It doesn't take a porta-potty!

The Greenwash Brigade

Nancy Marshall-Genzer photo

My ears perked up when the Marketplace Morning Report ran a story this morning about the tri-state water wars and what people were doing to reduce their water use. I'm a bit of a water efficiency nut, and I feel like the issue is generally under-reported in the mass media. And unlike energy efficiency, which can be pretty complicated, water efficiency is easy.

So I was excited by the possibility that the story would identify some of the many state-of-the-shelf water efficiency measures that are available. Instead, they talked about a dental clinic in Athens that was using port-a-potties to reduce water use! While I can appreciate the intent, and the clinic is to be commended for trying to be more responsible, come on! Why not run a story with examples of all the new efficient and ultra-efficient plumbing fixtures that can yield significant water savings without the ick factor?

Waterless urinals use no water, utilize conventional plumbing waste lines, and have become 'standard' on many campuses, such as Arizona State University and Harvard. Dual-flush toilets allow you to select a 'half-flush' option for liquid waste. Sloan even makes an automatic dual-flush flush valve that decides how much water to use based upon the duration of your 'visit'. Simple low-flow aerators on faucets can significantly reduce water use. And all can be incorporated in a retrofit, as they utilize conventional plumbing.

In my experience, these three simple strategies in combination can cut restroom water use in half, without resorting to sticking port-a-potties outside your office. That's just gross.

February 15, 2008 by Jim Nicolow
1 comments

tags: water use

Comments (1)

Janne K. Flisrand | Respond
February 15, 2008 2:23 PM PT

Jim's right - water efficiency is EASY. But, there's another half to the story - the outdoors. According to the EPA, Americans use more than 7 billion gallons of water per day on landscape irrigation. About half of this is wasted.

Here, too, there are some very easy solutions.
1) water properly - not too often, and deep enough but not too long,
2) water early morning - when the water won't just evaporate,
3) tune the irrigation system to water the landscaping, not the driveway,
4) soil-moisture sensors and weather-based controllers avoid irrigating when it's raining or the soil doesn't need it.

Of course, I can't think about just water when it comes to landscaping. A lot more than water is wasted. The time (and money) maintaining it, gas mowing/blowing and trimmings, fertilizers.

For the people like me, there are other solutions. I've chosen to plant native plants that don't require water (or weeding, mowing or fertilizers) after they're established. There are some grass-like plants in this category. Between my native flower garden and hardy shrubs I use little water, no fertilizer, and my reel mower does the trick in 15 minutes.

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Meet the Greenwash Brigade

Our hand-picked environmental professionals, each part of the Public Insight Network, are on the hunt for "greenwash" as they examine eco-friendly claims by companies, governments and other groups. They ask tough questions about the mainstreaming of green, from the perspectives of people in the trenches who are focused on these issues 24/7.

Jim Nicolow is a nationally recognized expert on sustainable design and leads the sustainability initiative for Lord, Aeck & Sargent, overseeing the incorporation of sustainable design strategies and features into the firm’s design projects. He is a LEED® Accredited Professional with extensive knowledge of the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED rating system.

Janne K. Flisrand has worked as an affordable housing and urban planning research consultant for five years, primarily supporting local non-profits. Her focus is on transit, transit-oriented design, affordable housing, and sustainability. Currently, she’s the program coordinator for Minnesota Green Communities, a program promoting affordable, healthy, sustainably built housing throughout Minnesota.

Dennis Markatos-Soriano recently completed a Master's in Public Affairs at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School. He is now launching Sustainable Energy Transition (SET) to help individuals and institutions move from dependence on oil and gas to an efficient use of renewables. Previously, he co-founded SURGE (Students United for a Responsible Global Environment), which aims to bring young progressives together across issues of environmental and social justice throughout North Carolina and beyond. In the summer of 2006, he helped to start a small green company, Greenway Pedicabs, to provide a greenhouse gas-free transportation option for people in the Triangle of North Carolina.

Heidi Siegelbaum is a principal with Calyx Sustainable Tourism and works primarily on advancing sustainable tourism practices. She also specializes in science translation, cross-border indicators with Canada, cross-disciplinary planning and environmental technical assistance to businesses. Previously, she was in-house legal counsel for EPA for industrial chemicals and biotechnology and the senior performance measure analyst with the Washington State Department of Ecology. She is on the technical advisory committee of the Seattle Culinary Academy and a long standing member of the Chefs Collaborative.

NOTE: The opinions expressed by the Greenwash Brigade bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of American Public Media or its employees. American Public Media is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied by the Greenwash Brigade bloggers.

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