Since Muir-Chase Plumbing installed Zurn Retrofit Pint urinal systems in every bathroom across campus, Caltech is saving 6,056,130 gallons of water and $42,393 per year. Californians know the value of every drop of water, and the world-renowned science and engineering institute in Pasadena recognizes the importance of being a responsible steward of water resources.
Caltech’s plumbing shop regularly retrofits its water systems, from cooling towers to plumbing fixtures. But even with its own in-house experts, Caltech needed more bandwidth to make a campus-wide upgrade happen. Fortunately, opportunity and timing aligned.
The City of Pasadena Water & Power (PWP) approached Caltech about its water conservation programs. Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, regional water supply wholesaler, teamed up with PWP to offer water-saving services and valuable rebate incentives. The water conservation team visited
Caltech’s impressive 124-acre campus.
With oversight from the institute’s plumbing experts, the team completed the efficiency studies and offered water-saving options, along with the calculated
project costs after rebate and the return from future savings.
Caltech decided to retrofit its restroom urinals campus-wide. It would take time and resources, but the program rebate offset some of the project costs, providing a faster payback. The project also benefitted the institute and surrounding communities. Every flush uses gallons of water—a shared, limited resource in
California.
“We completed smaller urinal retrofit projects consistently over the past several years, but we needed to really move the meter with regard to water consumption,” said John Onderdonk, director of sustainability programs at Caltech. “The program fit our initiative and wouldn’t have been possible without collaborative effort by the whole project team.”
Zurn’s highly efficient urinals optimize flow by using more power with less water. Today, Caltech’s upgraded urinals consume 87-percent less water than traditional urinals that use 1 gallon per flush, exceeding the 30-percent threshold set by LEED for green buildings. Caltech is already looking into future project investments, such as low-flow faucets and toilets.
For more information, visit www.zurn.com.
