In August of 2026, the University of Wisconsin’s James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate released a detailed case study titled: Water Efficiency as a Competitive Advantage. The study findings confirm that ION’s End-to-End Water Management system delivers consistent and measurable returns for affordable housing property owners.
Researchers examined Dominium, one of the country’s leading developers of affordable housing, and their over ten year partnership with ION Water across its 40,000 affordable homes portfolio in 19 states. The properties where ION’s system was installed were shown to have cut water use by ~105 GBD to ~45 GBD and, when paired with rising utility rates, was shown to save Dominium an estimated $12M annually.
An analysis of 29 anonymized properties monitored by ION Water, reveals that Dominium water savings ranged from 16 to 52 gallons per bedroom per day (25th to 75th percentile), with a median reduction of 36 gallons. This is the equivalent to approximately 41% of pre-ION consumption. Annualized, this median reduction represents 13,140 gallons saved per bedroom. In a development with 100 bedrooms, that equates to nearly two Olympic sized pools worth of annual water savings
Researchers credit these results directly to ION’s real-time, unit-level leak detection technology. What they found was that invisible water failures primarily in running toilets, water heaters and other plumbing fixtures, not tenant behavior, was the main driver of water waste in these properties.
To learn more, read the full University of Wisconsin case study on how water efficiency became a financial advantage for Dominium through their partnership with ION Water.
