The Tualatin Valley Water District
From the Pipeline to the Pump: A water provider’s leadership in sustainability
A Natural Step Network Case Study
The Tualatin Valley Water District
• 2nd largest water provider in Oregon
• 200,000 customers
• Water supplied by Portland Water Bureau and Joint Water Commission
• 112 employees
Departments
• General Manager’s Office
• Customer and Support Services
• Engineering Services
• Finance and Informaton Technology
• Field Operations
• Office of Community and Intergovernmental Relations
Summary
The Tualatin Valley Water District is a public utility located just west of Portland, Oregon, that provides drinking water to nearly 200,000 customers. While the District had addressed water conservation and energy efficiency in the past, it was not until the decision to adopt The Natural Step framework that a comprehensive, long-term plan was created to fulfill their vision of sustainability. Cheryl Welch became the first Sustainability Coordinator in 2001 and has helped a forward-thinking Board of Commissioners educate and involve an employee workforce of over 100 people. The result has been a transformation of employee culture, multiple programs that address The Natural Step system conditions, and constant reevaluation and adaptation. Leadership from both the Board of Commissioners and management has facilitated numerous initiatives. Tualatin Valley Water District is an active Network member and is constantly seeking partnerships to share tools and experiences as they continue to work towards a sustainable future.
Background
The Tualatin Valley Water District (TVWD) is located in Washington County, west of Portland, OR, where it serves nearly 200,000 customers in the expanding Portland metro area. The District is located in the Tualatin River watershed, which collects water from 712 square miles of urban, agricultural, and forested area. Roughly half of the water purchased is provided by the Joint Water Commission, of which TVWD is a part owner, and the other half is purchased from the Portland Water Bureau.
As the second largest provider of drinking water in the state of Oregon, the mission of the Tualatin Valley Water District is to ensure the quality supply of a natural resource to meet human needs. In this way, TVWD is intrinsically connected to the social and environmental components of sustainability. Long-term financial planning has been a District norm, so integrating the environmental and social components could be seen as a natural development for a visionary organization.
Much of the credit for this development goes to a forward-thinking Board, the Sustainability Steering Committee, and the creativity of Tualatin Valley employees. Even prior to adopting The Natural Step and forming a Sustainability Steering Committee, TVWD had initiated reductions of material waste and energy use. While some public water utilities have garnered criticism for inefficiency, TVWD leadership had ensured financial sustainability by preparing 50-year financial forecasts that are updated annually. The District emphasized efficiency by reducing water loss and properly maintaining their operations systems.
In 1993, TVWD established a Conservation Department to encourage efficiency and wise use of water on the consumer side. The new department planted a garden in front of TVWD headquarters using plants and techniques that reduced water usage as a demonstration of an alternative, low-impact way of landscaping. Because of their concern for their community, TVWD also partnered with the “Care-to-Share” agency to offer emergency assistance for customers who were temporarily unable to pay their water bills. These efforts helped to prepare employees, as well as the Board leadership, for a more comprehensive transition towards sustainability. However, these measures focused mostly on cutting costs, did not consider the supply chain, and were not cohesively organized into a long-term vision for a sustainable future.
The driving forces behind the District’s decision to etch sustainability into all facets of their operations range from political to ecological. The effects of climate change on the Tualatin River watershed will likely mean shorter, more intense periods of rainfall, and longer dry periods during the critical summer months. Decreasing supply could cause serious constraints if the Portland metro area continues to grow by one million people by 2030, as expected. This expanding population is expected to create a 50 percent increase in water demand by 2050. These scenarios highlight the need for greater conservation from suppliers as well as consumers. Dwindling salmon populations from reduced river and stream flows are causing alarm and creating greater restrictions on water withdrawals. Diminishing fossil fuel supplies and geopolitical insecurities in oil supply along with the climatic threat of carbon emissions are inspiring the District to plan for future scenarios without fossil fuels. As technologies for measuring contamination become more advanced, regulation is likely to become more stringent, and TVWD recognizes their responsibility to communicate this information openly to the public. Along the same lines, the District also understands that with rising costs of living, it is their challenge to sustainably manage a constrained resource while providing an affordable public good.
“(These programs) came from the top. The Board members and the management were very interested. They could see the long-term picture. And part of it has to do with the water industry, I think. We have to look at 50-year or longer time frames. And whether that’s for a piece of pipe or an employee, you’ve got to look at the long-term. Even though they weren’t calling it sustainability, there was an understanding of the concepts—that cheapest isn’t always the best move and you have to treat people well and with respect and if you do that you’re going to get back what you want.
–Cheryl Welch, Sustainability Coordinator”
Introduction of The Natural Step
Before coming to Tualatin Valley Water District, Cheryl Welch had founded Peacetree Environmentally Sound Paper and Printing, which became one of the first businesses in Portland to sell recycled paper. Jeanne and Dick Roy, who had brought The Natural Step to Oregon, were some of her first customers. In 2001, Welch was hired as a financial analyst by TVWD, and then quickly promoted to become the District’s first Sustainability Coordinator. Acclimating quickly to her new role, Welch authored a document to conceptually and practically define sustainability in a way could provide relevant policy recommendations. Welch recommended The Natural Step as a coherent framework that could foster institutional awareness of sustainability and serve as a beacon to guide the management’s approach.
Although she was already familiar with The Natural Step, Welch made the decision based on much more than an old business acquaintance. In The Natural Step framework she saw many valuable aspects that would make it meaningful for The District. For one, the science-based system conditions of the framework would translate well to an employee base comprised largely of engineers. She also appreciated tools such as the funnel metaphor for their simple but effective explanation of how business as usual will lead to environmental, social, or economic crises. Lastly, Welch recognized the opportunity that the networking aspect of The Natural Step provided in collaborating with other innovative early adopters in different sectors.
In 2004, five employees from Tualatin Valley Water District attended a training session led by Duke Castle with The Natural Step. The training was focused on a “process-mapping” exercise, which combines a baseline analysis with
backcasting. These five employees then trained the entire TVWD staff, which had been divided into 19 work groups, ranging from engineers to accounting to maintenance. In an excellent example of employee participation, these workgroups generated a list of 400 processes or materials and their violations of the systems conditions. Duke Castle was then invited back to help TVWD focus on those processes which were the most saliently unsustainable. These workshops helped develop a common language and background in sustainability for employees across departments.
Popularity: 2% [?]
