Saving Water in the Desert

Moen’s water conservation innovations complement Beazer Home’s green goals.

Since 2020, “Mission Moen,” Moen’s water conservation initiative, has helped save more than 178 billion gallons of water simply through product innovations. The company’s goal is to save 1 trillion gallons of water by 2030. That commitment is one reason Moen jumped into the opportunity to contribute to the VISION House Las Vegas: Crossing the Rubicon, a partnership between Beazer Homes and Green Builder Media. 

“Beazer has a long-term exclusive relationship with Moen, and they install Moen fixtures in every kitchen and bathroom in every one of their divisions,” says Matt Hossner, vice president of sales for single-family homebuilders for Moen. “This opportunity to participate in the VISION House is different because it’s a chance to showcase the connected and smart products that are part of our green story.”

VISION House Las Vegas includes two model homes at the master planned community of Cadence in Henderson just outside of Las Vegas. In addition, a deconstructed model will be onsite for builders, contractors and buyers to see what’s behind the walls in Beazer’s READY homes. All future Beazer homes will meet the Department of Energy’s Zero Energy Ready Home requirements.

“We really like the deconstructed model because sometimes builders and plumbing contractors hesitate to be on the forward-side of technology,” Hossner says. “The deconstructed model will help us demonstrate that these new products are not intimidating and that everyone can embrace them.”

Sustainability Successes

Water scarcity is a critical issue that Moen addresses in the design and manufacturing of their products, Hossner says.

“People don’t always realize that water is a finite resource,” he says. “Our products are designed to manage flow to reduce water use while providing consumers with the experience they want.”

Moen has been ahead of the EPA’s WaterSense criteria in all their core products. For example, to meet WaterSense standards, a bathroom faucet needs a flow of 1.5 gallons per minute or less. Moen’s bathroom faucets have a flow rate of 1.2 gallons per minute without compromising the user experience, Hossner says.

“We’ve been providing water conservation since before it was cool,” Hossner jokes.

In addition, Moen has repurposed 750 tons of ocean plastic towards its goal to repurpose 2,000 tons of ocean plastic by 2030.

“We’ve partnered with a company that picks up nets full of plastic from the ocean,” Hossner says. “We repurpose the plastic into pellets that we use for packaging and for products.”

Initially, Moen used the pellets for installation pieces behind the walls that consumers didn’t see. Now they’re sometimes visible components of their products, such as a quarter-size magnetic showerhead dock.

Water Smart Products

Moen’s Smart Water Network connects their faucets and fixtures to a simple app that allows homeowners to monitor and program their water use. All the kitchen faucets, bathroom faucets, tubs and showers in each VISION House model from Moen offer water saving innovations.

In addition, Moen products at the VISION House include:

Smart Leak Detectors. Smart leak detectors are placed near the water heater and under sinks in places where people might not notice a leak right away. They send signals to the smart water network app and notifications if they detect a leak. 

Smart Irrigation. One of Moen’s newest products is a digital irrigation tool that monitors sprinkler systems in up to eight zones. “The system comes with soil sensors to measure the moisture in each sprinkler zone,” Hossner says. “It’s smart enough to know where the sprinklers need to go on and where they don’t, which stops homeowners from wasting water and saves them money.” 
4-Stage Reverse Osmosis Filtration System. This water filtration system, installed under the kitchen sink, takes water to the cleanest possible level, Hossner says. The system reduces contaminants including arsenic, fluoride, TDS, bacteria, viruses, lead, mercury, chlorine and pharmaceuticals in your cold water. “The average person ingests a credit card-size amount of plastic particles each week when they drink bottled water or tap water,” he says. 

Moen’s participation in the VISION House Las Vegas will demonstrate to builders, architects and consumers the advancements that can reduce water consumption and pollution as well as protect the health of homeowners. Click here to learn more about VISION House Las Vegas.