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Minnesota Twins goes Blue

I must admit that I root for the the Minnesota Twins rival the Chicago White Sox..but I am rooting for their water sustainability initiative. The Minnesota Twins home stadium will use a water recycling program that they project to reduce their freshwater consumption by 50%. This translates to 2,000,000 gallons of water per year.

The Minnesota Twins stadium is not the only sport facility looking to shrink their water foot print, the New Meadowlands, home to the New York Jets will cut the annual water use by 25%. And the University of Minnesota's new football stadium stormwater management system allows rain water to be captured into a comprehensive underground filtering system outside the stadium, where it is harvested, filtered and drained into the Mississippi River. This is in addition to water efficiency measures, such as regulated lavatory faucets and low-flow urinals, are expected to save 560,000 gallons of water per year. The low-maintenance landscape design should save 4.8 million gallons of water per year.

What is your favorite sports team doing to save water? Tell them you care about water conservation.

What are you doing to recycle water at home? I use the water saving buckets in all my sinks and shower stalls. The new styles now has one small enough for the bathroom sink. I am looking into adding a rainwater collection bucket outside.

Save water by the bucketful...or stadium full.

Posted by Florencia , 01.12.10 4.11 pm , comments(0) , permalink

A Walk to the Moon..and back

The women of South Africa collectively walk the distance of the moon and back 16 times each day on their search for water. This is according to Maude Barlow author of the Blue Covenant. I sit here typing this blog listening to the sound of my water feature in my back patio and know that when I am thirsty I easily walk to my kitchen faucet. This is not a reality for millions of people on this planet.

Water scarcity is something foreign to most people living in the U.S. but not for many. Consider our neighbors in Mexico that have mandatory rationing. The water is turned off for hours each day and in some neighborhoods in Mexico City for the entire weekend.

The choices we make each day from the length of our showers, to our food choices will shape the future of our water supply in the near and distant future.

Posted by Florencia , 09.16.09 12.39 pm , comments(0) , permalink

Gratitude for Water

Today I took my two youngest children to the creek by our home. Together we watched the steelhead trout gently swim and the snowy egret’s perfect reflection in the still water. I listened to the sound of water hit stone as it passed and my children’s giggles as they joyfully dunked their toes in the cold water. It is in these moments that I am reminded again of the magic of water. Water is the serum of life.

When I approach water from this place of reverence and gratitude it becomes impossible to waste water. We as a society do not waste what is viewed as valuable. Water, although plentiful is the most valuable--for without it--there is no life. The challenge for water conservation campaigns—as freshwater supplies run low-- is how to build a campaign arising from gratitude for water, rather than fear or guilt as many campaigns do. And we need to ask if the emotion of fear or guilt can sustain lifelong conservation habits?

My children are learning to be water conservationist. The youngest (2 years old) would happily perch herself over the bathroom sink and play with the running water. The only thing that gets her to turn the water off is fear of a consequence. This works for about one to two days before the emotion of pleasure overrides her emotion of fear. My middle child (3 going on 4) is reminded of water conservation from guilt. His older sister often can be heard telling him “your wasting water, turn it off” in her best voice laced in guilt when he turns the water on unnecessarily in the bath. This will work to get him to turn the water off, but he will take the action again after the guilt wears off or there is not a water conservation enforcer around. My oldest (6 years old) rarely if ever needs to be reminded to turn the water off when she brushes her teeth or wash her hands. She always takes short showers and collects water in a water bucket to reuse in the garden. Her water conservation is driven by the emotion of gratitude of water.

They have spent their short lives listening to my husband say the words "love and gratitude" before he takes the first sip of a glass of water, and they have heard me make connection between the health of our planet and water we use daily. On our coffee table sits the book Blue Planet Run where they see pictures of people around the world who do not have such easy access to clean, safe drinking water.

Our challenge as water conservation mangers, parents, educators, policy makers, entrepreneurs... is how to promote the message of gratitude for water. This is our challenge and one that I know we will answer collectively.

Posted by Florencia , 08.26.09 4.24 pm , comments(0) , permalink

I'll have 2500 gallons of water with my burger please

Our family is thinking of water conservation all day, every day. We take our short showers, we collect and reuse water whenever possible, and we even keep flushing to a minimum.  Now our water conservation is seeping into what we eat. The average person in the U.S. uses between 100-150 gallons of water per day with an additional 1300 gallons of water for industrial purpose (that is how much we eat, drink and wear, drive, use).

