Causecast

Tanaka‘s tip of the day: My mom always stressed 5 minute showers and now I know why (it wasn’t to shorten my shower karoake sessions either)!

As I watch the trailer for Flow, I can’t help but wonder what my fellow Causecast team and I can do to prevent unnecessary water loss. I collect my thoughts and brainstorm ideas…in the office I know we have aerators on our bathroom faucets and low-flow toilets…this makes me happy. I am glad we have brought it up to make sure we fill the dishwasher completely before running it. The main goal, in and out of the office, is to make sure we aren’t running water when we don’t need to. It’s just so easy to forget! For instance, when we wash dishes we lather up those plates with soap and tend to forget the water we are wasting before finally rinsing them off. I can point the finger at myself for this, but I’ve seriously been noticing it and trying to stop myself. I see it done at my other job a lot, and I have ran over to turn off the faucet plenty of times while running a few words by my coworkers. The first time I am nice, but the next few times…I turn into the Hulk! Or maybe sharing this visual water meter will help others’ get an idea of where we’re at in the struggle to save water. I saw the severity of the problem first hand when I went to Lake Mead a couple of years ago. It was crazy to see where the water line was and where it dropped down to; it had to be around 30-feet or more. Crazy!

So maybe we should just read up on ways to save water in the office and at home together. You can even hint to your boss that installing some WaterSense Products throughout the building might be a brilliant, and thrifty, idea.

Don’t forget that saving water also includes using the right cleaning products. If you save your greywater while washing dishes or extra runoff from a shower, make sure any soap you use is natural and nontoxic or else saving that extra water is useless!

So what can you do with the extra water that you heroically saved from the gutters? You can quench your garden’s thirst! Having native plants in your office or home will also help conserve water, because in LA, for instance, native plants and grass that need to be watered less frequently. You can also look into alternative sprinkler systems that could mean water savings for you.

Do you see water runoff on your neighborhood sidewalks due to leaky sprinklers? Are people leaving their hoses on while washing their cars? Or are your local restaurants serving you water even when you don’t request it? If you tend to be non-confrontational, you can give them a friendly nudge to change their wasteful ways by having someone else confront them for you! Don’t worry they usually get a friendly warning first, but to report any water wasting situations just call 1-800-DIAL-DWP.

Passionate about water saving solutions in your area or around the world? Get involved! Organizations like Drop in the Bucket and charity: water try to find a ways to fight the water crisis in developing nations.

Photo by Reiner Schubert, flickr.