Plumbing Manufacturers International’s 2023 Annual Report, titled “Upstream, Downstream,” illustrates how plumbing manufacturers and allied industries contribute to solutions along the entire water value chain to assure access to safe, clean water for future generations. A brief video summarizes the report.

Including contributions from all of PMI’s 37 members, the report highlights their achievements relating to water efficiency, sanitation, hand hygiene, sustainability, green building and more. The report also explains how PMI highlights these innovations when representing members’ interests in technical, regulatory and legislative forums on issues such as water-efficiency standards, tariffs, counterfeit product protection and extended producer responsibility. By delivering value through its work with policymakers, PMI helps members to achieve further successes in a fair and open marketplace.

In letters prefacing the report, PMI Board of Directors leaders Sal Gattone and Martin Knieps and PMI CEO/Executive Director Kerry Stackpole encourage plumbing and water industry stakeholders to think holistically about water resources and to collaborate with policymakers to develop synergistic solutions across the entire water value chain.

“Water shortages around the world will come with increased expectations for us and other stakeholders along the water value chain to decrease water use,” Gattone and Knieps state. “However, as we face this challenge, we must approach it holistically by focusing policymakers’ attention along the entire water value chain, both upstream and downstream from where our products are located within residential, commercial and public buildings.”

While summing up PMI’s latest accomplishment in his letter, Stackpole also renews an ongoing conversation among members about the question of where the manufacturing industry can make the greatest environmental impact at this moment in time.

“The PMI Board of Directors gave a great deal of consideration to this question over the past year,” Stackpole stated. “After much discussion, the board decided to focus on how PMI and its members could contribute to sustainable water management through our Rethink Water initiative, as climate change and other factors cause water shortages.”

Rethink Water encourages systemic solutions and accelerated innovation

Creating a proactive water-saving scenario through PMI’s Rethink Water initiative will require industry leaders to spearhead a comprehensive and collaborative approach to water sustainability, in cooperation with government and various other stakeholders. This public-private partnership can drive a large-scale operation to achieve sustainable water management, spurring innovation and bringing a huge influx of jobs and manufacturing capabilities back to the U.S., the report explains.

The report emphasizes how dwindling water resources can be preserved through the enactment of systemic solutions and accelerated innovation. For example, legacy product replacement can quickly save significant amounts of water. Plumbing manufacturers have carried forward a long tradition of developing water-efficient, safe and durable products. The latest toilets, showerheads, faucets and other fixtures and fittings have built upon this history to achieve even greater water savings, convenience and environmental responsibility while delivering the safe and clean refreshment so essential to health.  

To solve seemingly insurmountable problems relating to water and sanitation, the plumbing manufacturing industry must take small steps. “The first of these steps is simply talking about the problem. These discussions lead to actions, first on a small scale, then on a larger stage as the evolution toward better water and sanitation solutions progresses,” the report states.  

Report summarizes PMI’s recent accomplishments

The report also summarizes PMI’s recent accomplishments, including:

• With calls for extended producer responsibility legislation arising in various states, PMI partnered with the leading packaging industry advocates – the American Institute for Packaging and the Environment (AMERIPEN) – to assure PMI members benefit from “over the horizon” insights about new legislation and compliance schemes on the drawing board. 
• With counterfeit plumbing products entering the U.S. marketplace through online venues, PMI filed complaints with the Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security’s Custom and Border Protection and with owners of various online marketplaces including Amazon. PMI also supported the recently passed Integrity, Notification, and Fairness in Online Retail Marketplaces (INFORM) Consumers Act to address the loopholes in online marketplace accountability. 
• PMI renewed industry opposition to tariffs on Chinese goods in comments to the U.S. Trade Representative and Secretary of Commerce. PMI continues to deliver frequent updates on tariff issues that first arose in 2019. 

Read more about how the plumbing manufacturing industry is meeting challenges upstream and downstream at https://www.safeplumbing.org/communications/pmi-annual-report-2023.