AWWA ACE95235

This paper describes the Water Alliances for Voluntary Efficiency (WAVE), a voluntary program of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that promotes water efficiency in hotels and motels. WAVE is one of a growing number of EPA voluntary pollution prevention programs directed at business and industry. These programs operate on the principle that preventing pollution at its source is good business and can be profitable; that if companies are provided the proper incentives, knowledge, and tools, they will achieve many environmental goals voluntarily. In some cases this approach can offset the need for future regulations. EPA considers water efficiency to be pollution prevention because recycling and reusing wastewater reduces pollutant loads, reducing wastewater flows to municipal treatment plants generally improves treatment efficiency, and conserving water reduces the amount of energy needed to heat, treat and transport it.