How to Make a Big Impact: Water

As we discussed a few weeks back in How to Make a Big Impact: Energy, with all the restraints put on people, money, time, access, the secret to making change may be to focus on the big stuff. So, if you only invested in one green initiative this year, what should it be? What actions make the biggest impact?

We started with energy, and in this installment, we tackle the issue of water. An object of abundance for some and a much needed, rare commodity for others, water is a huge part of our lives. Unlike energy, water is literally a necessary part of our daily survival.

It Does a Body Good

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, “Water is of major importance to all living things; in some organisms, up to 90 percent of their body weight comes from water. Up to 60 percent of the human body is water, the brain is composed of 70 percent water, and the lungs are nearly 90 percent water. About 83 percent of our blood is water, which helps digest our food, transport waste, and control body temperature. Each day humans must replace 2.4 liters of water, some through drinking and the rest taken by the body from the foods eaten.”

With such an important need comes a large demand. A large portion of  the world’s population does not have access to healthy, safe water. This lack of access for some makes water conservation and protection a priority for all.

Penn State professor Bill Sharpe compares the importance of water conservation to that of global warming or carbon offsets. Just as we look at our carbon footprint, we should also look at our water footprint. Not only does the amount of water used need to be considered but also the quality of what we return to our water supply in the way of pollution and chemical run-off.

“There are two kinds of water use: consumptive and nonconsumptive,” Sharp says. “Consumptive is when used water evaporates into the atmosphere, which reduces the quantity. Non-consumptive use is when water is returned to rivers, streams or aquifers as treated water, but it changes the quality.”

The Daily Drip

Now that we have water usage broken up into two major sections, taking time to explore how everyday consumers relate to the water usage is the next basic step. Although there are more issues surrounding water than just use, the consumer can have the largest impact on this particular issue by simply addressing what’s in front of them. So how much does the average U.S consumer, well, consume?

According to the American Water Works Association (AWWA), “Daily indoor per capita water use in the typical single family home is 69.3 gallons.” The amount can be further broken down into categories of use. For example, more than 21 percent of water use goes towards washing clothes or more than 13 percent of it is wasted with pipe/faucet leaks. The below graph, from Swivel.com, shows daily indoor per capita water use in the typical single family home in America.

But what do these numbers really mean? Is that a lot of use, a little or an average rate worldwide? More importantly, does it matter? Isn’t water everywhere? The truth is, water is an abundant resource, but not in the way we might think.

In fact, more than 70 percent of Earth’s surface is covered by water. That’s a lot of water, so what’s the issue? Well, if we look a bit deeper, we start to see that just having water doesn’t mean we have water to use. The Global Change Program at the University of Michigan states:

• 97.5 percent of all water on Earth is salt water, leaving only 2.5 percent as fresh water.
• Nearly 70 percent of that fresh water is frozen in the icecaps of Antarctica and Greenland; most of the remainder is present as soil moisture, or lies in deep underground aquifers as groundwater not accessible to human use.
• Less than 1 percent of the world’s fresh water (~0.007 percent of all water on earth) is accessible for direct human usage. This is the water found in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and those underground sources that are shallow enough to be tapped at an affordable cost. Only this amount is regularly renewed by rain and snowfall, and is therefore available on a sustainable basis.

It’s safe to say our supply is rather small to begin with. Add pollution and drought and you apply some heavy pressure to an already strained system. There are some big changes that need to occur to help alleviate these issues. For example, crop irrigation can waste as much as 60 percent of the water pumped before it even hits the crops. Although these issues need to be modified through regulation and industry overhaul, daily water usage by the consumer can, overtime, have an impact. Whether that impact is positive or negative is up to you.

What Does Less Look Like?

Let’s revisit the 69.3 gallons of water that most American households are using daily. What if everyone worked together to reduce that amount? This is where investments and consumer decisions come in to play. According to the AWWA, “By installing more efficient water fixtures and regularly checking for leaks, households can reduce daily per capita water use by about 35 percent to about 45.2 gallons per day.” This means some major reductions in the categories discussed above.

Get Started

Before any major investment occurs, checking out your Return On Investment (ROI) is an important factor. If you do decide that water conservation is the big step you want to take this year, check out EcoAcademy’s GreenandSave ROI Table.

For example, if you wanted to tackle the issue of faucets, GreenandSave explains that “low flow faucets have aerators in them to cut your water usage. These faucets use as much as 40 percent less water than conventional faucets, or about 2.5 gallons per minute compared to four.”

With its ROI Calculation based on four low-flow faucets, you can calculate the ROI for that new faucet in your kitchen, two bathrooms and wet bar. Below are some of the top items/projects to check out:

• Whole House Water Filters
• Clothes Washer
• Greywater – Small Scale
• Rain Water Collection
• Dual Flush Toilets
• Water Conservation/Retention Large Scale