Sometimes even the simplest ideas can create wonders. Let’s have a look at compilation of surprisingly simple yet brilliant water conservation initiatives taken in housing society, school, hotel and manufacturing industry.
In this article:
- Every school should implement this surprisingly simple idea!
- This hotel made their guests feel guilty
- How thirsty are your clothes?
- What happens when entire housing society comes together?
1. Every School Should Implement This Surprisingly Simple Idea!
How schools are combating drought with this simple but highly effective idea!
You don’t have to be a well-known brand/personality with big budget, highly creative campaigns to create awareness about any issue.
Sometimes, even simple and small-small things can make a huge difference.
Many schools in drought affected Maharashtra (India) were facing many problems due to water scarcity.
- They had no water to mop and flush. Hence the school hygiene was compromised.
- Watering the plants was out of question. They had to close down their kitchen garden project and school lawns/gardens had dried up.
- Due to a limited budget, availing of water tankers on regular basis by spending thousands of bucks was not possible.
That’s so bad!
But you will be really amazed to see how these schools implemented this simple but highly effective method to solve their issues.
What they did was really simple:
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They observed:
School’s estimated that, children generally have approx. 200 ml of water left in their bottles at the end of the day. Most of the times it gets thrown away once they reach home. Then why not collect it? It makes a perfect sense. This way, approx. 300-400 litres (80-105 gallons) of water would be saved every day.
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They worked out a simple plan:
Schools installed buckets/drums at their exits.
At the end of the school-day, students were encouraged to pour out all the water left out in their bottles into the drum.The collected water was used to water the plants and clean the school premises.
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They went one step further:
Only conserving water was not enough. Schools wanted to create more awareness about it among the students.So, the schools appointed few students to be a part of a ‘water conservation squad’, which keeps a lookout for leaking or open taps all day (especially after recess and at the end of the day).
Special badges were made and pinned on their uniforms to make these students feel special and to create more excitement about this initiative.
Pros:
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Cost effective:
As the collected water was used to water the plants and clean the school premises, schools were able to save thousands of bucks on ordering potable water tanker.
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Productive utilization of water:
With the availability of water, all trees and bushes are now in good shape. Students can harvest tomatoes, carrots, lady fingers, spinach and many such vegetables under kitchen garden program.So, the water, which would have otherwise gone waste down the drain is helping them grow food.
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Creates awareness:
This initiative is not just helping to save water but also creating awareness about importance of using water among young impressionable minds of children, and making them realize that even small efforts can make a huge difference in long run.
Wow! That’s like killing many flies with one blow.
The plan was really simple.
And the outcome was really awesome!
If all the schools in various drought affected areas can implement this simple yet powerful idea, the impact could be tremendous.
Or, I would say, no matter if your school is big or small, or even if you have a plenty of water supply, each and every school should implement this system to make future generation more aware of the importance and seriousness of this issue.
2. This Hotel Made Their Guests Feel Guilty
A Simple Sink Liner Is Enough To Make You Feel Guilty About Wasting Water
When people pay for expensive suites in a luxury hotel, all they think about is the comfort, relaxation and enjoyment. But do they ever think about saving the water, or at least using it carefully?
No…I don’t think so.
At least, most of us don’t.
That’s why in June 2015, leading toothpaste brand Colgate teamed up with famous hotel chain Marriot to highlight Brazil’s water crisis.
They wanted to remind guests of the country’s water shortage by alerting them not to waste precious water while brushing their teeth.
What they did was really simple yet effective.
- Wash basins of the hotel rooms were lined with an image of a Brazilian child standing in a parched field, longing for water.
- The placement of the palms aligned with the drain of the basin.
- The liner also had a message saying, “The water you waste is the water they need”
- So, every time guests left the tap running while brushing their teeth or washing their hands, they could see the water draining from the child’s hands.
