Free Online Water Use Tracker from UA’s Conserve2Enhance Program Can Help Lower Water Bills

TUCSON, Ariz. (July 22, 2014) – The University of Arizona’s Conserve2Enhance™ (C2E) program has launched a free online water use tracker to help Tucson Water customers monitor and reduce wasteful home water use, lower their monthly bills, and help conserve Tucson’s water resources.

The C2E Water Use Dashboard (www.conserve2enhance.org) is an easy-to-use tool for Tucson Water customers, whose monthly water use will be automatically uploaded into the Dashboard each month once they sign up with C2E. Each customer’s online profile will display a monthly water dial and easily readable graphs that summarize water use and water savings. C2E will also send a friendly reminder email every month when the newest water use data has been added to the Dashboard.

“Tucsonans care about our water resources and want to know what else they can do to conserve water,” said Candice Rupprecht, C2E Program Coordinator. “The C2E Dashboard is a powerful tool in helping reduce wasteful water use in a desert city like Tucson, and using less water will shrink water bills. This tool makes it easy for Tucson Water customers to clearly see how they’re using water in their home, and suggests simple, low-cost solutions to help reduce water use.”

C2E’s informative website includes helpful tips and tricks to save on indoor and outdoor water use, including inexpensive fixes like repairing leaks, installing faucet aerators and adding auto-shutoff nozzles to garden hoses. Other conservation tips include larger home upgrades that can save significant amounts of water, like installing high-efficiency toilets and appliances, replacing grass with native plants, and installing rainwater harvesting cisterns.

The Dashboard also makes it easy for customers who save money on their water bill to voluntarily donate those savings to the C2E program, which uses the funds to finance grants for local community enhancement projects that restore Tucson’s local waterways, rivers and riparian areas.

“C2E participants can use the Dashboard not only to reduce their own water consumption, but they’ll have the opportunity to directly impact their community by turning their water savings into capital for often-underfunded neighborhood improvement projects,” Rupprecht said. “Simply put, C2E ensures that your individual water savings benefit our community.”

Since C2E launched in 2011, Tucson participants have saved more than 3.5 million gallons of water. New Dashboard users will have the opportunity to add their water savings to this running tally and see their efforts count. Signup is easy – Tucson Water customers only need to enter their account number into C2E’s secure system at www.conserve2enhance.org and check the permission box allowing C2E to auto-upload their water use data into the Dashboard.

To sign up for C2E’s Water Use Dashboard, visit www.conserve2enhance.org.

Conserve to Enhance (C2E) is housed at the University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center (WRRC), a unit within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The WRRC promotes understanding of critical state and regional water management and policy issues through research, education and outreach. For more information, visit wrrc.arizona.edu.

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