On April 7, 2020 Freese and Nichols hosted the Water Conservation Webinar: Leveraging Relationships To Save Water. The webinar included three topics of focus covered by four speakers.
Part 1: Transformational Water Conservation Projects at TxN (4:00-33:00)
Texan by Nature is a conservation non-profit founded by former First Lady Laura Bush with the mission of uniting conservation and business. TxN’s programs amplify projects and activate new investment in conservation that returns real benefits for people, prosperity and natural resources. Program Manager Taylor Keys gave an overview of TxN and highlighted select innovative and transformational water conservation projects within its Conservation Wrangler program that include:
- North Texas Municipal Water District’s and Tarrant Regional Water District’s Constructed Wetlands in North Texas
- Texas Playa Conservation Initiative
- El Paso Water’s Certified Water Partner Program
- Ducks Unlimited Texas Prairie Wetlands Project
- Exploration Green, one of Texan by Nature’s newly selected 2020 Conservation Wranglers
Part 2: Achieving Conservation Goals (34:40-1:08:47)
The Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program is a proven financial tool that incentivizes property owners to upgrade facility infrastructure with little or no capital outlay, and can play a large role in achieving a water utility’s conservation goals. Marina Badoian-Kriticos, Research Scientist at the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC), and Satish Ravindran, Freese and Nichols Mechanical Engineer, explored the mechanics and benefits of the PACE program, both in Texas and many other states.
Part 3: Turning to Local Organizations (1:08:55-1:33:20)
By partnering with local organizations whose missions overlap, the San Antonio Water System is able to reach five times the audience. Community volunteers with these local organizations are trained to present conservation information and to staff public events. Karen Guz, SAWS Director of Conservation, gave an overview of performance agreements with local organizations.
Freese and Nichols is a client-focused, regionally based firm with national expertise. We meet client needs with responsiveness and flexibility. Dating back to our firm’s founding in 1894, we have put relationships first – clients, teaming partners and staff – and seek long-term relationships, many of which are counted in decades, not years. At Freese and Nichols, our tenured staff provide consistency in services and culture. Freese and Nichols provides a broad range of services to plan, design and manage public infrastructure projects. We help our clients through every stage of the project life cycle: planning, design, program management, funding procurement, regulatory compliance, construction management, and operations and maintenance. Our project teams are known for exceeding client expectations through innovative concepts and high-performing designs. We approach stewardship of resources (ours, our clients’ and the world’s) with resiliency and balance in mind.