Note: This is the first in a series of reports on environmental stewardship projects by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The topics will include water conservation, waste management and solar energy.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is taking more steps than ever to conserve water at its properties worldwide, especially in drought-prone areas throughout Latin America, the Pacific, Southern Africa and the United States.
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“This is a topic, caring for the earth, that we have worked on for a long time. And so that’s not new, but there’s a new emphasis,” said Presiding Bishop Gérald Caussé.
“We are present in most countries around the world, and every country has their own challenges,” Bishop Caussé said. “It could be the lack of resources — lack of water, for example. And so, it is important as a Church that we address this, in its diversity, caring for the people in every country.”
| “We don’t have to be on-site to be managing these [smart] controllers,” said Pablo Morales, irrigation manager at Gold Medal Landscape Management in Mesa, Arizona, on Monday, January 27, 2025. Morales helps oversee the irrigation systems at Church meetinghouses in the area. 2025 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. | 7 / 10 |
Common practices and standards for Church meetinghouses to have more waterwise landscaping in arid regions worldwide include turf removal, transitioning to drought-tolerant grass and plant species, and installing technologies such as flow sensors and smart controllers to more efficiently water existing landscapes.
Smart Controllers
One significant project the Church will complete in 2025 is the installation of smart controllers at over 3,000 meetinghouses across what is known as the “pioneer corridor” of the Western United States, including Idaho, Utah, Arizona, and parts of Nevada, Wyoming, and Montana. The Church is accelerating its installation of these systems, with nearly 1,800 scheduled for installation this year.
“The smart controllers are able to adjust for the weather, so it ends up saving a lot of water that otherwise wouldn’t be saved when you’re doing manual adjustments on the controller,” said Andrew Stringfellow, Intermountain Facilities Services landscape manager.
With smart controllers, water managers can adjust the irrigation systems from their computers or mobile devices.
“They’re connected through a cellular connection, [which] connects it to a cloud service that checks that weather and makes those adjustments each day,” Stringfellow said.
“In comparison with traditional landscape controllers, they can help us utilize existing weather conditions, forecasted weather conditions, and change irrigation timing so that we’re most efficiently watering our plant materials,” explained David Wright, landscape architect of the Church’s Meetinghouse Facilities Department.
“When properly maintained and adjusted, it’s very easy to get them at 20% consumption savings over what a traditional controller would use,” Wright said.
“We don’t have to be on-site to be managing these controllers,” said Pablo Morales, irrigation manager at Gold Medal Landscape Management in Mesa, Arizona. “We’re able to sit at our desk, see any type of alert that comes up — whether there is a station not turning on, there is no flow, which means there is no water in the system.”
“I like them because they’re a lot more convenient,” added Ryan Arnold, irrigation supervisor of Gold Medal Landscape Management. “Before, we would have to drive around to all the churches to make any kind of adjustments. And now you can just pull them all up on your phone, laptop, or desktop and access them anywhere in the world, anywhere you have Wi-Fi or internet access.”
Wright estimates the Church will save 500 million gallons of water over the first full year of implementation.
Historic Temple Square
On historic Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah, millions of visitors from around the world gather on the grounds at the Church’s headquarters every year to enjoy the gardens and other attractions. As part of the ongoing renovations, ground crews have planted 30% more trees in the landscaping. There is also 35% less lawn, more water-efficient plants have been planted in the flower beds, and the number of annual flowers and plants has been reduced by 30%.
The new waterwise landscaping with smart controllers saves millions of gallons of water annually.
“We’ve got … specific settings for the turf, for the flowers, for the trees,” said Scott Karpowitz, irrigation supervisor of Headquarters Facilities.
“Everything has its own settings and its own parameters to give those plants the water that they need because quite often they’re different — different water needs for different plant material,” Karpowitz said.
