The Canadian Institute of Plumbing and Heating (CIPH) has announced the winners of Canada’s Most Water Wise School Competition, which challenged students to identify an action plan to decrease their school’s water footprint. Kitchener’s Conestoga College was awarded first place with the University of Ottawa placing second. The winners were announced on March 11—World Plumbing Day.
Seven teams from five colleges and universities participated in the competition. Teams were comprised of students in engineering, business, environmental studies, and other relevant fields.
“CIPH was extremely impressed with all of the submissions, in particular the attention to detail given to analyzing the technical and financial aspects of water conservation and the creative ideas presented to help their school reduce water consumption,” said CIPH’s president and general manager, Ralph Suppa. “Given the positive response to this competition by students from across the country, CIPH is proud to commit to sponsoring an interdisciplinary case study competition on an annual basis.”
The winning submission focused on reducing annual water consumption at Conestoga’s Doon Campus. A CIPH release said it stood out “in terms of technical considerations, social impact and cost recovery,” and that it analyzed such areas as “historical relevance like references to leaks, data analysis, recognizing gaps and assumptions; considerations of added value components such as public perception; as well as the breakdown of costs including demolition and reinstallation.”
