Tualatin Valley Water District, Oregon, USA
From the Pipeline to the Pump: A water provider’s leadership in sustainability
A Natural Step Network Case Study
The Tualatin Valley Water District
• 2nd largest water provider in Oregon
• 200,000 customers
• Water supplied by Portland Water Bureau and Joint Water Commission
• 112 employees
Departments
• General Manager's Office
• Customer and Support Services
• Engineering Services
• Finance and Informaton Technology
• Field Operations
• Office of Community and Intergovernmental Relations
Summary
The Tualatin Valley Water District is a public utility located just west of Portland, Oregon, that provides drinking water to nearly 200,000 customers. While the District had addressed water conservation and energy efficiency in the past, it was not until the decision to adopt The Natural Step framework that a comprehensive, long-term plan was created to fulfill their vision of sustainability. Cheryl Welch became the first Sustainability Coordinator in 2001 and has helped a forward-thinking Board of Commissioners educate and involve an employee workforce of over 100 people. The result has been a transformation of employee culture, multiple programs that address The Natural Step system conditions, and constant reevaluation and adaptation. Leadership from both the Board of Commissioners and management has facilitated numerous initiatives. Tualatin Valley Water District is an active Network member and is constantly seeking partnerships to share tools and experiences as they continue to work towards a sustainable future.
Background
The Tualatin Valley Water District (TVWD) is located in Washington County, west of Portland, OR, where it serves nearly 200,000 customers in the expanding Portland metro area. The District is located in the Tualatin River watershed, which collects water from 712 square miles of urban, agricultural, and forested area. Roughly half of the water purchased is provided by the Joint Water Commission, of which TVWD is a part owner, and the other half is purchased from the Portland Water Bureau.
As the second largest provider of drinking water in the state of Oregon, the mission of the Tualatin Valley Water District is to ensure the quality supply of a natural resource to meet human needs. In this way, TVWD is intrinsically connected to the social and environmental components of sustainability. Long-term financial planning has been a District norm, so integrating the environmental and social components could be seen as a natural development for a visionary organization.
Much of the credit for this development goes to a forward-thinking Board, the Sustainability Steering Committee, and the creativity of Tualatin Valley employees. Even prior to adopting The Natural Step and forming a Sustainability Steering Committee, TVWD had initiated reductions of material waste and energy use. While some public water utilities have garnered criticism for inefficiency, TVWD leadership had ensured financial sustainability by preparing 50-year financial forecasts that are updated annually. The District emphasized efficiency by reducing water loss and properly maintaining their operations systems.
In 1993, TVWD established a Conservation Department to encourage efficiency and wise use of water on the consumer side. The new department planted a garden in front of TVWD headquarters using plants and techniques that reduced water usage as a demonstration of an alternative, low-impact way of landscaping. Because of their concern for their community, TVWD also partnered with the “Care-to-Share” agency to offer emergency assistance for customers who were temporarily unable to pay their water bills. These efforts helped to prepare employees, as well as the Board leadership, for a more comprehensive transition towards sustainability. However, these measures focused mostly on cutting costs, did not consider the supply chain, and were not cohesively organized into a long-term vision for a sustainable future.
The driving forces behind the District’s decision to etch sustainability into all facets of their operations range from political to ecological. The effects of climate change on the Tualatin River watershed will likely mean shorter, more intense periods of rainfall, and longer dry periods during the critical summer months. Decreasing supply could cause serious constraints if the Portland metro area continues to grow by one million people by 2030, as expected. This expanding population is expected to create a 50 percent increase in water demand by 2050. These scenarios highlight the need for greater conservation from suppliers as well as consumers. Dwindling salmon populations from reduced river and stream flows are causing alarm and creating greater restrictions on water withdrawals. Diminishing fossil fuel supplies and geopolitical insecurities in oil supply along with the climatic threat of carbon emissions are inspiring the District to plan for future scenarios without fossil fuels. As technologies for measuring contamination become more advanced, regulation is likely to become more stringent, and TVWD recognizes their responsibility to communicate this information openly to the public. Along the same lines, the District also understands that with rising costs of living, it is their challenge to sustainably manage a constrained resource while providing an affordable public good.
