Water Conservation, Efficiency and Productivity

Building on the work of the three completed project teams described below, this fourth team was struck in October 2015 to evaluate and report on the success of implemented CEP activities. In particular, the team evaluated contributions to the three goals of the Water for Life strategy, including the specific aspirational target of improving water use efficiency and productivity by 30% from 2005 levels by 2015. The team’s final report was approved by the AWC board in March 2017 and released in October 2017. The evaluation demonstrated that water use efficiency and productivity improved by 32% over the reporting period, exceeding the 30% target established by Water for Life.

Sector CEP plans were voluntarily prepared and subsequently adopted by their respective sector organizations. All sectors are represented on the AWC and developed their plans according to the framework developed in the Recommendations for Water Conservation, Efficiency and Productivity Sector Planning report. CEP plans were approved by their sector organizations, and presented to the AWC as information. All sectors provided progress reports to the AWC in October 2015, meeting their commitment to do so from the 2013 report. The implementation reports are available below.

The third project team supported the major water-using sectors as they developed their sector plans, and reviewed the process of developing the plans. Its final report was approved in March 2013. As part of its recommendations, this team called for a fourth project team to report on and evaluate progress in the implementation of CEP plans and the overall CEP planning process.

The second project team was formed in March 2007 to build on the first project team’s work and develop tools to help sectors develop Sector Plans for Water Conservation, Efficiency and Productivity. The team’s final report was approved by the AWC in September 2008 and contains a framework for CEP sector planning and an annotated Table of Contents to guide participating sectors in creating their sector CEP plans.

In March 2006, this first project team was tasked with creating a foundation for this initiative. AWC approved the team’s final report, which defines key terms, identifies principles of CEP planning and offers potential metrics to measure water conservation, efficiency and productivity.