This year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's WaterSense program marks a decade of saving water for future generations. More than 1,700 partners have produced and promoted WaterSense labeled products and homes, helping Americans save 1.5 trillion gallons of water and $32.6 billion in water and energy bills.

On Oct. 6, WaterSense recognized 20 leading partners at the WaterSmart Innovations Conference and Exposition in Las Vegas. These partners received Sustained Excellence, Partner of the Year, and Excellence awards for their contributions in 2015 and ongoing commitment to save water for future generations:

Sustained Excellence

• Delta Faucet Company earned its second Sustained Excellence Award for providing outdoor showering stations featuring WaterSense labeled showerheads at Warrior Dash races across the country and for donating WaterSense-labeled products to more than 30 homes as part of its St. Jude Dream Home sponsorship.
• Kohler Co. received its fourth Sustained Excellence Award; the company is one of the sponsors of a Change the Course campaign to encourage consumers to pledge to reduce water use. Kohler also created mobile restrooms with WaterSense-labeled showerheads, toilets, and faucets for San Francisco residents in need and the Bonnaroo music festival.
• The Home Depot won its second Sustained Excellence Award for ensuring all the toilets and bathroom faucets sold in its stores are WaterSense-labeled and for working to ensure all the showerheads it sells in stores were WaterSense-labeled by September 2016.
• KB Home received its second Sustained Excellence Award for building 233 WaterSense labeled homes in 2015, an increase of 142 percent compared to its labeled homes built in 2014, and for introducing four KB Home communities in California in which all homes will be built to meet the WaterSense specification.

Partners of the Year

• Athens-Clarke County (Georgia) Public Utilities Department's Water Conservation Office was named a Promotional Partner of the Year for its Certified Blue restaurant program, which included 33 new local businesses in 2015, its Little Lily Pad Hop school outreach project, and its sixth annual Athens Water Festival.
• Citrus County (Florida) Utilities earned its Promotional Partner of the Year Award for its We're for Water Classroom Challenge, which taught third through fifth grade students how to find and fix leaks and save water at home, and its celebration of Fix a Leak Week, which included three activities: Schedule a Specialist, Facilities Checkup, and a Water Conservation Expo.
• City of Charlottesville (Virginia) was named a Promotional Partner of the Year for its Love Your Landscape contest during Sprinkler Spruce-Up 2015, a 5-kilometer race for Fix a Leak Week, and a Blue Team of middle and high school students who distributed 600 water conservation kits.
• Cobb County (Georgia) Water System received its fifth Promotional Partner of the Year Award for promoting all the WaterSense campaigns in 2015, including the Water Drop Dash 5k and Water Festival for Fix a Leak Week and the "Ask an Expert" traveling display for Sprinkler Spruce-Up.
• Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District earned the Promotional Partner of the Year Award for its Great Plumbing Fixture Giveaway, which gave a local nonprofit $1,000 worth of WaterSense labeled fixtures, and its Water Drop Dash 5k and Water Festival for Fix a Leak Week.
• Energy Inspectors Corporation received the Licensed Certification Provider Partner of the Year Award for certifying 233 homes for KB Home to meet the WaterSense labeled homes specification, more than double the number of homes it certified in 2014.
• Sonoma-Marin (California) Saving Water Partnership earned the Professional Certifying Organization Partner of the Year Award for expanding its WaterSense labeled Qualified Water Efficient Landscape (QWEL) certification program, working with six new organizations to adopt the QWEL program, and helping more than 65 irrigation professionals earn certification.

Excellence Awards

Nine WaterSense partners were recognized for excellence in a specific aspect of the program:

• Cascade Water Alliance (Washington) and High Sierra Showerheads for Excellence in Strategic Collaboration.
• City of Durham (North Carolina) Water Management and Sonoma-Marin Saving Water Partnership for Excellence in Promoting WaterSense Labeled Products.
• City of Carmel (Indiana) Utilities, City of Forth Worth (Texas), Regional Water Authority (California), and The Toro Company for Excellence in Education and Outreach.
• American Standard for Excellence in Innovation and Research.