"(These programs) came from the top. The Board members and the management were very interested. They could see the long-term picture. And part of it has to do with the water industry, I think. We have to look at 50-year or longer time frames. And whether that’s for a piece of pipe or an employee, you’ve got to look at the long-term. Even though they weren’t calling it sustainability, there was an understanding of the concepts—that cheapest isn’t always the best move and you have to treat people well and with respect and if you do that you’re going to get back what you want.
–Cheryl Welch, Sustainability Coordinator"
Introduction of The Natural Step
Before coming to Tualatin Valley Water District, Cheryl Welch had founded Peacetree Environmentally Sound Paper and Printing, which became one of the first businesses in Portland to sell recycled paper. Jeanne and Dick Roy, who had brought The Natural Step to Oregon, were some of her first customers. In 2001, Welch was hired as a financial analyst by TVWD, and then quickly promoted to become the District’s first Sustainability Coordinator. Acclimating quickly to her new role, Welch authored a document to conceptually and practically define sustainability in a way could provide relevant policy recommendations. Welch recommended The Natural Step as a coherent framework that could foster institutional awareness of sustainability and serve as a beacon to guide the management’s approach.
Although she was already familiar with The Natural Step, Welch made the decision based on much more than an old business acquaintance. In The Natural Step framework she saw many valuable aspects that would make it meaningful for The District. For one, the science-based system conditions of the framework would translate well to an employee base comprised largely of engineers. She also appreciated tools such as the funnel metaphor for their simple but effective explanation of how business as usual will lead to environmental, social, or economic crises. Lastly, Welch recognized the opportunity that the networking aspect of The Natural Step provided in collaborating with other innovative early adopters in different sectors.
In 2004, five employees from Tualatin Valley Water District attended a training session led by Duke Castle with The Natural Step. The training was focused on a “process-mapping” exercise, which combines a baseline analysis with
backcasting. These five employees then trained the entire TVWD staff, which had been divided into 19 work groups, ranging from engineers to accounting to maintenance. In an excellent example of employee participation, these workgroups generated a list of 400 processes or materials and their violations of the systems conditions. Duke Castle was then invited back to help TVWD focus on those processes which were the most saliently unsustainable. These workshops helped develop a common language and background in sustainability for employees across departments.
Integrating The Natural Step framework
Figure 1: The five step framework and A-B-C-D process
Creating Awareness
After The Natural Step training in 2004, when all employees were trained in TNS framework, Cheryl Welch and The District Board were careful to ensure that awareness building was a continuous process. Insightfully, Welch refrained from coercing employees to change their behavior, using education, encouragement, and incentives instead. She strongly believes that behavioral change is a process, and must be encouraged and incented until it becomes part of employee culture.
Tualatin Valley Water District has developed a complementary array of tools and techniques to build upon the foundation laid by The Natural Step training:
- Employee engagement and leadership opportunities—beginning with a workgroup approach that relied upon employee participation and ingenuity, management has sought to engage employees through their experiences and specialized knowledge to garner support and build awareness.
- Green Team—an innovative example of the above is the employee-led Green Team. This cross-departmental employee group is responsible for educating employees on how they can take individual action at the home and office to promote sustainability, such as through landscaping techniques and water conservation. The Green Team hosts speakers and contributes to a monthly employee newsletter. Notably, the membership rotates throughout the organization so that everyone can take an active role.
- DVD and Educational Handbook—the Green Team collaborated with the Sustainability Steering Committee to produce a 26 minute DVD and an educational handbook to inspire and inform other organizations on how real progress can be made towards sustainability while still being cost-conscious.
- Sustainability training for all new employees—this includes training in The Natural Step framework as well as in TVWD sustainability initiatives and is carried out by the Sustainability Coordinator.
- Sharing information—a classic example of plucking low-hanging fruit led to energy savings occurred when Welch publicly posted electricity use statistics. Quantifying this information and making it publicly available encouraged employees to conserve because they could directly see the results of their actions.
- Reinforcing positive behavior—Wary of nagging and stirring up employee resistance, Welch uses positive reinforcement by being supportive of employee initiatives, and the District publicly recognizes rewards employees who are commended by customers.
"One of the first things I did was to go around to see what lights were on, made a little chart, and presented it at an employee meeting. Then I posted our electricity usage monthly and, for 24 months in a row, electricity usage went down. So I think a lot of it is just awareness."
