As of today, MPC is a promotional partner for WaterSense, the U.S. EPA's certification for water-efficient products, landscape irrigation services, and new home construction. We've actually been promoting WaterSense products for some time now — Before the Wells Run Dry urged state and local governments to create tax incentives for WaterSense purchase and installation, and SB3147 would do just that — but now it's official.
At its heart, WaterSense is about tapping consumer demand for the public good, putting goal-driven technological innovation to work solving resource management challenges. Building and plumbing codes then provide minimum standards to assure consistency and accountability in installation. Codes are there to make sure that the technology people want to use can be used safely. Ideally, code reform would respond to technological and societal shifts quickly and efficiently.
That's why stories like this one from Grist, about the problems that copper pipes cause for waterless urinals at Chicago's city hall, are so frustrating. The toilets aren't the problem; waterless urinals work just fine when they're paired with PVC or other acid-resistant pipes. However, Chicago's building code requires copper piping. Ideally, code would be adaptive and enabling of innovative practices like waterless urinals, but instead the toilets are being ripped out and the blogosphere is full of rants about waterless urinals being a sham.
There are just too many stories that go like this:
Homeowner, in earnest: "I'd like to install Gadget X at my home. I know it's new and different here, but they do it in Country Y all the time, and they're still alive. It's going to save me a lot of money, water and energy."
Code enforcement: "That sounds great, but no, it's not in the code. Updating the code takes a long time, you don't want to do that. You should go with the standard version, that's in the code."
Homeowner, defeated: "OK, I guess the code knows best. I'll go with the regular wasteful one."
This isn't a City of Chicago thing. It happens everywhere. In this case, waterless urinals work, but only if installed the right way. As technology evolves and consumer interest shifts toward sustainability — like say, rainwater harvesting, urban agriculture, or small-scale renewable energy production — codes have to keep pace so they don't unintentionally prohibit beneficial practices. There will likely always be a time lag. It's hard for safety standards, which are based on experimentation and experience, to keep up with the market and technology ... but waterless urinals have been around for more than 20 years, and that seems sufficient.
Codes — the result of codification and standardization — define normal, and there's an inherent conservativeness embedded in the idea of normal (see rock n 'roll, history of, hostility to, and eventual acceptance). Consumer demand and technological innovation aren't going to slow down, so public policy and codes need to speed up. If we want sustainability to be the norm, and if codes define the norm, then we need to find a way to get to normal faster.