USGBC Central California’s “Summer 2015 Water Conservation Challenge” has a very worthy winner: Stan Ruiz reduced his water usage from July 2014 to July 2015 by a whopping 86%! We congratulate Stan to this great achievement, well done!

You may think: I can get to that number too if I eliminate all outdoor watering. Well, actually Stan did something different: He took out all his front and back lawn and replaced it with climate appropriate plants, drip irrigation and 4 to 5 inches of wood chips. “After the roots established I reduced the water supply by another 30% and it looks great.” 

Ruiz has done most of the work himself and did not spend more than $1,200 on his project. “I am just an average guy who loves to work in his garden and make it pretty”, says Ruiz. “If I can save this much, everybody can.” Stan wins a smart controller to help fine tune his irrigation system to ensure maximum water efficiency in his outdoor watering.

This is just one example of amazing individual residential impacts that is happening around Central California to increasing water efficiency, conservation and sustainability. We congratulate all other water savers that met the Water Conservation Challenge criteria of reducing water usage by 25% and submitted their water water bills. 

To find out more how you can reduce your water usage and how to convert to climate appropriate landscaping, visit the Water Conservation section on our website.

Thank you to our challenge sponsors Toro and Home Depot for providing prizes for our challenge winners and the Fresno Bee to help our outreach efforts with a media partnership.