-Cheryl Welch, Sustainability Coordinator
Baseline Analysis
In 2004, five District employees took part in a specialized Natural Step training on process mapping and backcasting where they learned how to identify unsustainable operations through systems conditions and how apply the backcasting tool. In January, 2005, after all employees participated in a half-day workshop on sustainability and The Natural Step, they divided into 19 work groups to apply the process mapping. Process mapping encourages employee participation while creating a baseline assessment of how operations interact with the environment. The steps taken at the District are summarized below:
Figure 4: Process Mapping Results - In 2006, the District performed a baseline assessment on their electricity usage and carbon emissions to gauge how District processes compared to the first Natural Step system condition. The results show that pump stations were by far the largest electricity user, with electrical use contributing to 68% of the District’s carbon emissions.
Figure 5: TVWD Electricity Usage - 2006
Figure 2: TVWD Carbon Footprint - To assess how the District may be violating the second Natural Step system condition, the Sustainability SteerinCommittee developed a list of all toxic substances that werbeing used at all facilities. Not counting the indirect impacts of carbon emission on ecosystems, the District has tried to meet the third system condition by staying in compliance with the Endangered Species Act and consistently performEnvironmental Impact Statements.
Creating a Vision
TVWD will provide quality water and customer service to its community in a manner that protects the earth’s environment, supports a strong economy and promotes a robust community.
In achieving this vision, TVWD will:
• Partner with its customers and public, non-profit and private organizations to achieve significant advances in sustainability.
• Be a recognized leader in sustainability in the water industry and influential in guiding the development of others’ sustainability policies and practices.
• Develop and integrate forward looking, practical and measurable sustainable actions into existing TVWD programs and processes.1
In addition to this broad vision of meeting community needs while ensuring long-term environmental health and economic prosperity, TVWD has used the backcasting process to create goals in one, five, and ten year time scales for each of the five categories of inputs listed in the process mapping. Highlights from these goals include:
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As for the 4th system condition--to support an environment and society that does not undermine the ability of people to meet their needs—The District does more than just fulfill an obligation to provide clean water. Chilean economist Manfred Max-Neef’s alternative to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has influenced The Natural Step’s fourth system condition. These nine needs include subsistence, protection, affection, understanding, participation, recreation, creation, identity, and freedom. From this perspective, TVWD does strive to meet their employees’ needs for not only subsistence and protection, but also participation (as discussed above) and recreation2. While Sustainability goals currently adjoin departmental goals, Welch believes that soon they will be fully integrated with the overall organizational goals.
Down to Action
In their 2006 Sustainability Plan, the District provides a list of many of the accomplishments since 2003 in their progress towards sustainability. Listed below are some of these actions along with selected measurable results.
- Reduce employee waste at home and office by providing a free comprehensive recycling program at the workplace, including recycling of electronics.
- Waste reduction has been difficult to compare or quantify, but noticeably less material is sent to the landfill from District headquarters.
- Support the local community by partnering with “Care to Share” emergency water bill relief for those in need.
- 98 percent of customers rate TVWD’s service as “very good” or “excellent”.
- Reduce Greenhouse gas emissions from employee commuting with free TriMet pass incentives, participation in “Carfree Commuting Challenge” and alternative workweeks that require less commuting.
- All diesel trucks and construction equipment use a 20 percent biodiesel blend.
- TVWD achieved LEED-silver certification in 2006 with an expansion and remodeling of the District office.
- This resulted in greater energy efficiency and a rainwater storage system that collects and stores 40,000 gallons of rainwater that The District allows employees to take one Friday off every two weeks in exchange for working mostly 9-hour days the rest of the workweek supplies approximately 67% of the water used for flushing toilets and irrigating the property.
- Energy use decreased 2% from 2003 to 2007, despite a 30% larger office and an increased customer base. Headquarters kWh use per square foot decreased 26 percent. At the pump stations, where the vast majority of energy is used, Variable Frequency Drives were installed at 13 of 48 pumps to boost efficiency and decrease energy usage. TVWD currently offsets 100 percent of its non-mitigated carbon emissions with “Green Tags” that support renewable energy sources.
- TVWD is in the process of installing solar panels at the District office which will provide 10-20 percent of electricity used at the office.
- Product purchasing focuses on recycled products that are sourced locally whenever possible.
