LAS VEGAS, February 01, 2023–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Plumbing Manufacturers International’s leadership and staff are leading a crusade for safe, clean water for future generations. Their latest stop is the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show (KBIS) 2023, where they are working this week to persuade policymakers and potential allies about the urgency of the association’s PMI’s Rethink Water initiative.

“All across the globe, we all need to rethink how we use water every day,” says Kerry Stackpole, PMI’s CEO and executive director. “Not only how do we use it, but how do we save as much as possible and make it safe for those who will need it in the future. Of all the facets of climate change, its impact on water may be the most profound. “

The enormousness of the challenge makes it somewhat intimidating to address. Where does one begin? Looking at it from the perspective of plumbing manufacturing, Stackpole said he believes you start with your strengths. “For more than 15 years, our industry has been making toilets, showerheads, faucets and other plumbing products that use water more efficiently than the older products most people still have in their homes. We simply need to install more of these WaterSense products, and the water savings will be substantial,” he explains.

That’s why PMI’s first Rethink Water project is legacy product replacement – replacing older, inefficient products with new, more-efficient WaterSense models. At KBIS, PMI hosted a Power Break and Briefing today to inform members, policymakers, other guests and media about the urgency of this project and the need to establish a robust public-private partnership to accomplish it.

EPA’s successful WaterSense program has proved its ability to save water

An Environmental Protection Agency program started in 2006, WaterSense has so far saved 6.4 trillion gallons of water, including 1.1 trillion in the last year counted alone, according to the program’s latest accomplishments report. To be certified to bear the WaterSense label, a plumbing product must use at least 20% less water than a product meeting federal standards established in 1994 by the Energy Policy Act (EPAct).

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American households use about 10 trillion gallons of water each year – which means last year, WaterSense products saved an amount equal to 11% of the total amount used by US households. That’s no easy achievement, but it’s nowhere near the potential of the WaterSense program. That’s because many households still don’t have WaterSense plumbing products installed.

A 2022 GMP Research study commissioned by PMI found that only 23% of California residences have toilets meeting WaterSense standards. More than half of these residences have WaterSense showerheads and faucets, but a strong minority does not, the study found. An earlier GMP study commissioned by PMI found that most states have WaterSense statistics similar to California’s.

PMI estimates that up to 326 billion gallons of water can be saved over 30 years in California by replacing the 26.1 million toilets not up to WaterSense standards with WaterSense toilets. By accelerating the replacement of these toilets, 65.3 billion gallons can be saved within five years, and 95.7 billion gallons within 10 years. Achieving similar savings in all 50 states can increase the gallons saved into the trillions.

But numerical estimates do not reflect the current situation. Because water-efficiency standards are currently set by states, PMI and its allies have started advocating state-by-state for robust legacy product replacement programs, starting with California and other western states having water supplies hit hard by the drought. PMI California government affairs consultant Jerry Desmond and PMI technical director Kyle Thompson have broached legacy product replacement with California water officials, with the hopes of building the idea into a bill this year.

Legacy product replacement isn’t a new idea

In California, toilet replacement or rebate programs have been implemented in Southern California, San Francisco, and other regions and municipalities.

San Antonio, Texas, had a decade-long program that delivered and replaced toilets free of charge until virtually no inefficient toilets were left to replace. Programs replacing toilets free of charge or via rebates have been implemented throughout the nation, primarily at the county or municipal level, in places including Dallas/Fort Worth, Maui, New York City, Seattle, and Tucson. Some of the programs have low income requirements.

Because these programs save water, PMI would like to see legacy product replacement scaled up into statewide programs through which the total savings would be immense. “Part of our challenge is to get policymakers and allies comfortable with audacious, bold solutions,” Stackpole stated. Compared to other water-related solutions on the drawing board, such as desalination and rainwater catchment, legacy product replacement on a larger scale is relatively modest, he explained. “Half-way solutions won’t solve the water crisis. We have to think bigger.”

PMI Board of Directors President Sal Gattone of LIXIL is working closely with Stackpole and the PMI board members on the legacy product replacement challenge. “During this time of climate change and uncertainty, we all need to acquire the role of a conservationist,” Gattone stated. “Modern life relies on the easy availability of water. This access assures our health and safety and our very survival. Hence, we need to collectively respond to water crises and actively work together on sustainable solutions.”

