Promoting Water Conservation in a way that Conserves Water: Energy Products Articles: Eco20/20

Promoting Water Conservation in a way that Conserves Water

Mark Elis
Institute for Sustainable Communication

With Earth Day rapidly approaching, companies are planning their events now. They will spend a lot of money on activities, media and materials to promote their recycling and conservation initiatives. Unfortunately some of their materials will harm the very resources they hope to protect. Meanwhile, beyond the media spotlight, two small non-profits are advocating water conservation in a way that actually conserves water.

Their weapon of choice is a T-shirt made from 100% recycled PET plastic water bottles. The ubiquitous corporate T-shirt is an ideal way to promote water conservation, since regular cotton T-shirts use enormous quantities of water. It requires an estimated 400 gallons of water to make the cotton for a single T-Shirt, while recycled PET shirts actually save water. Using cotton T-shirts to encourage water conservation is counterproductive at best and hypocritical at worst.

The problem needs attention. Over 1 billion people lack safe drinking water and 75% of the world's water is out of reach in glaciers or deep aquifers. The earth's limited available water supply has circulated continually in a closed loop for thousands of years. While the earth's population is growing, our supply of non-polluted water is shrinking.

Blue Planet Network and ECO360 Trust are two non-profits that pursue water understanding and conservation from different directions. Blue Planet Network (BPN) raises awareness of the water problem and provides opportunity for the public, foundations and corporations to coordinate global relief efforts. ECO360 Trust focuses on the medium, by getting companies to use print and digital media more sustainably. Together, they form a combined tactical approach to environmental sustainability, which must be comprehensive in order to work.

BPN's main innovation is the Peer Water Exchange (PWX), an online platform connecting the critical participants in global water projects. PWX is a participatory decision-making system to select, fund, manage, monitor and share grassroots water and sanitation projects transparently.

BPN's public community ("Team Blue") organizes and participates in events to promote water understanding. One athlete, Katie Spotz, crossed the Atlantic solo by rowboat in 2009. To better match their message with the medium, BPN recently teamed up with ECO360 Trust to produce sustainable recycled e360t shirts for Team Blue athletes, fundraisers and volunteers.

The e360t shirts are made from 100% recycled PET plastic water bottles. Each shirt prevents three plastic bottles from being disposed in landfills, and saves 8 gallons of water from being polluted with the dyes and pesticides that are used to grow and process cotton. The shirts are sewn by American labor at fair wages, and the proceeds from the shirts pay for college scholarships for low income students.

ECO360 Trust is a campaign of the non-profit Institute for Sustainable Communication. The Institute teaches sustainable business practices to marketing professionals. The ISC helps companies keep their green and sustainability policies consistent with the way they are communicated using print and digital media. The ISC uses ECO360 Trust shirts to raise money for education by using an inexpensive and universal item to help companies and non-profits put sustainability into action.

Using water saving methods to promote water conservation shows that sustainable communication matters. Non-profits can use their limited resources to protect other (natural) resources with cooperation and creativity. If the PWX is an international tool kit, then the e360t shirt is another useful tool. Blue Planet Network and ECO360 Trust easily reinforce each other's efforts.

Companies buy T-shirts because they are cheap and visible. But if every penny counts in a tough economy, then every gesture should count too. For anyone who has attended a major charity event and witnessed the visible waste of food, water, electricity or paper, these contradictions are glaring reminders that the message and the messenger need to be in sync.