The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has honored Toro with a WaterSense Excellence Award for their work promoting WaterSense and water efficiency in 2022. WaterSense recognized its Sustained Excellence, Partner of the Year and Excellence Award winners during the WaterSmart Innovations (WSI) Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Toro was one of 25 Excellence Award winners.
WaterSense, a voluntary partnership program sponsored by EPA, is both a label for water-efficient products, programs, and homes and a resource for helping consumers learn ways to save water. More than 2,100 manufacturers, builders, retailers, utilities, government, and nonprofit organizations partner with WaterSense to promote water-efficient products, homes, and programs.
“With extreme weather affecting water supplies and quality, saving this precious resource is more important than ever,” said Veronica Blette, Chief, WaterSense Branch. “The 2023 award winners helped Americans look to WaterSense and save not just water, but the energy required to heat and treat it, as well as reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with energy use.”
Since 2006, over 40,000 certified water-efficient plumbing and irrigation products have helped consumers and businesses save 7.5 trillion gallons of water; the amount of energy needed to pump, treat, and heat water by 880 billion kilowatt hours; and $171 billion in water and energy bills. These savings also helped prevent 337 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, which is equivalent to planting 5.6 billion trees.
WaterSense recognized The Toro Company for supporting dozens of training and community education events in 2022 and promoting WaterSense to thousands of industry professionals. In addition, The Toro Company continued water efficiency research efforts with Texas A&M University and University of Minnesota’s Turfgrass Research, Outreach and Education Center.
“The advancement of water-saving technologies and education is an integral part of our purpose. We are honored to have our efforts recognized,” says Edric Funk, The Toro Company group vice president, golf, grounds and irrigation. “We congratulate every water agency, municipality and business that has been recognized for their efforts and look forward to continued collaboration with EPA WaterSense.”
For more information about WaterSense, visit www.epa.gov/watersense.