Water Quality & Consumption

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Botanic Garden/Arboretum/Institution

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Garden/Arboretum/Institution Address

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Garden/Arboretum/Institution City

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Garden/Arboretum/Institution State

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Garden/Arboretum/Institution Zip Code

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GOAL 1: Develop transparent standards for the governance and management of water and ensure this is apparent in garden's plans, policies, and operational norms.

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KPI 1a: Garden creates a plan, policy, or protocol that guides water conservation and quality decisions and actions on site.* This field is required.

Garden has a water conservation and quality plan, policy, or protocol.

Garden has a sustainability or operational norms plan, policy, or protocol that includes carefully monitoring water use and quality.

Garden will have a water conservation and quality plan, policy, or protocol in the next year.

Garden does not have a water conservation and quality plan, policy, or protocol.

Other

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KPI 1a: Upload any relevant documents for answer(s) selected above. The Association will review these to determine if Standard of Excellence is met for this KPI.

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KPI 1a: Share any relevant links regarding the above selected answer(s):

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KPI 1b: Garden water management practices include reducing municipally supplied water.* This field is required.

Garden water management practices include efficient methods for reducing municipally supplied water.

Garden water management practices do not rely on any municipally water supplied for maintenance or operations.

Garden does not strive to reduce municipally supplied water.

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KPI 1b: Share any relevant links regarding the above selected answer(s):

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KPI 1c: Garden's water management practices include measuring, improving, and reducing annual water discharged.* This field is required.

Garden water management practices include tracking/measuring annual water discharged from property (stormwater management).

Quality of discharged water from buildings, facilities, and horticultural activities is regularly tested.

Garden implements green infrastructure/features to improve water flow, quality, storage, and capture on site.

None of the above.

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KPI 1c: Share any relevant links regarding the above selected answer(s):

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KPI 1d: Garden adopts/aligns water conservation and quality strategies with broader local/regional efforts.* This field is required.

Garden aligns its water management strategies/goals with a local/regional government plan or policy.

Garden collaborates with external organizations/agencies and individuals to address local/regional water conservation and quality issues.

Garden has plans to collaborate with external organizations on water-wise gardening projects in the next year.

None of the above.

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KPI 1d: Share any relevant links regarding the above selected answer(s):

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KPI 1e: Garden makes informed decisions about water resource management involving or hiring experts for projects and programs.* This field is required.

For new projects or making changes to existing projects, garden has involved appropriate expertise such as a landscape architect firm, college/university, hydrologist, government agency, or eco-consulting group.

Garden has obtained special accreditation for water use and quality standards through involving external organizations/consultants.

Garden has obtained appropriate permissions and follows all laws governing use of water on property for water conservation and quality activities.

None of the above.

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KPI 1e: Share any relevant links regarding the above selected answer(s):

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GOAL 2: Implement strategies that increase water resources education, reduce water consumption, and improve water quality on and off site.

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KPI 2a: Garden supports professional development opportunities for staff in charge of managing water on site such as gardeners, horticulturists, groundskeepers (training opportunities include formal/informal instruction and distance learning on water resource management).* This field is required.

Conference/symposia training fees

Continuing education/course fees

Tuition support (for credit courses).

None of the above.

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KPI 2a: Upload any relevant documents for answer(s) selected above. The Association will review to determine if Standard of Excellence is met for this KPI.

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KPI 2a: Share any relevant links regarding the above selected answer(s):

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KPI 2b: Garden educational/interpretative components include water conservation and quality as a theme.* This field is required.

Garden has displays/panels on water filtration, use, and best management practices (infrastructure).

Garden has classes, programs, trainings (demonstrations), or other activities that discuss and demonstrate water-wise gardening practices.

Garden has citizen science programs or volunteer programs that focus on water conservation and quality and associated research.

Garden has food-related program content that demonstrates the importance of water in agricultural sciences.

