Save the Date for the 2025 Next Generation Water Summit
The 2025 Next Generation Water Summit (NGWS) will return to Santa Fe, NM on June 5-6, 2025. The theme for the upcoming event will be “Increasing Resilience in an Unpredictable Climate“.
Early bird pricing will remain the same as it has been for the past 2 years, with a fee of $199 for in-person and $79 for virtual attendance. Based on positive feedback from 2024 attendees, the NGWS will again be held at the New Mexico state capital building, known as “The Roundhouse”.
Mary Ann Dickinson, Director of Land and Water Policy at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, will deliver the keynote on Friday, June 6. She will provide an honest assessment of the industry and what she would do to improve it, saying, “The Next Generation Water Summit is a wonderful conference that inspires and promotes innovative thinking on water: how do we sustainably manage our water resources and deal with the changes coming our way in the future? I will have the particular assignment to identify what is missing from our current plans of action to deal with those changes. There will be lots to discuss!”
Session topics will include:
- IAPMO’s New Commercial Water Auditor Program
- Water-Energy-Carbon Nexus
- Graywater Practices in the West
- Innovative Product Panel
- Santa Fe’s Updated Residential Green Building Code
Optional workshops will be held on June 4 and community tours will occur on June 7.
The Next Generation Water Summit brings together the building and development community, water reuse professionals and water policymakers in a collaborative setting to share best practices and learn about innovative water conservation and water reuse techniques that can be used to comply with water conservation restrictions spreading across the southwest.
All registrants (in-person or virtual) will be able to attend live and on-demand sessions. To register and/or for more information on the Summit, please go to www.NextGenerationWaterSummit.com. To get the latest updates, please link with us at www.linkedin.com/in/next-generation-water-summit
For those who may have missed the 2024 NGWS, here is a link to an excellent recap written by Samantha Carlin of Green Builder® Media: https://www.greenbuildermedia.com/blog/future-proofing-water-lessons-from-the-2024-next-generation-water-summit
Hosts of the Next Generation Water Summit are the Santa Fe Green Chamber of Commerce; Green Builder® Coalition; City of Santa Fe; KUELwater and the Santa Fe Area Home Builders Association. The national media partner is Green Builder® Media, Alliance for Water Efficiency is a promotional partner and the education partner is Triconic.
About the Next Generation Water Summit
The Next Generation Water Summit brings together the building and development community, water reuse professionals and water policymakers in a collaborative setting to share best practices and learn about innovative water conservation and water reuse techniques that can be used to comply with water conservation restrictions spreading across the southwest.
Kim Shanahan Elected to Green Builder® Coalition Board
The Green Builder® Coalition Membership has elected Kim Shanahan to a 3-year term on its Board of Directors. His new term will expire in October 2027.
Shanahan has been a long-time Member of the organization, and has previously served on the Board. He has also been integral to the creation of the WERS Program, the Water Rating Index (WRI) within the National Green Building Standard (NGBS) and the Next Generation Water Summit. For decades, he has been a champion for water efficiency and conservation in the western United States.
“I am honored and humbled to be coming back as a Board member and help with the important work of the Green Builder® Coalition, especially in a time when political headwinds may challenge our mission to improve the built environment and the planet on which it sits,” said Shanahan.
Shanahan joins Ingrid Mattsson (elected 2023) and Steve Byers (elected 2022) on the Board.
Green Builder® Coalition Assists Development of Water Efficiency Tax Credit Proposal
In November 2024, a group of Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) members and stakeholders released a policy white paper detailing a proposed $2,000 tax credit for homebuilders of WaterSense-certified homes, modeled after the existing tax credit for ENERGY STAR Homes under Section 45L of the tax code. Mike Collignon, Executive Director of the Green Builder® Coalition, was a member of the task force during its entire term and provided editorial reviews and feedback on the paper.
The WaterSense Homes program is a voluntary federal initiative recognizing homes that are at least 30% more water-efficient than standard new builds, featuring WaterSense-labeled plumbing products and no water leaks. According to WaterSense, these homes can save homeowners $388 to $978 annually on utility bills compared to typical new construction. The Water Efficiency Rating Score (WERS)® is one of the approved certification methods for WaterSense for Homes 2.0.
The group spent approximately half of 2024 working on the white paper, meeting every 6-8 weeks to discuss ideas and refine the final concept. The next step is to collaborate with potential partners and legislators to advance this proposal. For questions on the paper, people are encouraged to contact the leader of the group, Andrew Morris of AWE.
Train of Thought
I realize we’re a month into 2025, but I wanted to share my thoughts on 2025 and a reflection on 2024.
It’s no secret that environmental causes will face severe headwinds in 2025 and 2026. Privately, some environmental advocacy groups were very disheartened after the election results were reported. You’ll see some put on a brave face and try to spin up positive momentum by citing state and local initiatives. The thing is… those efforts already existed as a reaction to the first Trump administration. It is true those endeavors will continue to march on towards their respective deadlines (2030, 2035, 2040, etc.), but most are not new efforts.
What is new is the federal government’s 180-degree turn away from renewables and clean energy in favor of fossil fuels; the abandoning of accords and treaties that the U.S. has entered to benefit the Earth’s climate; the temporary lifeline that will be given to 19th and 20th century energy that will only bring further harm to our air, water and soil for future generations to clean up. And, if you’re an environmentally-focused non-profit that is dependent on federal grant money, the next 2-4 years could be pretty lean. (For the record, the Coalition has never received a dime of federal money.)
In the face of that stark outlook, I am reminded of a segment from a roundtable interview that included Tom Hanks, where his takeaway was: “This too shall pass.” And it will. Change is inevitable. If you don’t believe that, ask yourself: is our primary mode of transportation horses? Do we illuminate our homes solely with candles and oil lamps? Are all movies still made in black & white with no recorded sound? The answer to all of those is obviously “No”, and why is that? Because we’ve figured out better ways to do… lots of things. (For instance, coal used to be the predominant fuel source for home heating. Now, the coal industry is on a glide path to death.)
Progress on climate mitigation and resource conservation will be made. It might not be on the time horizon you or I would like, and it won’t be led by the United States anytime soon, but we will see progress. Stay the course, and stay positive. This too shall pass.
Finally, it is during troubling times that we look to reassuring voices. We lost one such voice in 2024. Tom Miller, co-founder of Miller Brooks and a former Board member of the Green Builder® Coalition, passed away. He had retired a few years ago, and he had been battling some health ailments. He is sorely missed by many throughout the sustainability industry, because he had a way of staying positive.
Tom also had a very generous spirit. I will forever be grateful for the kindness he showed both my wife and the Coalition. I once asked him if he could share a couple interview tips or tricks with her, since she had an impending interview for a promotion. Tom asked for her number, and he spent 30 minutes of his time with her. That personalized assistance, and the promotion that followed, changed the trajectory of her career.
I will always cherish the time Tom and I got to spend together while he was on the Board. I still have notes from our conversations. I’ll leave you with this interview Tom did for this very e-newsletter, a little over a decade ago.
RIP, Tom Miller.