The City of Greeley, which receives less than 13” rain per year, has been promoting water use efficiency for decades with rebate, direct installation, and consumer education programs. As the City was looking to make new conservation investments in 2020, it applied for WaterNow Accelerator support to bring a data-driven approach to analyzing how its conservation initiatives had been performing.

This analysis found that Greeley’s conservation efforts had had real impact, saving water and money, and were highly valued by participants. The per acre-foot cost of water savings in recent years was far below the cost of water from the Colorado Big-Thompson Project. The project also surfaced that participation in conservation programing was substantially lower among lower income and non-English-speaking residents, pointing the way to new opportunities.