About Plumbing Manufacturers International

Plumbing Manufacturers International (PMI) is the trade association of plumbing product manufacturers that produce more than 90% of the United States’ plumbing products, represent more than 150 iconic brands, and develop safe, reliable and innovative water-efficient plumbing technologies. PMI members contribute more than 464,000 jobs and $85.5 billion in economic impact to America’s economy.

With a vision of safe, responsible plumbing – always, PMI advocates for plumbing product performance contributing to water efficiency and savings, sustainability, public health and safety, and consumer satisfaction through its Rethink Water initiative and other programs. PMI members manufacture water-efficient toilets, urinals, faucets, showerheads and other products at more than 70 locations across the country and market them online and in more than 24,000 home improvement stores, hardware stores and showrooms in all 50 states. For more information on PMI, contact the organization at 1750 Tysons Blvd., Ste. 1500, McLean, Va., 22102; phone: 847-481-5500; fax: 847-481-5501. safeplumbing.org.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230201005140/en/

Contacts

Ray Valek, ray@valekco.com, 708-352-8695

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The first of what will soon be hundreds of places in the Bay Area to provide a guarantee of fresh air on smoky days opened in San Francisco on Tuesday.

The new Clean Air Center, located at the Bayview Linda Brooks-Burton Branch Library in the city’s Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood, has been outfitted with special filtration equipment and allotted space in a 1,000 square-foot meeting room to accommodate those wanting respite during periods of heavy wildfire smoke.

The facility marks the debut of a network of Clean Air Centers planned across California, and it shows the extent to which the state is going to prepare for increasing wildfires — and climate change.

In recent years, millions of Californians have been exposed to unhealthy levels of smoke as a result of bouts of wildfires that scientists attribute, in part, to drought and rising temperatures.

“Having a place where people can go to breathe clean air is something that is extremely vital and important,” said San Francisco Supervisor Shamann Walton during a kick-off celebration of the new Clean Air Center on Tuesday morning. Walton also sits on the Board of Directors of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, which is overseeing the rollout of the facilities.

The first center was launched in San Francisco’s southeastern corner to underscore the project’s aim of prioritizing underserved areas, where air pollution is typically greatest and fewer people may have air purifiers in their homes.

Air district officials say that more than 300 facilities will open in the Bay Area in a matter of weeks, including one at a YMCA just a few blocks from the first site. The centers will generally be located in libraries, schools and other community hubs where portable air cleaners will be brought in and HVAC upgrades made.

The sites will be identified with signs sporting the program’s new, blue and orange Clean Air Center logo.

The initiative is the product of Assembly Bill 836, the Wildfire Smoke Clean Air Center Incentive Program for Vulnerable Populations. The legislation, authored by Assembly Member Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, provided funds for the creation of the network of clean air facilities.

The Bay Area Quality Management District, serving the region’s nine counties, was allocated $3 million to help pilot the program. The California Air Resources Board and the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management helped with Tuesday’s launch.

“We get more calls on this than anything during wildfire season,” said Kristine Roselius, spokeswoman for the air district. “People want to know where they can go to get out of the smoke.”

Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander

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San Francisco Lands Top Spot In Clean Energy Rankings For First Time

San Francisco took top honors in ACEEE’s 2021 City Clean Energy Scorecard, followed by Seattle; Washington, D.C.; Minneapolis; and Boston and New York.

San Francisco took top honors for the first time in the sixth edition of the 2021 City Clean Energy Scorecard, followed by Seattle (#2), Washington, DC (#3), Minneapolis (#4), and Boston and New York (tied for #5). The annual American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) report ranks 100 major US cities on efforts including reducing energy waste in homes and buildings and moving toward a cleaner power grid—and doing so equitably. It identifies the leading cities, the most improved, and those with ample room for progress, citing opportunities for each to advance.

Cities earned credit for policies and programs such as requiring large buildings to reduce energy waste or subsidizing access to transit and other efficient transportation options for historically marginalized groups, and for their success in reducing their overall greenhouse gas emissions.

San Francisco launched a new program that provides free home energy-saving kits to residents in areas that are disproportionately burdened by multiple sources of pollution and are economically disadvantaged. The city also updated its energy code for new residential and commercial buildings with requirements that will reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, and it was the top scorer on transportation policies.

“I’m so proud of the all the work we’ve done in San Francisco to achieve the top City Clean Energy ranking this year,” said San Francisco Mayor London N. Breed. “Thanks to consistent investments in our city’s clean energy program, innovative policies to decarbonize our buildings, and advancing environmental solutions centered around equity, we’ve shown that it’s possible to drastically reduce our carbon emissions while growing our population and economy. I’m looking forward to our continued work with ACEEE and cities around the nation to continue striving toward bold climate action.”

