Inspect what you Expect

Tips on reducing water consumption at a multifamily community

• In existing buildings: Water the landscape early in the morning or when the sun goes down.

• Perform proper maintenance of the sprinkler system. Often times, sprinklers are watering sidewalks.

• Deploy smart irrigation controls. When there is rain, the sprinklers shouldn’t turn on. They should operate on sensors and not timers.

• Use drought tolerant plants.

• Educate the contractors and residents to look for the leaks and report them. Make sure everybody is engaged. One drip a second can cost the property $30-35 or more a year.

• Retrofit all the mechanics and porcelain inside toilets with the lowest possible flush rates to do the job.

• Fix aerators to fixtures, which reduce water flow from 2.5 gallon a minute to .5 gallon a minute. Reduce consumption by using this add-on device. Do the same with showerheads.

• Educate residents; make an event out of it informing them. Make it fun.

• Use EPA water sense products.

• Benchmark your consumption.

• For new construction: Be sensitive to the area in which you are building. Be far sighted about the future availability of water. Get the most water efficient technologies. Go to equipment manufacturers and ask them to bring them to you. Often times, they will install one at their own cost in the hope of selling hundreds. You can test it that way and get feedback.

• Engage your local water provider in what you are doing-they can help you in design of systems, speccing of equipment, and often times there might be incentives and rebates available for water conservation.

• Think global, holistic, outside the box. Think about dual plumbing systems. Reuse water!

• Engage the right contractors; integrate them into your plan to be more water conscious.

• Adjust pool temperatures downward–to about 78 degrees. When it’s higher, water evaporates faster.

• While talking about water consumption convert cubic feet to gallons, which is a unit of measurement that everyone can understand and relate. Right now, water bills run in cubic feet and a lot of people may not understand what that really is.

• Have common laundry rooms. In-unit laundry washers use an average of 11,810 gallons of water annually; equipment in common-area laundry rooms uses an average of 3,595 gallons a year per apartment. This is a 3.3 to one ratio

Source: www.multihousingnews.com

Madison Tennessee BusLink Information

Be an Eco Friendly renter. 

To help the environment Nashville MTA(Metropolitan Transit Authority) is offering the BUS LINK service in the Greater Madison Area.  Ride the bus to the Madison Square Shopping Center or Madison Library, save some gas money and help our environment at the same time.  The Bus Link is an on-demand shuttle service from the Nashville MTA.  To call for a Shuttle contact (615) 862.LINK (5465).  Learn more on how Madison BusLink works .

To help the environment more, you'd have to walk.

Green Tips for Apartment Residents 

Do your part! By taking these simple steps, apartment residents can conserve fuel and water, reduce waste and save energy:

 

	Lights Out Turn off all lights when you leave a room. Replace incandescent light bulbs with EPA ENERGY STAR-qualified compact fluorescents (CFL) or Light-emitting diodes (LED).  Did you know? Lighting accounts for nearly 25% of total energy costs in the home or office. Fluorescent light bulbs consume 75% less electricity, last 4-15 times longer, and generate 74% less heat than incandescent bulbs.
	Power Off Home electronics such as computers, TVs and printers use power even when idle. Turn your electronics off when not in use.
	Conserve Water Have all leaks or drippy faucets repaired immediately. Run your dishwasher with only full loads, and use the energy-savings setting if you have the option. Did you know? According to the Environmental Protection Agency, a faucet dripping at one drop per second wastes 2,700 gallons per year.
	Reduce, Reuse, Recycle At the grocery or hardware store, purchase products with the least amount of packaging waste. Place newspapers, cartons, plastic and glass containers in your recycle bins. Reuse plastic bags and shop with reusable grocery bags. Did you know? For every ton of paper that is recycled, we save 7,000 gallons of water, 380 gallons of oil, and enough electricity to power an average house for six months. You can run a TV for six hours on the amount of electricity that is saved by recycling one aluminum can. By recycling just one glass bottle, you save enough electricity to power a 100-watt bulb for four hours.
	Bottled Water - Kick the Habit If you use a water filtration system at home (such as Brita® or PUR) instead of buying bottled water, you can save money AND reduce plastic waste.
	Avoid the Rat Race Instead of driving yourself to work every day, try carpooling, taking public transit or riding your bike.
	Master the Stairs At the office or in your apartment building, take the stairs instead. You will conserve elevator energy use and get a good workout!

 Source: Green Tips for Apartment Residents by the National Apartment Association