Ecovie Water Management Debut’s to an Engaging Crowd at HKS Architects

Water is one of our most precious resources.
As a sign that South Florida is becoming more aware of the water issues facing the region, a packed and enthusiastic crowd gathered at HKS Architects in Coral Gables, FL, recently to discuss the ways to solve these challenges. The event had attendees calling in from as far away as Singapore. The South Florida Living Future Collaborative meeting featured a review of on-site water management solutions from Ecovie Water Management, a company based in Miami, applying them to the unique challenges in the Miami area.

HKS Architects is an architectural firm whose goal is to, not only design wonderful buildings and residences worldwide, but also set out to preserve and respect precious natural resources; therefore, creating spaces that help conserve and rejuvenate the planet.

The Spinnaker Group is a South Florida based green-building consulting firm that brings extensive knowledge and experience to project teams. The company has more than 140 LEED Certified projects under its belt and more than 600 million SF of commissioned building space worldwide.

The Living Florida Collaborative is associated with the Living Future Institute and its Living Building Challenge program (LBC). LBC certifies buildings for sustainability that goes beyond more well-known rating systems such as LEED. The Living Building Challenge is comprised of seven performance areas, or “petals”, which are materials, site, water, energy, health, equity, and beauty. Each petal identifies aspirational goals that spur innovation and show the world what can be done for the best sustainable living. Ecovie's talk focused on how to apply on-site water management solutions, used in its many LBC projects, to help solve Miami’s water challenges. The talk built on the analysis done by Bob Drew, Ecovie's founder, (see link), and then showed examples from Ecovie's LBC projects that show how these solutions work.

Miami has been identified as one of the ten US cities which are most at risk of running out of potable water. Despite the abundance of water in the area, effects such as saltwater intrusion, superfund site groundwater contamination, and excessive septic tanks in an area with an extremely shallow water table, threaten the safe and clean potable water supply. Excessive runoff is creating ongoing contamination of Biscayne Bay. All these factors are reducing the amount of potable water by contaminating the Biscayne Aquifer which is Miami’s primary source of water. On-site water management is critical to eliminate or reduce the impact of these effects.

A review of Ecovie's LBC projects showed real examples of how on-site methods such as greywater recycling and rainwater collection reduces off-site water demand, reduces runoff, and provides clean water from on-site sources. Collectively, these techniques at a minimum can reduce by 40% what a building would draw on the Biscayne Aquifer and reduce discharge to Biscayne Bay by the same amount. As the LBC projects show, 100% on-site water supply and zero wastewater and stormwater discharge are possible.

Ecovie is the exclusive US distributor for Intewa products including NSF 350 certified Aqualoop for greywater recycling and PURAIN pre-filters for rainwater collection with patented hydraulic jump self-cleaning.

www.ecoviewater.com

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