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NALP Awards 2024 Leadership Awards To Green Industry Pros
Jessica Schwartz
Toro Receives 2019 WaterSense Excellence Award
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognized The Toro Company with a 2019 WaterSense Excellence Award for its efforts to defeat water waste and promote WaterSense in 2018. Last year, Toro launched Land. Water. Thrive., a new philanthropic initiative aimed at improving water efficiency in outdoor environments. As part of that initiative, over a two-year period, Toro is offering up to $1 million in grants to nonprofits in the global community as part of the Greenspace Enhancement Grant Program. In addition to sponsoring a weekly radio program, The Water Zone, Toro co-sponsored the Wyland Foundation’s National Mayor’s Challenge kick-off event to share and promote outdoor water conservation information with participating cities. Toro also continued its annual Water Is Life Art Mural Challenge calendar activity for elementary students nationwide with proceeds from calendar sales benefitting participating schools. The Toro Company endorsed WaterSense-labeled products and trained end users at numerous public and professional events throughout the country in 2018. This marks the fourth year Toro has been recognized for its dedication to water management innovation and education. “Sustaining our natural resources is a key focus in the work that we do and the products that we bring to market,” says John McPhee, general manager, Toro Irrigation and Lighting Businesses. “We are proud to partner with the EPA to take measurable action to conserve our water resources and to be continually recognized for our efforts. Congratulations to every award recipient for their endeavors over the past year.” Since 2006, The Toro Company and ...
Water Efficient Landscape Design
From financial pundits to environmentalists, most seem to agree that water, particularly in its use, management, and distribution, is the new gold. Water scarcity is the fourth global risk in terms of impact to society, reports the World Economic Forum. While the situation can be one of life and death in Sub-Saharan Africa, the United States is not immune to water issues. Just ask those in Flint, MI or California. Unfortunately, the problem isn’t likely to go away anytime soon and will likely become more widespread. The Union of Concerned Scientists predicts that while some wet and warmer areas may experience heavier precipitation in the future, the periods between rains are likely to become longer, warmer, and drier. Scientists also expect the amount of land affected by drought to increase by mid-century—and water resources in affected areas to decline as much as 30%. In other words, dry areas will get drier. With landscape irrigation accounting for most of the nearly nine billion gallons of water used by U.S. residences outdoor daily, it surpasses the amount of water used for showering and washing clothes combined, according to the U.S. EPA’s WaterSense program. And in a facility, landscaping water usage can easily account for 20% or more of water consumption, according to the Whole Building Design Guide (WBDG), a program of the National Institute of Building Sciences. Thus, landscapes, especially those with thirsty turfgrass, are increasingly becoming a key target for water conservation. California Water Laws None of this is news to ...
