2018 Sustainability Challenge: Save Water

February challenge: save water, take shorter showers.

What's better than a long hot shower on a cold winter day? But hot showers represent one of our biggest home energy and water wasters: "showering drives almost 17 percent of water use in homes, and an average American family uses some 40 gallons of water per day in the shower. This amounts to 1.2 trillion gallons of water in the United States each year, says EPA, “enough to supply the water needs of New York and New Jersey” over the same time period. If 20 percent of that is wasted, well, you’re talking about over 200 billion gallons, in a world where gigantic states (California) and megacities (Sao Paulo, Brazil) are suffering from drought and water scarcity problems are expected to become still worse in the decades ahead. What’s more, because water coming out of shower heads is supposed to be hot water, showers are also energy hogs. They’re typically one of the largest drags on  the hot water heater in the home, and water heating itself accounts for almost 17 percent of total home electricity, according to the Department of Energy." (source).

This month, try limiting your showers to five minutes or less, and skip a shower every now and then. It's good for your skin in the dry winter air and it's good for our planet! Let us know your record for your shortest shower of February by using the hashtag #sustychallenge2018 on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram or commenting below!