I happened upon the Environmental Protection Agency’s new “Wasting Water is Weird” campaign this week, and the only thing more surprisingly unsettling than the campaign spokesman is the thought that the EPA brought him to life.
Who’d expect this Jim Carey-meets-the-strange-dude-rocking-the-bad-hairstyle-driving-his-mom’s-Pinto-at-the-end-of-the-cul-de-sac guy coming out of the feds to help promote water conservation?
But I like the creepiness. Because when you really think about it, wasting water is pretty weird. I mean, we’d never let the tap on a beer keg run freely. But we don’t think twice about letting the water run from our kitchen faucet to answer the phone. Which liquid is going to sustain your life longer?
This campaign captures that thought in a disturbing way. Kudos to those bureaucrats that made water conservation interesting and fun.
You can follow Rip the Drip on Facebook and on Twitter @RipTheDrip, with creepy green gym shorts and all.
Several people urged me to follow-up on Oprah’s request.
The Oprah Winfrey Network is looking for stories about people that are making a small change with a big impact, especially as it relates to, of all things, water conservation. Now that’s a niche I know well, given our Water – Use It Wisely campaign, and it’s the reason so many people pushed me to submit a story idea.
Unfortunately, I had to deal with a colonoscopy before I could video tape and write my 2,000 character submission (I used 1998 of the characters). It went out today. Their website gently broke the news to me that I had missed the deadline. Dang it.
So given all of the work that went into my story, I thought I’d at least share it with you. After you read it, and if you think we should be on Oprah, forward it to her show.
How “Water – Use It Wisely” Surfaced in Mesa, AZ, and Became a World-wide Movement
Fifteen years ago, the City of Mesa’s water conservation department had an urgent need to educate their residents about conserving water, but had almost no money to create a campaign. The answer to their dilemma was hiding in a consumer survey. Residents said, “Don’t tell me to save water. Show me how.”
With that unique insight, a revelation hit us. If we could create a universally accepted campaign based on showing people how to save, then perhaps Mesa could get other cities and states to share in the creation of the campaign and use it themselves.
So we took simple, everyday objects that you wouldn’t normally connect with saving water, and made them the hero of our campaign. A toothbrush, for instance, became water-saving device #54, which begs the question, “How can a tooth brush save me water?” It’s an “environmental prompt” that reminds you to turn off the water when you brush and you’ll save around 5 gallons every time. A broom is water-saving device #15. Sweep your driveway or patio, and you’ll save approximately 80 gallons. Water-saving device #1 is people. After all, if we don’t take action the 100+ other water-saving devices won’t work.
Thus, “Water – Use It Wisely” was born with the call-to-action, “There are a number of ways to save water, and they all start with you.”
Cities in Arizona and the state were quick to join the campaign. Our sustainable marketing firm, Park&Co, matched our water partners’ investment dollar-for-dollar with in-kind contributions of creative and production services. We began attracting other states, water municipalities and private utilities. They tapped Water – Use It Wisely’s proven universal appeal and co-branded it with local efforts at a fraction of the cost of creating their own campaign. The campaign, now in its 12th year, is the largest water conservation effort of its kind in the world with more than 400 private and public partners.
Home Depot and Lowe’s have used the campaign to educate their customers about water-saving products and the 100+ ways to save water featured on our website.
In 2006, US AID asked for our help to teach the Turks about how to create and launch a water conservation campaign on Cyprus.
It’s quite an achievement to take a struggling water conservation program in Mesa, Az, and turn it into a world-wide movement. You’ll see what I mean if you simply search, “Water conservation,” online.
You can now listen to Wednesday’s, “Your Triple Bottom Line” show
I shared my green marketing ideas on “Sustainable Storytelling” over the airwaves as a guest on the radio show, “Your Triple Bottom Line.” Show hosts Angelo Fernando and Derrick Mains, CEO of Green Nurture, and I announced the launch of a unique partnership between GreenNurture.com and the Water – Use It Wisely conservation campaign.
We discussed proven ways to engage your employees through sustainable storytelling, coupled with the Green Nurture online platform to encourage behavior change.
Seven storytelling strategies on “Your Triple Bottom Line”
What is the “Three Sunflower” analogy for green marketers in identifying and targeting your audiences when promoting environmental behavior change? “How sustainable is your sustainability message?”
Donna DiFrancesco, Water Conservation Specialist for the City of Mesa, AZ, is also featured on the show and covered the operational ways businesses can save water.
Derrick Mains said of the water conservation partnership,
“Water is one of the most overused resources, and it’s costing businesses millions of dollars a year. Thanks to the Water-Use It Wisely campaign over the last ten years, people have become much more water-conscious in their homes. Now it’s time to extend that mentality to the workplace. This partnership gives GreenNurture an intelligent, effective way to bring important information to our customers about water conservation and adds yet another layer to the Water-Use It Wisely mission.”
You can listen to the show now and call into future shows with questions toll free at 866-536-1100. You can also Tweet your questions to @your3bl.
“Your Triple Bottom Line” is a show that unpacks some of the more complex ideas in sustainability. We bring on some of the leading voices in business who make sense of the social, ecological and the economic threads that runs through business. We get them to put aside their talking points, step out of their corporate speak, and have real conversations with us and you our listeners.
That subtle drip……….drip……….drip………. coming from your bathroom faucet never seems like it amounts to much. Sure it’s an occasional annoyance when you hear it. But do you have any idea how much water and money is going down your drain?
You’ll be shocked.
Want to know what that leaky faucet is costing you? There’s now an app for that.
A simple new iPhone/iPad app. called Drip Detective lets you quickly find out how much that dripping faucet is costing you. Drip Detective is only $1.99 at the iTunes store, and it could save you hundreds of dollars.
There are two easy ways to determine the rate of your leak with this app.
Simply tap the screen each time a drips falls from your faucet. After four our five taps, Drip Detective determines the average drip rate. You input the cost per gallon of water from your water bill, and it calculates how much money is going down your drain.
If you have a fast leak, you can measure by volume.
Drip Detective supports both Metric and American volumes, and totals your water and dollar waste by day, week month and year.
In think Drip Detective is one of the easiest, most practical apps. available for understanding the impact of what may seem like an inconsequential waste of water. It’s a water conservation tool that will help you achieve savings that will really add up.
To learn of other ways to save water around your home, take the Water – Use It Wisely interactive Home Water Challenge.
Water not only sustains life. It quenches a lifestyle thirst. When its use is abused, it can vanish. And with it, the life around it evaporates.
This withering of water is captured in the stark yet beautiful photos of Gigi Cifali’s series, “Absence of Water.”
You can feel the former living, breathing character of these now derelict lidos and baths in the United Kingdom through the architecture, which feels as though it’s frozen in time. The decided absence of one element – water – is what has lead to their ruin.
Through her photo essay, Cifali hopes to “express the importance of water” as an “element of regeneration for the human spirit.”
