Sustainability in Action: What’s wrong with this picture?

Sustainable design practices impact many of the routine things that we do. Things like southern alignment of a building on a lot, the selection of windows and building materials, waste water and rainwater runoff from sites, and how we plant our gardens or crops for improved growth without damaging the ecosystem.


The work being done here is an example of an effort that promotes increased, not decreased, use of electricity due to the complexity of the flow path from the pump.

The team is putting three 90* turns in the pump’s flow path through its piping run. This drastic change in direction increases the load on the system and makes the pump motor work harder, using more electricity and increasing the heat (due to resistance) exposure experienced by the motor, which will reduce its life-cycle.


A less resistive flow path for pump discharge lines will allow designers to use smaller motors for their systems, again reducing the electricity used to accomplish the desired work. Long curves and softly angled paths, instead of 90* turns that create a ‘head’, are much more in line with sustainability of resources.

The savings gained by these reductions, even on small systems, adds up. And on big systems where gradually angled flow paths reduce or eliminate significant back pressure the savings are able to reduce or even erase the costs involved in system upgrades.