The Toro Company, a leader in water-efficient innovation, is one of the first large irrigation manufacturers to be honored by the EPA.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently honored The Toro Company with a 2015 WaterSense Partner of the Year award. Toro was recognized at the WaterSmart Innovations Conference in Las Vegas on October 8 for significant contributions in product innovations to improve water efficiency and for its efforts in promoting the WaterSense® program in 2014.

Toro was selected for its development of innovative weather-based controllers – many of which are WaterSense-certified for efficiency. The company also was recognized for its team of sales and marketing experts that have dedicated themselves to educating customers on the benefits of smart irrigation practices and technologies.

"Toro is dedicated to water-saving innovation that meets our customers' needs and promotes the efficient use of water," said Phil Burkart, company vice president. "We are proud to have our efforts toward water smart irrigation and outreach recognized by such an important national agency."

By creating, communicating and educating consumers about WaterSense labeled products and programs, WaterSense partners helped consumers save 346 billion gallons of water in 2014 alone – more than the amount of water used by all households in Texas for a year.

Additionally, the WaterSense program has helped reduce the amount of energy needed to heat, pump and treat water by 146 billion kilowatt hours, which is enough energy to supply a year's worth of power to more than 13.3 million homes. More than 1,700 utilities, manufacturers, retailers, builders and organizations partner with the EPA in its WaterSense program.

For more information about WaterSense, visit www.epa.gov/watersense.