Santa Rosa Project Accelerator Case Study

Enhancing Participation in Water Efficiency Programs for Latinx & Spanish-Speaking Residents

Situated in drought-prone Sonoma County, California, the City of Santa Rosa faces water uncertainty and scarcity. The City encourages water use efficiency with rebate and incentive programs, technical support, and consumer education. But it was concerned that these efforts were not reaching residents of Latinx heritage, who make up over 30% of Santa Rosa’s population. WaterNow partnered with the City to analyze the participation of the City’s Latinx communities in its water use efficiency programs and to identify strategies to increase participation.

*This project summary uses the term Latinx when discussing Latin American or Hispanic identifying community members, to be inclusive of all genders, with the understanding that this label may not best fit all community members in this group. An exception to this is in the use of Census data, with the terms “Hispanic / Latin American by race” or “by origin”. We have retained the original Census terms when discussing Census data.