AWWA ACE54309

Water conservation programs don't have to stand alone. As part of a coordinated environmental education message, water conservation programs can be more effective and cost efficient when synergized with other departments or agencies. The City of Phoenix, with more than 11,000 employees, serves 1.3 million residents. Outreach programs to reach this citizen base are bound to have redundancies and missed opportunities in both program content, delivery, and funding. In early 2000, a core group of employees, representing several city departments responsible for environmental education, met to see how best theycould work together in developing a comprehensive and city-wide environmental education outreach. The impetus was: development of the ambitious Rio Salado Habitat Restoration Projects; the opportunities for Federal and other funding; and, the realization that it was time, in the interest of increased efficiency and seamless service to our citizens, that departments pooled their considerable talents in order to convey a coordinated environmental message. To that end, this core group employed a consultant to interview staff in city departments and come up with an inventory of every municipal outreach program with any environmental content. In addition, a Visioning Workshop attended by environmental education staff from numerous city departments, provided the groundwork projecting what a citywide environmental education message might look like. The result of the consultant interviews was an inventory of 100 programs overseen by ten departments. This report is not a "living document" but only a snapshot of the programs in play at the time, an attempt to look at environmental messages being put forth by the City. This paper discusses how this inventory was accomplished, its findings, and examples are given of how water conservation programs might fit into the overall environmental education message. The paper describes how, in partnering with other departments and agencies, water conservation messages can reach a far greater audience with far greaterfrequency and efficiency. Includes 7 references.

Product Details

Edition:

Vol. - No.

Published:

06/01/2001

Number of Pages:

17

File Size:

1 file , 310 KB