The Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) and California Water Efficiency Partnership (CalWEP) have released Version 4 of the Water Conservation Tracking Tool. Version 4 represents the biggest update of the Tracking Tool since it was first issued in 2009. The Tracking Tool is an Excel-based model that can be used to evaluate the water savings, costs, and benefits of conservation programs, and is free for AWE members.

The Tracking Tool Version 4 update was done in collaboration with the California Water Efficiency Partnership, and a California Edition is available to understand whether a California water supplier is projected to be over or under their urban water use objectives.

The update includes the following:

• Redesigned and streamlined user-interface with new functionality for sorting and filtering model results and customizing tables and charts.
• Ability to specify up to 200 separate conservation measures.
• Expanded conservation program library with 50 pre-defined conservation measures.
• Updated modules for specifying plumbing fixture efficiency codes and calculating passive water savings with the ability to incorporate both natural replacement and utility programs.
• New landscape standards module for estimating the effect of landscape and irrigation system design standards for new development on projected demand.
• New price response module for estimating the effect of changes in marginal water cost on projected demand.
• New water loss management module for estimating the effect of water loss management on projected demand and estimating water savings, costs, and benefits of water loss management programs.
• A new module for comparing projected water use to California AB 1668/SB 606 water use objectives based on current understanding of the likely form of the standards.

Click here to learn more and request a copy today. A webinar on the new Tracking Tool will be held in October, and it will also be featured at the CalWEP Plenary on Tuesday, Sept. 21.