Garden has educational programming that discusses the role water plays in habitat restoration and natural lands management.

Garden has climate change content related to water conservation and management (where water is drawn from, differences between water sources and finite amounts of water) and educational content/programming on drought tolerant plant species.

Garden has Interpretive tours/docents that discuss how the garden effectively uses and manages water.

Garden has none of the above.

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KPI 2b: Share any relevant links regarding the above selected answer(s):

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KPI 2c: Garden allocates funds that demonstrate long-term commitment to projects/green design features for the purposes of efficient water use, retention, flow, capture, and storage.* This field is required.

Garden allocates a portion of annual budget toward water-related projects or programs.

Garden only allocates a portion of annual budget toward water-related projects or programs on an ad hoc basis.

Garden funds toward water-related issues are part of operational/maintenance costs and are lumped together with other budget items.

Garden does not allocate funds for water specific issues (not mission relevant and garden prioritizes other issues).

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KPI 2c: Share any relevant links regarding the above selected answer(s):

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KPI 2d: Garden regularly monitors and tests the quality of natural water resources on site or nearby and takes actions to ensure those resources are not polluted from garden activities.* This field is required.

Garden regularly tests natural water sources on site or nearby.

Garden tests natural water sources on site or nearby occasionally, when issue is suspected.

Garden takes appropriate action(s) to correct when testing reveals pollution.

Garden never tests water quality on site or nearby.

Garden has no natural water sources on site or nearby (N/A).

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GOAL 3: Establish a set of best practices for collecting, monitoring, and measuring water usage and quality, and use the data to adjust future water management best practices.

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KPI 3a: Garden develops best practices for water used outdoors for landscape maintenance and plant health.

Garden maps and assesses current irrigation system(s) on site, including all infrastructure underground and above ground to understand where and how water is flowing to different areas of garden and what areas are reliant on the same irrigation system.

Garden divides plant collections/gardens, natural land holdings, lawns, parking lot areas into zones for water use measurement, scheduled maintenance, and comparison and evaluation.

Garden completes inventory of when infrastructure designed to carry, store, and distribute water was installed and designates time to evaluate and determine replacements/renovations (special consideration given to historic and rare plant collections).

Garden invests in meters and sub-meters and/or probes to monitor and measure soil moisture and temperatures (and alert staff with updates).

Garden invests in automated sprinklers/irrigation systems that shutoff automatically when there is rain or turn on in extreme heat.

Garden staff and/or volunteers in charge of grounds and maintenance have a rigorous plant health maintenance plan/schedule for manual watering.

None of the above.

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KPI 3a: Upload any relevant documents for answer(s) selected above. The Association will review to determine if Standard of Excellence is met for this KPI.

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KPI 3a: Share any relevant links regarding the above selected answer(s):

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KPI 3b: Garden follows best practices for indoor facilities to reduce water consumption. EXAMPLES include conservatories, greenhouses, and public facilities.

Garden uses water-efficient plumbing fixtures in public bathrooms for guests/visitors and staff (automated to shutoff when not triggered).

Garden uses WaterSense or similar low flow appliances (1.5 gallons per minute sinks, 1.28 gpf toilets, no-water or 1.5 gpf urinals).

Garden maintains indoor plumbing at maximum service pressure of 60 psi.

Garden uses composting toilet facilities.

Garden uses temperature controlled sprinkler/watering systems for conservatories and greenhouses (or automated alerts for staff that manually water).

None of the above.

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KPI 3b: Upload any relevant documents for answer(s) selected above. The Association will review to determine if Standard of Excellence is met for this KPI.

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KPI 3b: Share any relevant links related to the above selected answer(s):

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KPI 3c: Garden sets a percentage goal to reduce overall water consumption annually.

25% or less reduction.

50% or greater reduction.

Data is not available.

This is not a focus of garden due to mission and region.

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KPI 3c: Share any relevant links related to the above selected answer(s):