Source: 2021 City Clean Energy Scorecard, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE)

Making Moves In Transportation

This year was the first time ACEEE assessed cities’ progress toward their climate goals for the transportation sector—which are based on either greenhouse gas emissions or vehicle miles traveled—using a comprehensive review of their reported data. Twenty-five cities have adopted such goals, and only three are on track to achieve them. Seventeen of the 25 cities could not provide sufficient data to assess their progress. San Diego showed the strongest progress in this category, achieving a nearly 3% annual reduction in transportation greenhouse gas emissions since 2015.

The report also found that cities’ most recent clean energy policy actions have primarily focused on sectors other than transportation. Of the 177 new city clean energy actions scored in the report, only 23 were related to transportation, which is responsible for the largest share of US emissions.

“Most cities haven’t set a goal for reducing vehicle travel or transportation emissions, and of those that have, only a few show progress, so that points to a big area for improvement,” said Stefen Samarripas, local policy manager at ACEEE and lead author of the report. “From investments in transit to incentives for installing electric vehicle charging stations and zoning changes that allow dense, mixed-use development, cities have to use all their tools to support an affordable transportation system that works better for all while slashing greenhouse gas emissions.”

Additional Findings

The report, which evaluated cities from May 2, 2020, to July 1, 2021, also found:

• Seattle’s advocacy in the state legislature allowed its municipal utility to expand its electric vehicle charging initiatives; Washington, DC earned points for incentivizing the purchase of new electric vehicles by waiving the excise taxes on them.
• Madison (Wisconsin) (#39), Charlotte (#42), and Honolulu (#24) are this year’s most-improved cities. Madison increased its investments in renewable energy and adopted requirements to install electric vehicle chargers in all multifamily and some commercial buildings. Charlotte created a program to train energy efficiency and renewable energy workers and directed city agencies to purchase efficient vehicles. Honolulu adopted a new climate action plan.
• Many cities dropping in rank fell by not keeping up with peers who have adopted leading clean energy practices, increasingly rewarded in the Scorecard’s metrics.
• Many cities encountered funding, staffing, and operational challenges for their clean energy efforts because of the COVID-19 pandemic, though a small number adapted their operations and plans quickly and effectively. Overall, the pandemic slowed many cities’ actions through 2020, but efforts generally recovered in the first half of 2021 with a renewed focus on the buildings sector.

“COVID relief and infrastructure funds from Congress provide a big opportunity for all cities to step up their efforts,” said Samarripas. “Cities can invest in upgrading buildings to cut costly energy waste. They can invest in efficient transportation, including public transit, to help lower-income residents reduce their travel costs and protect the climate. The leading cities provide helpful models for those at much earlier stages of their efforts.”

The Scorecard ranks cities in five policy areas: community-wide initiatives, buildings policies, transportation policies, and local government operations.

For the first time, the Scorecard grouped cities into six types based on the population of their metropolitan areas and their rates of growth, allowing for an examination of trends across city types. The Scorecard also includes a new analysis and scoring of cities’ smart growth strategies and a new tool (developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory) to quantify the potential of a city’s transportation system to connect people to services and activities in an energy-efficient, convenient, and cost-effective way.

You can read the full report online, including individual fact sheets that describe each city’s performance and recommend ways to improve.

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Back in 1977, David Tolson and his sister, Anna Neace, started Chimney Sweep Cleaners.

They had seen a story in the Messenger-Inquirer about chimney sweeps in another state donning black coats with tails and top hats, traditional chimney sweep attire that dated back to the 1700s in England.

So, they tried it here, driving a 1951 Studebaker from job to job.

And the romantic image of chimney sweeps, inspired by the 1964 movie, “Mary Poppins,” caught on.

By 1985, the company was handling 25 to 30 chimney and fireplace repairs a week.

Chimney Sweep Cleaners was a success and today Roman Tolson, David’s grandson, still operates it.

But the name has been changed to Chimney Cleaning & Repair.

Tolson said he started working with his father, Kelly Tolson, in the business in 2012 and took over the company the following year.

“Customers ask why I don’t dress up,” he said. “I try not to get too uncomfortable when I’m working. And that attire isn’t comfortable.”

Top hats do keep things from falling down a chimney onto a sweep’s head, Tolson said.

“I do have a top hat,” he said. “But I don’t wear it.”

