Water is big business. Just five beverage companies consume enough water over the course of a year to satisfy the daily water needs of every person on the planet. Of course, we may not be able to control how much water is put in a can of soda or a beer (less water, more alcohol, please) or the amount it takes to make paper, but we can control our own use at the workplace and even influence those who manage supplies.
It may not be our nickel that gets spent on the utility bill at work, but the gains are certainly ours when we reduce the corporate water footprint on the planet. Water prices are poised to rise due to increased water stress, and corporate growth is expected to be impeded as resources dwindle. Make no mistake, all of this comes out of our paychecks in one way or another.
Twenty percent of the world’s water supply goes to support industry. That’s twice as much as is used to support municipal supplies for our personal use. Sometimes we forget how many resources we use at the office itself. Many of us spend as much time at work as we do at home. Even if we aren’t showering there, we can still use a lot of water throughout the day.
The average workday in the United States is 8.7 hours. We spend 1.1 hours a day drinking and eating, and up to 1.75 hours per week in the restroom (ladies spend just 1.4 hours). If we scale that back, per worker, by even a few cups per day on the front end and a few flushes on the back end, the savings would amount to more than 2 billion gallons of water. And that is about as much bottled water as Americans drink over the course of a whole year; profligate use, for sure.
Solutions abound in the workplace. Here are a few more:
Use a glass or a mug instead of a paper cup at the water bubbler when you drink and gossip about last night’s reality TV show episode. It takes more than 6 gallons of
water to make just one of those tiny 3-ounce cups.
How many times have you found that someone has left the faucet running in the restroom? Custodians report that it happens as often as 10 times per week. That’s 2 to 3 gallons wasted every minute. I’m all for employees washing their hands before leaving the restroom, but they could turn off the faucets. Infrared sensors overpower mindlessness; these sensors can be adapted to any faucet and save as much as 70 percent of the water used in the typical hand washing.
Ordering too much food at the office just creates massive waste. The water it takes to grow and make food is exponentially more than the amount that’s in the food when you eat it. Think about that the next time you are weighing your plate at the salad bar. Half of all the food purchased in the United States becomes garbage. Tossing out just a leftover piece of chicken can waste 115 gallons of water.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Water For Life And/Or For Money
It occurred to me as I was having my morning coffee that I advise readers in The Green Blue Book (www.thegreenbluebook.com) that it may take several cups of water to brew a cup of coffee, but it takes 37 gallons to actually make the coffee for that cup. “The water it takes to grow the coffee outweighs the water it takes to make a cup,” I write.
I left something out. Who makes and how the coffee is produced are crucial to water savings around the world. No, I am not talking about you in your bathrobe standing in front of your coffeemaker. I am talking about the companies responsible for producing the coffee that ends up in your cabinet.
Coffee growers that embrace fair trade principles ensure your buzz comes from plantations that practice sustainable, socially responsible coffee farming and that means better quality and more responsible use of water.
Starbucks, of course, is the brand that jumps to mind for many of us when we think about coffee. Yesterday, I was given some information on what steps it is taking to reduce its water footprint not only in the field, but also in stores.
On a gallons-per-square-foot of store space, Starbucks has actually reduced its water usage by about 10% over the last two years. And it’s done so by some relatively simple steps. It uses more efficient dishwashers, better coolers to reduce ice melt, and is mandating that all new stores be LEED certified, which will reduce by the equivalent of two households worth of water-use the total amount of water each store uses.
I found this really interesting. It wasn’t some techno savvy and cost-intensive operational program thought up by some fancy consulting firm. The savings came in practices we can all adopt: filling our dishwashers and using them instead of washing by hand (saving a household 2,300 gallons of water per year). Or not letting the ice cubes in our freezers melt away so quickly. (That means preventing little Jimmy from opening and closing the freezer door a lot.) Savings from one tray of cubes across every household in America: 10 million gallons of water.
Simple steps add up, whether on a corporate basis, or individually.
Businesses and we as consumers can combine our efforts to shore up water supplies. In the end, we need each other. As a wake up call and reminder to that: The top five beverage companies use as much water on an annual basis as the entire world’s population.
We both share in the planet’s water supply and we both have vested interests in keeping it sustainable: for life and/or for money.
I left something out. Who makes and how the coffee is produced are crucial to water savings around the world. No, I am not talking about you in your bathrobe standing in front of your coffeemaker. I am talking about the companies responsible for producing the coffee that ends up in your cabinet.
Coffee growers that embrace fair trade principles ensure your buzz comes from plantations that practice sustainable, socially responsible coffee farming and that means better quality and more responsible use of water.
Starbucks, of course, is the brand that jumps to mind for many of us when we think about coffee. Yesterday, I was given some information on what steps it is taking to reduce its water footprint not only in the field, but also in stores.
On a gallons-per-square-foot of store space, Starbucks has actually reduced its water usage by about 10% over the last two years. And it’s done so by some relatively simple steps. It uses more efficient dishwashers, better coolers to reduce ice melt, and is mandating that all new stores be LEED certified, which will reduce by the equivalent of two households worth of water-use the total amount of water each store uses.
