Using standardized evaluation metrics to demonstrate collective statewide impacts of diverse water conservation programming

Although the diversity of Florida Cooperative Extension landscape water conservation programs creates evaluation challenges, it is possible to measure their impacts as a whole. We conducted pilot testing of a statewide evaluation strategy and identified behavior changes resulting in an average monthly water savings of 3,257 gal and utility bill savings of $10.78 per participant. Here we explain the approach we used, providing details about underlying research on water conservation practices and technologies, standardized metrics for demonstrating environmental and economic impacts of behavior/technology adoption, and reporting tools. A focus on statewide impacts based on standardized metrics can be extremely valuable to U.S. Extension professionals.