It takes about 45 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes to clean most chimneys, Tolson said.

“Technology has really improved,” he said.

Two years ago, when his father was dying of pancreatic cancer, Tolson said he took time off to help care for him.

And then last year, COVID concerns shut him down for much of the year.

But Tolson is back in business this year.

“I have regulars who have me clean their chimneys every year,” he said. “But if it doesn’t need cleaning, I’ll tell them that at no charge.”

He doesn’t accept credit cards to keep his expenses down, Tolson said.

“It’s a pretty good business,” he said.

But Tolson is also working on a bachelor’s degree in information technology, which he started last year when COVID precautions prevented him from working.

“I like working for myself,” he said.

In addition to cleaning chimneys, Tolson also rebuilds them and replaces bricks when they need it.

He notices that there are more pre-fab chimneys today.

“People don’t seem to be as skilled as they were years ago,” Tolson said.

He said he works in about a 55-mile radius around Owensboro in Kentucky, but he doesn’t work in Indiana.

“My goal is to eventually have a crew,” Tolson said. “But I want quality over quantity in my work.”

Chimney sweeps sometimes find more than soot in a chimney.

“In 2017, I found a chimney full of bats,” Tolson said. “But it was illegal to touch them because it was breeding season.”

He said, “I’ve pulled animal skeletons out of chimneys, but never a whole carcass.”

Tolson can be reached at 270-925-0947.

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San Francisco is known for many things. Unfortunately, the deteriorating road conditions are one of them

A stroll down Market Street any morning provides a glimpse into this persistent reality.

A conglomeration of various street cleaning teams, all of which are subordinate to the Department of Public Works, cavort in the corridors of the city center. They can often be distinguished from one another by the color of the clothes they wear.

There’s the Downtown Streets Team, Outreach and Enforcement, Pit Stop, TLClean and Urban Alchemy, among others. Some sweep street corners or flush sidewalks. Others collect rubbish or wipe graffiti off shop windows. There are units devoted to steaming trash cans, cleaning gutters, and manning public toilets, as well as community ambassadors who get in touch with local residents, businesses, or inform people who may have slept nearby that the street cleaning is taking place will start soon.

They work side by side, but not necessarily with one another, limited to clearly defined roles and silos. The result is often a Rubik’s Cube series of blocks – some pristine and clean, others with unkempt junk or personal items tucked away in corners. Come back the next morning and even blocks cleaned the day before are likely dirty.

The sheer number of moving parts creates San Francisco’s reputation for putting red tape before progress, making it difficult for residents to know who to contact with a query or who is responsible if problems persist. One cannot help wondering whether this patchwork approach mitigates the potential collective impact of a simpler alternative.

“We have the resources,” said Rodney Fong, President and CEO of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. “The problem is how they are managed, the measurement of success, the accountability and the goals. It’s really difficult. “

Two workers from the Downtown Streets team will be cleaning on Tuesday, October 12, 2021 as they walk down Market Street in the mid-market area. (Kevin N. Hume / The Examiner)

The responsibility for street cleaning will eventually be outsourced to the still-to-be-created Department of Streets and Sanitation as a result of proposal B on the vote last year. For now, however, DPW oversees The City’s long list of street cleaning teams. And the agency suggests that individual actors rather than their multi-layered approach to clean-up are responsible for the ongoing problem.

“Bad behavior contributes the most, regardless of whether it is people who illegally dispose of old furniture, building rubble or household waste; Scavengers rummaging through trash cans and throwing what they don’t want on the floor, or garbage bugs casually dropping their coffee cups and fast food packaging on the sidewalk, ”DPW spokeswoman Rachel Gordon said in an email. “Warehouses also produce a lot of waste.”

Street cleaning companies collect more than 3.6 million pounds of trash across the city every month. Much of this is concentrated in the downtown area, where dozens of crew members show up for work before sunrise every day to clear the streets.

According to the Department of Public Works, the agency spends nearly $ 94 million and 350 people cleaning streets annually. Under the umbrella of street cleaning operations, DPW operates at least 15 different crews who contract with non-profit organizations to provide additional staff and local relationships for some. Not-for-profit boroughs add to the mix, partnerships in which landowners pay a fee that funds city-government-backed improvements.

At all of these facilities, workers clean the streets of San Francisco seven days a week, starting in the early hours of the morning and staying outside until late at night. Yet even in downtown, considered in many ways one of the city’s crown jewels, it’s not uncommon for people to come across rubble, graffiti, or human litter while drinking their morning coffee.

