Clayton Albuquerque Develops Water-Saving Innovation to Help Combat Drought in Southwest

As water becomes more scarce in the American southwest, Clayton Albuquerque has developed an innovation to save over 100 thousand gallons of water a year.

The southwest is considered one of the more sensitive regions in the world for increased risk of drought caused by climate change. In New Mexico, droughts are expected to worsen in the next half century, making water an even more precious resource. It’s important for residents and companies to be wise with their resources. Clayton Albuquerque recognizes the importance of being efficient with water and, thanks to innovation from their own team, have found a way to drive change in the local community.

Clayton Albuquerque builds 11 homes a week and drywall and painting tools need to be cleaned to ensure quality construction for each new home. Cleaning these tools requires water. Horacio Serrano, Clayton Albuquerque’s process improvement coordinator, and his team saw this process as an opportunity for innovation.

Previously, the facility used fresh water each time they cleaned the drywall mud and paint tools. But thanks to team members inside the building facility, Clayton Albuquerque designed and engineered an in-house process to filter the water used to clean the tools three times before it is directed to the municipal wastewater system.

The process begins with the painters using the clean water from the first station to wash their tools (paint brushes, paint buckets and rollers) inside the facility. The water is collected in a receptacle placed underneath their washing basin. When the water from the basin underneath the clearing station is full, the water is pumped out into a separate water storage receptacle. From that point, waste and water are separated into different areas and the filtered water is returned to the clean water storage.