ION Water and tech giant Meta have joined forces to help affordable housing developments cut costs and protect the Brazos River watershed in Texas.
Through the initiative, Meta has sponsored the implementation of ION’s End-to-End Water Management System across two properties owned by a national affordable housing provider in the watershed.
Over five years, the effort is expected to save about 26 million gallons of water at the properties. It is also intended to help the watershed by reducing water demand and keeping more water in the catchment.
The parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and other businesses, Meta has a large data center in Temple, Texas. The initiative with ION helps support the firm’s larger water conservation efforts and offset its impact in the area.
“Partnering with Meta allows us to deploy our system where it can deliver both environmental and local community benefits,” says Eric Homberger, chief commercial officer of ION Water. “By reducing water use and operating costs for affordable housing communities, we’re supporting the long-term health of the Brazos River watershed and helping keep housing affordable for the families who live there. It’s a win for the watershed, a win for residents, and a win for Meta’s data center community in Temple.”
ION offers water management solutions to properties across the country, with a focus on affordable housing. By monitoring consumption at the unit level, identifying anomalies in real time, and alerting maintenance staff to problems, its system can reduce leak-driven water waste, lowering operating expenses while conserving water. The firm boasts that on average it reduces water consumption by 60% across property portfolios.
In Texas, Meta subsidized the recent system installation in 110 units and will cover the operations for five years, according to Homberger.
The owner of the two affordable housing properties will realize lower water bills by eliminating water waste, a hidden cost at properties.
According to ION, more than half of the water paid at properties is lost to invisible leaks, including running toilets, aging water heaters, and faulty fixtures. Leaks can go undetected for weeks or months, increasing costs for owners and straining water systems.
The Meta partnership is the first of its kind for ION, but the firm is working on establishing similar relationships with other companies that want to offset their water usage and be good stewards.
“We think this is a good model for corporate partnership, and we think it’s very important in the affordable housing space,” Homberger says. “To drive this alignment across these parties just makes so much sense.”