Building towards Water Efficiency: Policy Innovation and Education in New and Existing Homes

As North American communities grow, the strain upon existing water and wastewater infrastructure increases. But relying solely on municipal governments, to ensure water efficient policies are implemented or enforced, is risky. This research looks at another vital stakeholder group in the road to water efficient innovation.

Residential builders and the wider building community have been neglected in water efficiency research. The conventional explanations are that the private sector has been slow to embrace environmental innovations because they are not economically viable or because home-buyers are not interested. But there are some exciting examples of home builder innovation in Ontario and the Canadian West. Understanding builders and their professional and education cultures can be exceedingly valuable for effective policy for residential water efficiency.This research investigates how institutional, organizational (e.g., professional culture) and personal knowledge influence the residential builders’ community decisions related to water efficiency innovations. The two-year project is designed to link the policy decisions with individuals’ tacit knowledge about water efficiency.The research project is based at the University of Waterloo’s Department of Environment and Resource Studies (ERS) and supported by The Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation, The BC Real Estate Foundation, Alberta Real Estate Foundation, and a large network of collaborative partners. For a full list of partners please see our Partners page.