Everything has a water footprint...which is fancy way to say how much water was used to produce something.  To calculate the water footprint of meat for example you calculate the amount of water to grow and cultivate the feed, the water a particular animal drinks and bathes within its average lifespan. The higher up on the food chain an item is the more water it uses.  An enormous amount of water is used in the production of the meat we throw on the grill and serve up on our table.

Our family is not vegetarian. I joke that I am a fully recovered vegetarian since I was for many years. This is before I went to grad school in Chicago where I was lured from my plant-based diet by the aroma of the polish sausage at the White Sox games. My husband was thrilled and has continued to feed my meat eating habit with his cinnamon rubbed tri-tip cooked to perfection over the charcoal grill. But now our family is rethinking our diet--even my husband-- are beginning to rethink our eating habits. It is jaw dropping to learn for example that one 1/2 pound burger takes 2500 gallons of water to produce and that does not even consider the tomatoes, lettuce, bread and condiments.

We have not cut meat out of our diet, but we have reduced our weekly intake. We averaged about 2-3 times meat recipes a week...now we have reduced to 1 and sometimes we skip a week. We are now even more conscious about not buying more than we need.  And when we do purchase meat we purchase from our local farmers employing sustainable practices (no pesticides, antibiotics or hormones).  I have even deeper gratitude for the meat as I know how much freshwater is used to bring that meat to my plate. Our family meat reduction choice is not based on moral reasons or health reasons though they are great side benefits but our decision is based on WATER reasons.

Posted by Florencia , 08.10.09 11.36 am , comments(0) , permalink

Car Wash at home leads to runoff

The City of Seattle joins a small but growing number of cities and counties that are asking residents to hang up the sponge and bucket and take the car to the car wash. When we spray down our cars we send chemicals from the soaps, flecks of paint, oil, brake fluid etc. into our storm drains.  The run off from our cars lands in our streams, creeks, rivers and oceans and is harming aquatic life as soaps dissolve the protective mucous layer on fish and natural oils in the gills, making fish more susceptible to diseases. Even using biodegradable soaps is not enough as we can not prevent the drops of oil, antifreeze, copper shavings or break fluid from being washed of the car.

What you can do individually-- Take your car to the car wash.   Find out if your local car wash collects and reuses the water or find one that does. Ask your local car wash to begin using bio-degradable soaps if they don't already. If they hear it enough they will change to meet consumer demand.

What we can do toghether--Write your city council member and/or county supervisor to consider placing similar bans in your city/county.  Cities that impose this ban are not enforcing with the "car wash police" but rather using the ban to raise awareness. We all need to ask "what is in our run off?" if we are to keep our fresh water clean and blue.

Read more at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090710/ap_on_re_us/us_car_wash_runoff;_ylt=AgyYKh3GDL_niTN9VAMLTzVsaMYA

Posted by Florencia , 07.14.09 12.45 am , comments(0) , permalink

Protect Sea Turtles and Save Water

The turtle shower timers are helping conservation efforts of the sea turtle on the coast of Central America. Paso Pacifico www.pasopacifico.com is a non-profit organization committed to restore and conserve the natural ecosystems along Central America’s Pacific slope. They have partnered with eco-boutique hotels along the Central American coast to implement the Shorter Shower Program thru the installation of turtle shower timers. All the money raised from the sale of the shower timers to the eco-hotels is used to protect sea turtle habitats.

Posted by Florencia , 05.26.09 7.53 pm , comments(0) , permalink

Be the change...

All holidays provide an opportunity for reflection. Earth Day is no different for me. All day I have been reflecting on the many decisions I make and don't make that impact the health of our Earth. I also thought alot about what more I can do as an individual on this Earth.

"Be the change you want to see in the world", words left on this Earth by Mahatma Ghandi, take on even more meaning on this day. It is a reminder that complaining about what needs to be done does nothing to change the world. It is only in our "doing" that we make a difference, and when we join together in the "doing" then the changes are big.

Happy Earth Day.

Posted by Florencia , 04.22.09 11.51 pm , comments(0) , permalink