2011 US Water Prize Winners
The City of Los Angeles
Community collaboration is fundamental to our one water future. The City of Los Angeles won the 2011 Water Prize for its Water Integrated Resources Plan (IRP) that started with a simple yet ambitious vision: City Departments working with the community to manage water resources holistically. This innovative approach spurred Los Angeles on a seven-year mission to plan for the city’s future. The IRP resulted in greater efficiency and multiple citywide benefits, including energy and cost savings, reduced dependence on imported water, reusing stormwater and conserving drinking water. As implementation continues, stakeholders are engaged and involved—putting Los Angeles on the path to becoming the greenest and cleanest big city in America while ensuring a one water future.
Milwaukee Water Council
In 2011, the US Water Alliance awarded the Milwaukee Water Council the Water Prize for harnessing the power of an existing water industry cluster of more than 130 companies. The Council has advanced one water thinking by linking a rapidly expanding academic research community and convening some of the nation’s brightest and most energetic professionals. The Council is bringing together all parties to leverage collaboration around advancing water technology. This includes the development of a hub built around education and the establishment of a freshwater school, research and development, and water-related industry.
National Great Rivers Research & Education Center
The National Great Rivers Research & Education Center is the result of a unique partnership formed by Lewis and Clark Community College, the University of Illinois and the Illinois Natural History Survey. They received the 2011 US Water Prize for their 30,000-square-foot field station facility. Through the Center’s education and outreach efforts, the facility’s numerous sustainable design features (onsite water treatment, wind/hydrokinetic power, solar lighting/heat, green roof, permeable pavement, and more) are promoted on a regional and national level as a model for how resource compatible development and community awareness and empowerment can go hand-in-hand.
New York City Department of Environmental Protection
The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) received the US Water Prize in 2011 for it PlaNYC to make sustainability a core consideration for the agency. DEP also assumed much of the energy planning for New York City, and it continues to regulate local sources of air, noise, and asbestos pollution. The agency is focused on initiatives that complement and advance policies for water quality, energy conservation, air quality, land use, and climate change mitigation and adaptation policies, and economic development and quality of life for all New Yorkers.
Pacific Institute
The Pacific Institute was awarded the US Water Prize in recognition of their role as a thought leader for one water. The Pacific Institute is an innovative and effective independent non-governmental organization in the field of water and sustainability. It has identified efficiency solutions to water shortages; helped define and championed the human right to water; contributed to official water policy changes aimed at sustainability; done groundbreaking research on the impacts of climate change on freshwater resources; and spun off a non-governmental coalition on environmental justice.