The agency stands firm that a kaleidoscope of street cleaning teams performing various functions enables it to reach more corners of the city more effectively. Gordon compares it to a baseball team – each player has a different role in a collective team effort. She said that this setup allows different crews to develop expertise in specific skills, and it makes it easier for The City to partner with a variety of nonprofits that use the street cleaning groups to develop, for example, people who are formerly incarcerated or homeless.

It also means DPW can run a number of programs concurrently, giving some crews city-wide responsibility and allowing others to focus on specific neighborhoods that require more focused efforts. For example, there are regularly scheduled crews who drive to “well-known hot-spot areas” such as Tenderloin, SoMa, Mission, Bayview and Chinatown to remove illegally dumped garbage, manually sweep streets and thoroughly clean alleys.

Others consistently deal with commercial areas. CleanCorridors SF sends crews to a different neighborhood corridor every Thursday to do a “deep cleaning” and to discuss their responsibilities with the business owners to keep the premises clear.

Many teams are now reserved for demand-oriented ad hoc projects, often at the behest of reports from district managers, calls on the 311 hotline, or recommendations from the road teams themselves.

“All the work is coordinated,” said Gordon.

A civic center ambassador is cleaning up graffiti in the United Nations plaza on Tuesday, October 12, 2021. (Kevin N. Hume / The Examiner)

As simple as that explanation is for DPW insiders, the unsettling reality of the streets of San Francisco remains. And local economic recovery may depend on finding a solution to keep the streets clean and safe for everyone.

Even before the pandemic, the Moscone Center – the height of the San Francisco convention industry and whose macroeconomic impact is estimated at $ 4.9 billion a year – lost business. In 2019 alone, 35 future events were canceled, with hosts citing road rot and safety concerns as two of the top three reasons for events to be relocated.

“If we want San Francisco to recover – and I’m not even talking about the high watermark, but to a point where our residents and our businesses feel safe – the cleanliness and safety aspects of San Francisco need to be greatly improved.” “Said Fong.

DPW recognizes that the street cleaning project is still “in progress”. But it puts the burden on the behavior of residents who fail to behave as good stewards of their city. Gordon rejects the narrative that the agency was to blame for the internal disorder or inefficiency.

“In the short term, the goal of our street cleaning efforts is to gradually improve the cleanliness of the city’s public right of way,” she said. “In the long term, the goal is to achieve a meaningful cultural change in which people don’t ravage the streets in the first place, so that public works workers don’t have to work around the clock to clean up the dirt that others have left behind.”

cgraf@sfexaminer.com

news

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Hundreds of museums around the World are dedicated to people, places, things or epochs of history. This museum is dedicated to one value: the value of cleanliness. According to the Museum of Clean website, the concept of cleanliness dominates every aspect of human life, from our surroundings and environment to our mind and body.

The museum was founded by Don Aslett, who in 2006 discovered that his collection of cleaning supplies, including 250 pre-electric vacuums, had outgrown their mini-museum space next to his cleaning center, home of his cleaning company Varsity Contractors. Aslett, who has been in the cleaning industry since she was 18, has written books and lectured on various facets of cleanliness. For Aslett, the concept of cleanliness is about more than just dirt and clutter; it is a way of life and a state of mind. The museum’s Facebook page states:

“Clean will solve most of our personal problems, most of the world’s problems. Clean creates harmony, peace, security and security. Clean speaks with a clear voice that everything is in order and under control. “

Several exhibits are object-centered; Collections of tubs, brooms, washing machines, and military helmets – which, according to the museum’s website, are used by soldiers for various sanitary purposes – reveal the tools we have relied on over the centuries to keep us clean. Other exhibits are a little more conceptual; The Garage exhibit examines the harmful effects of clutter, while the Texas-sized trash can provides a visual representation of the waste problem. A replica of Noah’s Ark located at the entrance to the museum “highlights the importance of water in the cleaning profession,” according to the CleanLink website for the professional cleaning industry.

Many museum activities aim to combat what is arguably one of the greatest threats to cleanliness: children. Kids Clean World, a three-story cleanliness playground, encourages kids to get excited about everything from sweeping to recycling. In the old town exhibition, children can experience the art of cleaning through the eyes of a chimney sweep.

Since the museum opened in 2011, the cornerstone of the collection, Aslett’s vacuum collection, has grown to nearly 1,000 pieces spanning a century of cleanliness.

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