency, and what all of it means between residential and commercial systems. There are a multitude of ways to measure and ensure that you’re using the most efficient and effective utilities, and for businesses, that can be more difficult than residential water efficiency since costs and other factors can add up over time, especially after a few years of performance.
In this article, we’ll cover the Water Efficiency Rating Score (WERS) and what it can mean for businesses across Canada.
What is WERS?
WERS, or the Water Efficiency Rating Scor,e is a system that was developed by Built Green Canada, which measures the water efficiency of homes and businesses by calculating indoor and outdoor water usage and predicting overall water consumption to give a score between zero to one hundred, with zero being the most efficient/best score. It works based on fixtures, appliances, and any potential water reuse through rainwater and/or greywater type systems. WERS is used as a performance-based alternative compliance path for water efficiency requirements in any green building programs, such as Built Green Canada itself, and it is Canada’s first performance-based water rating system.
The Built Green certification programs take a holistic approach that includes energy efficiency as a key focus and goes on to other critical aspects of sustainable building, including water conservation. Their builders make green building choices that go beyond energy that provides ways to verify work and to guide anyone through their sustainability goals. Partnering with the Green Builder Coalition, they integrated the WERS assessment tool into their single-family program as an optional compliance pathway to achieve points in section 6, water conservation.
How does it work?
The WERS assessment tool is available through the Built Green new construction and renovation programs, and it works by calculating indoor and outdoor water usage and is based on measurable parameters, with a scoring scale of zero to one hundred, as mentioned previously, with zero being the most desirable score to achieve.
Indoor water use consists of:
- Plumbing fixtures of toilets
- Showers
- Lavatory and kitchen sinks
- Clothes washers
- Structural waste – which is the amount of water wasted before usable hot water arrives at the furthest fixture from the hot water heater, such as when you run a shower and wait for it to get hot or turning the kitchen sink on and waiting for hot water to start running through the tap.
Outdoor water that’s considered is:
- Outdoor water fixtures
- Reuse water via rainwater, greywater, and blackwater catchment
- Irrigation systems
- Permeable materials
- Landscaping
Depending on the verified filtration methods for rainwater and greywater, they can be used to offset indoor water use. Additionally, any remaining unused rainwater, greywater, and/or blackwater can be credited to potential outdoor use, if applicable.
Benefits for businesses
Benefits for businesses using green water services and having a WERS rating allow you to verify water efficiency for customers, demonstrate environmental leadership, and use of the system can potentially open the door to access financial incentives such as reduced fees or tax credits, depending on location and what may be available for your municipality and business type. In a more detailed summary, the benefits of it can be:
- Verifying performance measures – WERS certification provides a verifiable way to prove a building’s water efficiency to customers and municipalities.
- Demonstrates leadership – Participating and being certified shows environmental responsibility and can be a marketing advantage in that green energy and water efficiency are good traits for a business to have.
- Financial incentives – In some cases and depending on location, a WERS certification may qualify your business (or a builder if you’re creating a new building, etc.) for benefits such as reduced fees or tax credits annually, if applicable.
- Efficiency with design – During the design and construction phases, improving water efficiency and further improving current setups.
- Flexibility – Since WERS is a performance-based system, it preserves design freedom while still meeting performance goals. So if, for example, you prefer your business setup a certain way, it can be worked around and with instead of being moved around and shuffled into a way you don’t like.
Relevance for industries and more
WERS can be relevant and helpful to businesses and builders especially by improving home efficiency, homebuyers understand and reduce water usage, it verifies performance to customers and the municipality that you build in, it shows enviromental leadership in water conservation, and it does get you ahead of the curve in terms of water efficiency and being a leader in the work space, whether it’s building or being a larger industry.
How to get certified in Canada
To use the WERS assessment tool, builders will work with a Built Green WERS Verifier who:
- Calculate indoor and outdoor water usage
- Guides builders and homeowners towards better water conservation practices
- Provides the home water efficiency score from zero to 100 and grants the certification label
To learn more about getting certified and how to go about it, you must use the contact form on the Built Green Canada website, email them at info@builtgreencanada.ca, or call them at 780-485-0920 / 1-855-485-0920. They also have social media accounts that can be accessed for up-to-date information and more.
Whether it’s water efficiency information, business information about energy and power efficiency, green energy, upscaling your business, or where to start when it comes to finding out what would be best for your industry, EnergyRates.ca can help with our professional energy consultants, who can support you with any energy-related queries, including electricity and natural gas plan comparison.
