A water conservation project in Dubuque, Iowa, was the inspiration for an award-winning program in Townsville, Queensland, Australia, thanks to an exchange program managed by ICMA.

In late 2011 and early 2012 Cindy Steinhauser, assistant city manager in Dubuque, Iowa, and Greg Bruce, executive manager of the Integrated Sustainability Services Department in Townsville, participated in a reciprocal exchange, visiting each other’s cities as part of the Sustainable Communities Fellowship Program funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and managed by ICMA.

During his visit in the United States, Bruce observed the initiatives incorporated into the Smarter Sustainable Dubuque program and established an ongoing relationship with city staff. In a blog post during the visit, he said he was “blown away by this tenacious, proud and inventive community.”

Smarter Sustainable Dubuque

Smarter Sustainable Dubuque is a public/private partnership between the city, IBM Watson Research Center’s Global “Smarter Planet” Initiative, and other key partners. Its goal is to provide residents and businesses with the information and tools they need to save money, conserve resources, and improve the local economy and environment.

The city and IBM targeted Dubuque’s aging water system as having potential to save water and energy. Using the city as a “smarter living lab,” IBM set out to develop and test new monitoring technology to analyze water usage and waste. In the development phase, pilot households tracked their water usage on a continuous basis to provide data that informed the design of a water conservation portal. During the nine-week pilot period, water utilization decreased 6.6 percent; leak detection and repair increased eight-fold; and 77 percent of the households reported greater understanding of their water use. 

Smart Infrastructure Award for Townsville

By coincidence, the city of Townsville had been awarded an IBM Smarter City Challenge well before the exchange visit took place. After Bruce’s return to Australia, and “thanks to many champions in the United States and Australia,” the water conservation portal was replicated in the city. And in March 2013 it won Infrastructure Partnerships Australia’s prestigious National Infrastructure Award for Smart Infrastructure.

Bruce has returned to Dubuque twice since the Fellowship program--once with Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill and again to present at Dubuque’s annual Sustainability conference, which attracted more than 500 attendees. He also attended the ICMA Annual Conference in Phoenix, along with Townsville chief executive officer Ray Burton.

A key to Dubuque’s success was combining technology with grassroots engagement. Through its community engagement process, the city sought and incorporated feedback from citizens during the planning, piloting, and implementation stages of the project.

Building Global Connections

Reflecting on the project, Dubuque city manager Mike Van Milligen said, "We knew that the priorities established by Mayor Buol and the Dubuque City Council which led to Sustainable Dubuque and Smarter Sustainable Dubuque were designed to create, in partnership with IBM and others, the technology for replicable models. The ICMA Fellowship program became the perfect conduit to connect this technology across the globe."

Cindy Steinhauser agreed: "The ICMA Fellowship program provided an excellent venue for our cities to exchange best practices around sustainability. As municipal employees, we hope that the work we are doing around sustainability is making a difference locally and perhaps nationally. We now know that our work is making a difference globally as well. That, along with lifetime friendships, is truly job satisfaction!"

To learn more about ICMA’s international programs, visit the ICMA International website, the International Development topic area in the Knowledge Network, and the International Dispatches and Notes from CityLinks blogs, or e-mail international@icma.org. To learn more about ICMA's sustainability projects and programs, visit the Center for Sustainable Communities website.