On March 15, 2001, the El Paso Water Utilities started a turf rebate pilot program. The
program was to be evaluated at the end of one year to quantify not only water savings, but
also to measure customer satisfaction and ease of program implementation. The budget for
the pilot program was $500,000, with the rebate amount set to $0.50 per square foot of grass
removed for front and side yards only. The minimum area for conversion was 100 square
feet, but there was no maximum. Converted areas had to include living plant material that
when fully mature would cover a minimum of 50% of the converted area. Television
commercials, bill inserts, and press releases were utilized to promote the program.
Interested customers were asked to send in photos of the established grass areas planned for
conversion, along with name, address, phone number, and El Paso Water Utilities account
number. Once received, a decision was made to either approve or reject the site based on
photos and consumption history. All records were entered into a database. If approved, a
package containing program guidelines, landscape information, graph paper and a template
(for use in drawing the new design) was mailed to the customer. The customer was asked to
mail in the proposed landscape design once approval into the program was granted. After the
conversion was completed, the customer was asked to call El Paso Water Utilities for a final
verification visit. El Paso Water Utilities would then take pictures and verify installation of
new plants to make sure all is according to previously submitted plans and measurements.
The customer then signed a rebate form and, once processed, the rebate check was mailed to
the customer. Difficulties encountered were that customers sometimes would not follow
program guidelines and would complete a conversion without proper approval. In those
instances, we worked with the customer on a one-to-one basis to determine savings potential
and, in many cases, offered a partial credit. Includes tables, figures.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 360 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 9 |
| Published : | 01/11/2004 |