I found this really interesting. It wasn’t some techno savvy and cost-intensive operational program thought up by some fancy consulting firm. The savings came in practices we can all adopt: filling our dishwashers and using them instead of washing by hand (saving a household 2,300 gallons of water per year). Or not letting the ice cubes in our freezers melt away so quickly. (That means preventing little Jimmy from opening and closing the freezer door a lot.) Savings from one tray of cubes across every household in America: 10 million gallons of water.
Simple steps add up, whether on a corporate basis, or individually.
Businesses and we as consumers can combine our efforts to shore up water supplies. In the end, we need each other. As a wake up call and reminder to that: The top five beverage companies use as much water on an annual basis as the entire world’s population.
We both share in the planet’s water supply and we both have vested interests in keeping it sustainable: for life and/or for money.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Home Is Where The Water Is
I used to daydream in the shower, letting my mind fog over like the bathroom mirror fogged with steam. Then I became aware of how much water I was wasting with every extra minute I stood there.
Now it’s as if I shower at the Bates Motel: I’m in and out quickly. Many of us mindlessly waste water, either because we are just fogging out or because we really don’t know any better. A home-based
education on water is what we need. And here’s why: Our homes are where we use the most water in our lives. The average household in America uses about 400 gallons of water per day. That can easily be cut to less than 100 gallons by doing a few simple things. Here are some tips culled from The Green Blue Book (www.thegreenbluebook.com):
In the bathroom…
Turn off the tap when you brush your teeth. Do as your dentist recommends and brush your teeth three times a day, and, tap running, you’ll likely use about 5 gallons of water. Turn off the tap, and you could use as little as a few tablespoons. If every American did this, the savings after just 1 day would be as much as all the residents of an average-size state use in 21⁄2 days.
In the kitchen…
Don’t always believe the box when you cook. It only takes 11⁄2 quarts of water, for instance, to cook a pound of pasta, whereas most instructions say it takes between 4 and 6 quarts. Considering that we cook a billion pounds of pasta per year in the United States, the water savings could equal a billion gallons as well.
In the living areas…
The number one plant killer is overwatering. Professional gardeners claim that most indoor plants are overwatered by 90 percent. Most plants only need to be covered in 1 inch of water per week. The savings from just one plant in every household could flood the country.
In the laundry room…
If you wash clothes by hand, don’t. It’s the 21st century. Washing and rinsing just one garment by hand can use as much water as a whole load in an efficient washing machine: 20 gallons.
Bottom Line
Check the time. Every minute a faucet runs, you use several gallons of water. If it’s an older device, you’re likely using three times that amount. No matter, get a low-flow device and save about half the water you’d normally use.
More accurately measure the amount of water you use. Whether it was for a plant, some pasta, or a pot of coffee, leftover water can’ t be saved for another day; it’ s wasted. Bad math is bad for the planet. Count the drops correctly.
Embrace technology. Sure, you save more when you use a dishwasher versus washing by hand, and the same hold true for your car; go to an automatic car wash and save 100 gallons compared to your own hose-and-bucket job.
Friday, February 12, 2010
How Much Water Are You Wearing?
The Green Blue Book Blog
How Much Water Are You Wearing?
Right now I am wearing 5,178 gallons of water. It took 569 gallons to grow the cotton and manufacture the material for my t-shirt, 1,247 gallons for my sneakers, 2,866 gallons for my blue jeans, 244 gallons for my socks, and 252 gallons for my boxers.Through what we wear, consume, and use on an annual basis each of us in the United States on average is responsible for 656,000 gallons of water. We use more than ten times as much water per day as some one in the developing world.
We can easily trim our use, and that is what my new book, The Green Blue Book: The Simple Water-Savings Guide to Everything in Your Life is all about. It is the first “water-neutral” book ever to be published (we are replenishing all the water it took to print the book), and it is the most comprehensive guide to the virtual water footprints of hundreds of items, from bananas to boats. Virtual water is the embedded water in things. It also provides actionable solutions to help avert the water crisis we are facing today and for decades to come.
Swap out a veggie burger for a hamburger, for instance, just once and save hundreds of gallons of water. It takes more water to produce meat than vegetables. Drink water from the tap instead of a plastic water bottle and save 3 liters of water. It takes three liters to make a one-liter plastic bottle. Add up the cumulative effect of these changes and millions of gallons of water can be saved.
Simple solutions that are easily adaptable into our daily lives are what can change the direction of the water supply chain away from drought and toward sustainability. And the first step toward that change is awareness. That is why I am so happy to be a strategic partner with the Dow LiveEarth Run for Water campaign.
Throughout the world on April 18th when Dow LiveEarth run/walks will be held in more than 60 cities, people will be compelled to wake up and do what they can to address the water crisis facing us today.
Meanwhile, in this space I’ll be blogging weekly about the concept of virtual water and water savings of all types -- unique ways that we can shift our thinking about water use – and take action.
Fifty percent of all the water in the United States is used to create electricity. So there’s another reason to shut off the lights when you leave the room.
Thomas M. Kostigen is a New York Times best selling author and journalist. The Green Blue Book hits bookstores in time for World Water Day, March 22, 2010. www.thegreenbluebook.com
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