You can also see the video here
This simple yet brilliant concept made the guests feel guilty every time they used the basins, reminding them of the water they have been wasting that could be used by millions who are suffering because of the water crisis.
No wonder, they started using water more carefully, even when they reached their home.
3. How Thirsty Are Your Clothes?
Popular American denim brand – Levi’s has innovated new ways to manufacture clothes with less water.
Do you know how thirsty your apparels are? I mean how much water they consume in their entire lifecycle?
Any guesses? No?
You will be amazed to know the whooping amount of water required to make a single pair of jeans.
So, if you calculate the environmental impact of every step in the life cycle of your clothes, from growing cotton to manufacturing and a consumer doing laundry, it can take as much as 2,700 liters (approx. 713 gallons) of water to make a cotton t-shirt, while jeans can gulp down almost 10,000 liters (approx. 2642 gallons) of water per pair.
That’s terrible!
How it started?
Garment finishing is the last step in making a product. It generally involves a water-intensive wet process to create a unique look.
When Levi’s analyzed a pair of Levi’s 501 jeans in 2007, they realized that single pair of jeans had 3,781 liters of ‘embedded’ water.
They also realized that their ways are undermining their own long-term access to our world’s precious natural resources.
So, they challenged themselves to make this process less water-intensive without affecting the looks we all love.
Their production and development teams spent years developing a list of alternative yet effective methods to eliminate, combine, or reduce one or more wet processes and reduce the massive water footprint.
They came up with a set of 20+ innovative finishing techniques called Water<Less®, that use 96% less water than traditional methods.
How cool is that!
But this was not enough for Levi’s. They wanted more, something large enough to change the world for better. So, they started many really great initiatives. Let’s have a look at them.
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Open-sourcing Water<Less® innovation:
Levi’s knew that water scarcity is becoming one of the world’s greatest challenges. If we can involve others, we will have even greater positive global impact.So they invited 20+ competitors to their innovation lab and shared all their water-saving practices with them in an effort to learn and improve.
Different versions of this technology exist in manufacturing clothes with less energy and water.
Sportswear manufacturers like Adidas and Nike, have embraced ‘waterless dyeing’ technology which reduces water use to almost zero.
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Re-purposing and recycling old clothes:
When you’re done with your jeans and jackets, you can now drop them off for recycling at a Levi’s store.Levi’s has started repurposing such old used clothes by embellishing them a little bit, and reselling them as vintage Levi’s.
If the cotton is recycled, it can massively reduce the amount of water needed to produce it. Hence, the company is also developing ways to recycle old cotton clothes into new denim.
An initial prototype, which used five old cotton t-shirts to make a pair of jeans, used 98% less water than virgin cotton.
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Influencing consumers:
Levi’s has also been trying to influence consumers, by changing the regular care tag to ‘wash less, wash cold, line dry, and donate when no longer needed.’
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Encouraging good practices:
The company buys cotton from the farmers who use less water as well as pesticides and encourages them to produce organic cotton.
Pros:
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Saves water:
As the name suggests, Water<Less® techniques uses much lesser water than conventional techniques.
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Cost effective:
Less water needs comparatively lesser energy to heat it, so such products actually save production costs.
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It’s good for the environment:
Recycling and re-purposing extends the life of the product, which otherwise would have ended up in the landfills.
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Looks are not compromised:
Although the process has changed, the end result remains the same. So, you can still wear the jeans you love, with the same old finishing and look.
Cons:
- This technique may require more up-front investment for alternative setup and new technology.
- The technique may require additional labor and training sessions.
Impact:
Levi’s has made millions of Water<Less® products since launching the initiative in 2011, and has been saving billions of liters of water in the process.
4. What Happens When Entire Housing Society Comes Together?
Your Housing Society Can Save Hundreds of Liters of Water Every Day. Here’s How!
Everyone wants their car to look shiny like brand new one (or at least better than their neighbours). Isn’t it?
