Water Efficiency Goal Guidance

DOE developed guidance to assist in the interpretation of, and ultimate compliance with, Executive Order (EO) 13423, Establishing Baseline and Meeting Water Conservation Goals of Executive Order 13423 Guidance for Developing Baseline Water Usage and Annual Water Use (PDF 512 KB). Download Adobe Reader. Specifically, three key elements of compliance were identified and presented: water use baseline development, reduction of water use intensity, and reporting.

The intent of the following information is to provide an overview of the water efficiency goals outlined in the supplemental guidance.

Steps to Meeting Executive Order 13423 Water Efficiency Goals

For federal agencies to meet EO 13423 water efficiency goals, the following three steps must be met:

Water Use Intensity Baseline Development — Agencies must develop a water use intensity baseline (defined as gallons per gross square foot of facility space) for water consumed in FY 2007. (Find more information on these definitions in the following section.) All future reduction goals will be measured relative to this baseline.
Reduction of water use intensity — Agencies must identify and implement life-cycle cost-effective water savings measures to achieve, at minimum, 2 percent annual reduction or 16 percent overall reduction of water use intensity (gallons per total gross square footage of facility space) in agency facilities by the end of FY 2015.
Reporting — The primary requirement is to report to the Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality according to a schedule and format as the chairman requires. Until that has been issued, reporting procedures in place as of January 24, 2007 shall be continued. Therefore, agencies are required to continue to report annual water use in million gallons and facility gross square feet (as defined below) to the Department of Energy that will show the agency's progress towards the water use intensity reduction goal. (Beginning in the 2008 report, DOE is amending its energy data report to include guidance on accurate reporting of water consumption and water use intensity reduction data.)

Water Efficiency Definitions

Below are important water efficiency definitions to understand:

Water use — Water use is defined as water classified as "potable" or permitted for human consumption. This includes water obtained from public water systems or from natural freshwater sources such as lakes, streams, and aquifers for example. Water use may include potable water used for drinking, bathing, toilet flushing, laundry, cleaning/food services, landscape watering, irrigation, and process applications such as cooling towers, boilers, and fire suppression systems.

Facility gross square footage — The facility gross square footage is the same value used to determine the energy use intensity related to the agencies' energy reduction goals. The facility gross square footage is used to calculate the water use intensity (defined below).

Irrigated Landscape — Potable water used for landscape irrigation is to be reported in the agency total water use, but the square footage of landscape area is not included in the facility gross square footage, which is used to calculate water use intensity.

Water use intensity — Water use intensity calculated for each individual agency is defined as annual water use divided by total gross square footage of facility space (as defined above) reported in gallons per square foot. Agencies are required to report both water use (in million gallons) and facility gross square footage (in thousand square feet) in Department of Energy's energy management data report. It should be noted that the water use intensity will be used to assess each agency's progress toward meeting the water reduction goal; it will not be suitable to make comparisons with other agencies water use or published standards.

Exemptions — Exemptions will be handled on a case-by-case basis. The head of a Federal agency may request an exemption for specific facilities or processes using the procedures outlined in section 8 of EO 13423. The request should document efforts already taken to reduce water consumption and/or to substitute non-potable water for potable water uses for the specified facilities or processes. All cost-effective measures should have been considered and implemented and appropriately documented as part of the request. The request for an exemption must be renewed annually. A copy of the current exemption is to be submitted with the annual data report.

Agencies are encouraged to focus on reducing water consumption for the agency as a whole, and concentrate their efforts on the facilities with the most potential. In accordance with that philosophy, agencies should seriously consider only submitting exemption requests at the agency level, and only after all cost-effective water projects have been implemented.