The BC Real Estate Association:
Costs and Benefits of Water Efficient
Technology for Homeowners

 

 

The Challenge:
Create a resource for the BC Real Estate Association to help REALTORS® and their clients understand the costs and benefits of investing in water efficient technology.

 

The Project:

This project looked at water efficiency purely from the homeowner's perspective, so we needed to consider personal finance and lifestyle aspects as well as the effects of conservation on watersheds, ecosystems and communities.

We wanted to include the whole range of products available to consumers - from showerheads to greywater recycling systems and everything in between. We started with an in-store survey of major retailers. Then we created a purpose built model to calculate the financial payback on investments. This included inputs for costs of purchase, water, energy and, where relevant, professional installation. It also incorporated other factors like family size.

Because homeowners also think about lifestyle and personal preferences, we addressed non-financial factors, including things like product design, selection, maintenance and reliability.

Our findings: while some purchases can take a long time to pay off, others recover their costs in short order. Importantly, these technologies will usually serve to improve, rather than diminish, the amenity value of homes and will often increase their financial worth.

 

The Result:
BCREA is communicating the information we provided to REALTORS® (click here for an example) and is using it to update their Green Tool Kit online resource to promote water sustainability in the community.

More information on the Green Tool Kit can be found at http://www.greentoolkit.ca.