Denver Zoo in Colorado has just been named WateReuse Customer of the Year at the 2011 WateReuse Awards ceremony in Phoenix, Arizona.

The WateReuse Association, with its slogan of "sustainable solutions for a thirsty planet", is an international nonprofit organisation committed to sustainable uses of water.

There were 11 categories at the awards ceremony, but it was Denver Zoo that caught my eye. They’ve recently scored what I believe the Americans call a "double whammy", having recently won the Association of Zoos and Aquariums "Green Award Top Honour for Sustainability".

Working with Denver Water the zoo earned the award for its many water saving and water recycling projects.

Recycled water is used for washing down the animal enclosures and in the animal swimming pools, and soon the new Asian Tropics exhibit will include more than one million gallons of recycled water in swimming pools for the elephants, rhinoceros and tapirs. The zoo has also developed systems that enable recycled water to be consumed by certain species.

The zoo currently uses approximately two million gallons of recycled water a year but in the long term it plans to expand the use of recycled water to 90% of its total water consumption; a massive 162 million gallons of recycled water annually. That might keep the elephants happy.

[Image: MacKinnon Photography]