As the hurricane season begins to bring torrential downpours from Texas through the Southeast and up to the mid-Atlantic states, it makes folks forget that wide swaths of the country are still suffering through persistent drought and low levels of water supply. While agriculture, power generation and other industrial uses account for a large portion of water consumption in the U.S., the built environment is responsible for a significant portion. Outdoor water use accounts for nearly 30 percent of the 26 billion gallons of water used in the U.S. Indoor water use both for domestic water and heating and cooling makes up the other 70 percent; a statistic to which every commercial building in the country contributes. Needless to say, facility managers can have a tremendous impact on water use and water conservation.

Fortunately, many water savings opportunities are low cost or no cost. None of them are rocket science, and the vast majority can be handled in house. What follows below is my top 10 list of no-cost and low-cost strategies for reducing water use both in and outside your buildings. If you are doing some of these already — great! If you are doing them all, you're far ahead of the game and congratulations on the efforts. If you're doing nothing yet, you'll appreciate the minimal financial cost associated with these ideas. So, without further ado …

Tommy Linstroth's Top 10 Water Saving Tips for Commercial Buildings

1. Separately meter your irrigation

As simple as this sounds, I've been to way too many commercial buildings that do not submeter their irrigation. This is important for two reasons: First, if you don't know how much water you are using for irrigation, how can you measure your savings? Having that baseline water consumption will allow you to not only track your savings,