Celebrating SF Climate Week with an Epic toast to water reuse
Over the course of seven days, San Francisco Climate Week brought together a diverse group of organizations, companies, leaders, and the greater community through a series of events that highlighted climate action and innovation. For the second annual SF Climate Week, April 21-27, there were over 750 organizations that hosted 300+ events with over 18,500 attendees. It was an incredible showing of climate positive action and awareness for San Francisco.
Unfortunately, water was not a prominent theme at many events this year. Although water is often the medium through which we directly experience the effects of climate change — from altered precipitation patterns and rising sea levels to more frequent and intense droughts and floods — we consistently see that many fail to make the connections between water, energy, and carbon. We’re on a mission to change that and put water at the center of conversations, where it belongs.
At Epic, there is always a reason to celebrate water
To help shine a spotlight on water, we hosted a sky-high happy hour event in collaboration with Epic client Related California to celebrate the great strides San Francisco has taken to advance pioneering water policies. On April 24, the Epic team took over the 40th floor of Fifteen Fifty, a luxury apartment building that is also home to the first approved onsite greywater reuse system in San Francisco’s history. We invited leading practitioners in the sustainable design and construction worlds, along with top voices from academia and government.
The evening featured sustainable and locally-sourced food options, including several dishes infused with our award-winning Epic OneWater Brew, a Kölsch-style ale brewed with highly purified water from the building itself. The beer was named one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2023 and has been featured in The New York Times, CNBC, CNN, Blomberg, USA Today, SF Gate, The Guardian, ABC, and more, and was even served during the United Nations Water Conference in New York.
We held a blind taste test with Epic OneWater Brew, Bud Light, and Stella Artois to see if attendees would prefer a recycled water beer over other well-established brands — to our delight, 7 out of 10 attendees preferred our Epic OneWater Brew!
And of course, no Epic event would be complete without delicious “life of the potty” cookies in very topical shapes. 💩🚽💧
A sky-high toast to water reuse
We were so grateful to the many leaders across the sustainability, AEC, and real estate worlds that came together to celebrate SF Climate Week with us. We were honored to have Mark Schwettmann, Principal at SOM and the design director for Fifteen Fifty, and Tyrone Jue, the Director of San Francisco’s Environment Department, share a few words during the event.
We’re energized to see the growing embrace of smart water management in sustainable, resilient design. As Mark shared in his remarks, “I’m telling every one of our mixed multi-use residential clients, whether they are doing 200 units or 500 units, that [onsite water reuse] is something you need to do.”
San Francisco is a leader in water reuse policy. In 2015, the city passed Article 12C requiring onsite water reuse in new construction buildings over 100,000 square feet. Due to that policy implementation led by Paula Kehoe and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, there are now 48 operational onsite water reuse systems. By 2040, the city estimates over 1.3 million gallons of water per day will be reused.
“[San Francisco] can do something different and be a model for the rest of the nation and the rest of the world,” said Tyrone Jue during the happy hour event April 24. “That’s exactly the stance that SFPUC took when they passed that policy. And now you see it being transformed into reality through projects just like [Fifteen Fifty] and the many more around the city.”
The leadership and commitment from the city and those in the AEC industry is what makes us hopeful for the future of water. Cheers to a successful SF Climate Week 2024 and to putting water reuse on the main stage!
