Blue is the New Green: 3 Water Conservation Sites You Wanna Check Out!

by Vicki Zambito

According to the EPA at least 36 states will face water shortages by 2013, which means the need to conserve water is becoming more and more critical. Everyone in the design and construction industry—as well as consumers—should take steps to reduce water consumption and increase sustainability. Below are three websites devoted to helping you learn how to save water.

WaterUseItWisely.com has a list of 100 ways to conserve water. And it deserves to be said that each way begins with you! The site also has a cool widget you can add to your own website. The Conservation Tip Widget displays a new tip each day of the month, so your site visitors can keep up with ways to save water.

http://www.wateruseitwisely.com

Kohler’s Save Water America website is presented through a partnership with Habitat for Humanity. The site includes a list of water-saving resources, a 90-second quiz to see how water smart you are, and an interactive map of the U.S. It also keeps a running count of all Kohler’s water-saving product donations to Habitat for Humanity.

http://www.savewateramerica.com

H2OConserve.org is an online source of tools and information that enables you to make water conservation part of your everyday life. It includes a water footprint calculator that calculates the amount of water you use in and around your home throughout the day, including the water you use directly and indirectly.

http://www.h2oconserve.org

Wanted: Clean Energy

by Jeff Nippes

Earth Day is just around the corner. How are you planning to celebrate? Earth Day is held annually on April 22, and this year’s theme is “A Billon Acts of Green”. That is a great theme, and a billions acts of green would certainly be a tremendous accomplishment. However, until we get serious about clean and renewable energy, it will remain little more than a novelty on a global scale.

Call it coincidence or irony or just bad luck, but Earth Day again coincides with an environmental disaster. Last year as we were celebrating the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, we were also creating the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. The Deepwater Horizon oil rig had just exploded, and though we didn’t know it yet the gulf was about to absorb the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry.

It seems as our technology increases, the danger we present to our planet increases as well. This year we have an ongoing crisis in Japan in the form of a potential nuclear meltdown. This disaster is a little different, since it was created as a side effect from a massive earthquake and not just carelessness or faulty equipment. Still, the common theme is energy. We need clean energy, we need safe energy. Drilling 10,000 feet below the surface and nuclear fission are both dangerous businesses. Oil is a fossil fuel and nuclear energy produces toxic byproducts and harmful nuclear waste that takes centuries to degrade. Our nuclear byproducts literally are a ticking time bomb.

Here on Earth we have the technology, but we need vast improvements in safe, clean renewable energy. We need solar, wind, biofuels, and tidal power. Humans have made some headway, but our renewable energy programs are still just a drop in the bucket compared to how much we spend on developing and researching traditional, non-renewable energy sources such as oil and coal. In the immortal words of Chief Brody, we’re “gonna need a bigger boat”.