Giving your car a shower can take average 7-10 buckets (approx. 100 liters / 26 gallons) of water —and even more if you are being extravagant with your hose pipe.
So, a small city with 10,000 cars is estimated to use one million liters of water for car washing alone.
That’s huge!
And sadly this water mostly ends up down the drain.
Can we do something about it?
How many cars do your office / housing society has? Can you imagine the horrific wastage if you combine the figures?
One of the environment conscious residents called Adhinarayana Rao from Bengaluru (India) based housing society took it on himself to make a change. What he did was simple yet brilliant.
How it started?
Adhinarayana noticed that most of the residents use RO water purifiers.
RO water purifiers are notorious for wasting water. There are very few water efficient water purifiers available in the market. Still, Almost all the RO water purifiers reject huge amount of water during the purification process. The ratio of clean and waste water is (1:3).
Which means 4 litres of water is used to get 1 litre of purified water; out of which 3 litres of water is expelled out.
This water is unfit for consumption and generally finds its way down the drain. Just imagine the combined amount of wastage per day per city. That’s shocking, isn’t it?
That’s why Adhinarayana took it upon himself to save water. He floated an idea in which each apartment could collect the rejected RO water and use it for non-drinking purposes.
What he did?
1. Convincing residents:
Adhinarayana spoke to individual members of the society and explained his idea to them.
It was a tough task to convince everyone. Initially the response was not that great. This was mainly because the residents were:
- Not ready to commit anything immediately
- Reluctant to do the additional work this would involve
- Not sure about the end results
But he kept on trying. Slowly, the idea caught on with the residents.
2. Collecting waste water:
Adhinarayana purchased buckets and left them at the corridors for residents to use.
Housekeeping staff started collecting rejected water from the floors to a common point; where large drums were installed to collect it.
Further, the housekeeping staff started using the rejected water for cleaning the floors and washing cars instead of using fresh water.
3. Boosting enthusiasm and keeping the spirit alive:
Every day, the residents are informed about the amount of water collected via their WhatsApp group. This helps them see the impact that they have directly created.
Impact:
Their society started saving approx. 500 litres of water each day. Their water bills also got reduced.
This was just for one society. Just imagine the quantity of water we all can save with our combined efforts!
What can you do?
- You can start a similar system in your housing society / office to utilize waste RO water.
- Start a social media campaign to encourage other societies to follow your lead.
You can use this water for:
- Mopping the floor
- Car wash (washing cars everyday is unnecessary, and highly wasteful. Please keep that in mind. Using bucket and a wet cloth instead of hose is always better to minimize the wastage)
- Flushing your toilets
Avoid using it for:
- Washing kitchen utensils (the water is not drinkable, remember?)
- Daily laundry (delicate fabrics may not react well to the TDS content and other materials in the water)
- Watering your gardens (some of its contains may not suit some plants. But you can always use it for grass)
I am sure such initiatives can create positive awareness about water conservation and motivate people to reduce wastage of water.
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Reference:
- https://www.thebetterindia.com/53168/school-children-maharashtra-simple-idea-save-water/
- http://creativity-online.com/work/colgate-the-water-savers/47084
- https://www.dnaindia.com/world/report-watch-colgate-comes-up-with-brilliant-sink-liners-to-compel-users-to-save-water-in-brazil-2213231
- http://www.thestable.com.au/yr-and-red-fuse-3rd-times-the-charm-for-colgate-psa/
- http://www.eco-business.com/news/6-water-saving-innovations-to-celebrate-this-world-water-day/
- https://www.levi.com/US/en_US/blog/article/how-we-make-jeans-with-less-water/
- https://www.fastcompany.com/3057970/in-its-quest-to-decrease-water-use-levis-is-open-sourcing-production-methods
- http://www.levistrauss.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Open-Source-Water-Innovations.pdf
- https://www.thebetterindia.com/179778/bengaluru-apartment-save-water-home-hacks-summer-india/