- Bidder Integrity Policy ensures that all pipes, hydrants, and fixtures are EPA and OSHA compliant. As a public utility, TVWD must take the lowest bid, but these regulations are a minimum requirement for their bidders.
- Billstock is now 100% post-consumer waste which leads to an annual savings of 150 trees, 64,000 gallons of water, 7,000 lbs. of solid waste, 100 million BTUs of energy, and 14,000 lbs. of greenhouse gases (source: http://www.tvwd.org/media/17620/sustainability_plan.pdf).
- Tualatin Valley Water District shares their vision and tools with other government entities, businesses, communities, American Water Works Association (AWWA) and other organizations to build lasting partnerships.
- Sustainability video and educational handbook for distribution.
- Participation in international workshops as a leader in sustainability.
- Tours and demonstrations on premises.
- Received 2007 Businesses for an Environmentally Sustainable Tomorrow (BEST) Award.
- In addition to an impressive array of employee benefits, TVWD offers continuing education reimbursement, opportunities to participate in decision-making and other features that have contributed to a very low turnover rate.
- In 2008, TVWD created a Carbon Emissions Reduction Taskforce to develop a plan for a post-carbon economy.
Measuring the results
As a public utility providing safe drinking water, TVWD is by nature concerned with having quality measurables. The importance of measuring sustainability is difficult to overstate, since well-intentioned efforts may not have large overall effects. For example, while the recycling rate in the United States has doubled to over 30 percent in the last 15 years, overall waste production increased 60 percent from 1980-2005 (http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/muncpl/recycle.htm#figures). However, while Tualatin Valley Water District has made significant progress, such as in greenhouse gas emissions, Cheryl Welch admits that there is more work to be done in this area. Currently, the District is working on aligning its performance measurements with its sustainability goals such that their measurables directly reflect what they are trying to accomplish.
Challenges
Cheryl Welch has numerous reasons to be optimistic about the future of TVWD and its efforts in adopting The Natural Step. She is glowing in her descriptions of the support that she has received from the Board of Commissioners, encouraged by employee participation, and gratified to be able share tools with other organizations. All the same, Ms. Welch admits that there are challenges that TVWD staff face as they continually learn and adapt to changing social, economic, and environmental conditions. Some of these challenges include:
- Using the four system conditions to guide every decision has proven to be overwhelming, but Welch feels that sustainability is gradually being incorporated into everyday decisions.
- Welch finds that a mix of small, achievable goals that serve as low hanging fruit are good to give early encouragement as the organization works towards more ambitious long-term goals. Making the goals too large, too early, can be discouraging.
- As water supply constraints increase, the District must find ways to send price signals to consumers without creating financial hardship.
- Some outputs, such as waste diverted from a landfill, are difficult to track and report.
While all of these challenges require time and resources to devise solutions, none have proved intractable. Ms. Welch credits the peer-learning groups offered by The Natural Step Network as a good way for organizations to share tools and experiences. The District has also taken care to be transparent with any rate changes so that customers understand why their rates have increased. By aligning performance measurements with strategic goals, the District hopes to improve the tracking of results to move towards its goals of sustainability.
Benefits/Lessons learned
o Using The Natural Step framework provided the entire employee workforce with a common language and understanding in identifying unsustainable processes. This has boosted autonomy and creativity among employees who often suggest ways of lessening their environmental impact in their everyday work. The framework has kept sustainability from being just a buzzword at TVWD.
- The peer-learning groups, breakfast speaker series, and other opportunities provided by The Natural Step have facilitated collaboration between TVWD and other organizations committed to sustainability. Besides practical tools and information, these sessions can be inspiring and therapeutic when there are shared challenges to discuss.
- Although the tasks may seem daunting, Welch recommends being opportunistic by starting with what seems most achievable to avoid indecision or stalling.
- Nurture those within the organization who support these goals. Provide them with an opportunity to be involved in a leadership committee similar to the Green Team.
1 Source: http://www.tvwd.org/media/17620/sustainability_plan.pdf
2 The District allows employees to take one Friday off every two weeks in exchange for working mostly 9‐hour days the rest of the workweek. For more information, visit the Tualatin Valley Water District website at http://www.tvwd.org
Written by Jesse Worker for The Natural Step Network.