| July 2, 2007
(Harrisburg, Pa.) Gannett Fleming, an international planning, design, and construction management firm, has developed a Web-based interactive water sustainability tool – Collecting the Drops: A Water Sustainability Planner – with the Global Environmental Management Initiative (GEMI). Since 1990, GEMI has created tools and provided strategies to help leading companies foster global environmental sustainability, promote health and safety excellence, and achieve economic success.
Collecting the Drops: A Water Sustainability Planner was developed to guide facility users through the process of assessing water use and impacts from operations, performing water balance assessments, and evaluating potential risks and opportunities. The interactive water sustainability planner – www.gemi.org/waterplanner – enables users to access the tool regardless of location.
The planner provides a list of recommendations to assess specific water uses and needs, impacts on the existing available resources, and the resulting opportunities and risks. Modules within the tool assist the facility user in assessing the many circumstances that can affect the adequacy and quality of the supply; impact of the facility on the local water supply and water quality; and the need for communication to increase awareness and community involvement to manage water resources wisely.
These three areas of focus will enable users to better understand water use and impacts, perform a water risk assessment based on questions outlined in six risk categories, and provide case examples of techniques that GEMI member companies have successfully used. This information is then combined with simple engineering estimates and tools to give the users an overall risk assessment output that is unique for their unit.
The GEMI project utilized resources across several of the firm’s service areas and offices, including the Valuation and Rates Division, GeoDecisions, and GANCOM. Additional information on the Global Environmental Management Initiative is available at www.gemi.org.
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