Green Builder® Coalition Partners with ARCSA on WERS

ARCSA logo

January 7, 2016 – The Green Builder® Coalition is honored to announce a 2-year partnership with the American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association® (ARCSA) on the advancement of water efficiency and rainwater harvesting through the Water Efficiency Rating Score (WERS) program.

ARCSA’s mission is to promote sustainable rainwater harvesting practices to help solve potable, non-potable, stormwater and energy challenges throughout the world. ARCSA is very pleased to partner with The Coalition to provide educational and technical assistance on rainwater harvesting to further water efficiency.

“We at ARCSA are excited to move forward with the Green Builder® Coalition’s WERS program in our MOU to promote the mission of our groups and save our precious water resources,” says David Crawford, ARCSA president. “Through our MOU, we will be promoting more water efficiency through sustainable rainwater harvesting to use local, onsite water resources, instead of municipal potable, which is often times limited or reduced due to drought, declining supplies, or environmental restrictions.”

“The use of rainwater has both environmental and economic benefits. In addition, rainwater capture is an important element in achieving a lower WERS,” said Collignon. “We’re very happy to partner with ARCSA to help foster superior rainwater harvesting practices.”

The agreement addresses CEUs for ARCSA APs and WERS verifiers, and announces support for ARCSA-ASPE-ANSI Standards 63 and 78 as the Rainwater and Stormwater Standards used in both the WERS and its training curriculum.

Since February 2014, The Coalition has helped develop the WERS program for new and existing residential properties. It was first used in November 2015 to help a New Mexico homebuilder save significant time and money on his pursuit of a building permit.