This is an event sponsored by BSA Allied Member, Built Environment Plus.

The New England Living Building Collaborative is presenting a series of webinars on how water management, water efficiency, and water and energy nexus concepts can be incorporated into project planning, design, construction and operation. This third webinar will explore how energy is involved with water by looking at the energy embodied in water infrastructure, and the energy available from water and how these can be utilized to contribute to an overall energy budget. The implications of embodied and operational carbon in the built environment water cycle will be addressed. Case studies to be included in this third workshop will include thermal extraction of water from reuse water in Manhattan. Additional case studies may include geothermal and extraction of thermal energy from sewers are still underdevelopment and will be announced as the workshop is refined.

Why do we need a series of webinars on water and the built environment?

To help project owners, planners, designers, contractors, operators and regulators understand how the following issues have been addressed:

Water is an essential to life.
Fresh water is a finite resource.
Water infrastructure is expensive, with great variability in cost from community to community.
Water should not be treated as separate streams (drinking water, cooling water, stormwater, irrigation water, etc.) but as inter-related resources in a common water cycle
Energy is required to extract, treat, use, and recycle used water; and water can be an energy resource.
Net zero water is generally defined as balancing water consumption with the amount of water that is available onsite, from either rainfall, groundwater or surface water; and returning used water to the local water cycle.
Different “green” building, district, neighborhood, or community certification programs emphasize different aspects of minimizing water use, onsite treatment and reuse of water and balancing water use with water availability.