WaterSmart Software, a water efficiency solutions company that helps utilities educate their customers on ways to conserve water, marked its expansion into Southern California by partnering with three water utility agencies that aim to reduce Orange County’s overall water use. The City of Newport Beach, Irvine Ranch Water District, and South Coast Water District will deploy WaterSmart’s customer engagement platform to educate their customers on residential water efficiency strategies.

“We are pleased to begin work with our Orange County utility partners,” said Peter Yolles, CEO of WaterSmart. “This expansion into Orange County highlights the scalability of WaterSmart's products and their flexibility in adapting to Southern California’s unique requirements and needs.” WaterSmart looks forward to expanding its service area to other water-stressed regions within North America.

WaterSmart’s print and email Home Water Reports display a household’s water use, provide personalized water-saving recommendations and allow customers to compare their water consumption to similar households within close proximity. Residents also can log in online, through any web browser and mobile device, to WaterSmart’s Consumer Portal. There, they can view more detailed water use history and choose relevant water efficiency tips. Internally, utility staff can access customer data, reports and analytics in WaterSmart’s Water Efficiency Dashboard.

Today’s news comes on the heels of recent announcements highlighting the effectiveness of the WaterSmart’s technology in reducing residential water demand by 5% in just 6 months and introducing a major new partner in Northern California, the East Bay Municipal Utility District, in Oakland, CA.

Utility response has been uniformly positive. “WaterSmart’s products complement the work that the City of Newport Beach has been doing for years to educate our customers on water conservation strategies,” said Shane Burckle, Conservation Manager of the City of Newport Beach. “In response to WaterSmart’s Home Water Reports, our customers proactively are asking us what actions they can take to save water.”

"At IRWD, job one is to provide our customers with best water saving tools possible so that they can lower their bills and save money. The WaterSmart program enhances our award winning conservation based allocation rate structure and allows customers to take charge of their water bills," said Fiona Sanchez, Assistant Director of Water Policy at the Irvine Ranch Water District. "The program was easy to implement and we began seeing positive results within a few billing cycles."

"SCWD is dedicated to providing excellent customer service and helping our customers with water use efficiency,” said Cassandra Garcia, Customer Service Manager, South Coast Water District. “WaterSmart's program will help our customers by providing them with water use efficiency tools and suggestions."

About WaterSmart Software

WaterSmart Software helps improve water utilities’ conservation outreach to help their customers save water and money. WaterSmart’s core technology is a turnkey, cloud-based platform that integrates water utility metering and billing information. WaterSmart deploys sophisticated analytics and behavioral science tools to municipal water suppliers in cloud-based software. WaterSmart uses the power of social norms to improve customer engagement, elevate consumer interest in saving water and money, and increase participation in utility-sponsored efficiency programs. The Company won Imagine H2O’s water efficiency prize in 2010 and recently was named an Artemis Top 50 Water Company. WaterSmart’s solution is available to water suppliers throughout the U.S. and Canada and can be deployed in less than a month. For more information, visit www.watersmartsoftware.com.

About Irvine Ranch Water District

Located in central Orange County in California, IRWD provides water, wastewater, recycled water and urban runoff management services to a population of 340,000 in Irvine, Tustin Ranch, Portola Hills, Foothills Ranch, Santa Ana Heights, Orange Park Acres and portions of Lake Forest, Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, Orange and unincorporated Orange County.

About South Coast Water District

The District’s mission is to ensure reliable, adequate supplies of water for the community and the safe collection and treatment of wastewater. South Coast Water District answers to its owners -- the residents and businesses it serves in Dana Point, South Laguna and areas of San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano.

About the City of Newport Beach

The City of Newport Beach is located in the coastal center of Orange County, with Los Angeles County to the north and San Diego County to the south. As of late 2010, it has an estimated permanent population of 86,738 but during the summer months, the population grows to more than 100,000 with 20,000 to 100,000 tourists daily.