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Author: falconuser

MCBCE RECAP

IMG_0205Last Thursday, we joined our partner Sloan, at the Municipal Green Building Conference and Expo (MGBCE) in Downey, CA. The MGBCE brings together thought-leaders in green building and sustainability with municipal policy makers, policy implementers, leading architects, and engineers to further the development of a sustainable and energy efficient future for Southern California.

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The event was focused on raising awareness about drought solutions for the commercial restroom. Key Sloan water efficient products were discussed and featured at this event. Our Waterfree technology was accompanied by Sloan’s High Efficiency Flushometers and Fixtures, Dual Flushing devices and sensor faucets.

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We are always thrilled to take part in sustainability events such as the MGBCE. These are the moments we get to talk about things that are important to our company. The three pillars we once talked about here on the blog. Sustainability, Innovation and Hygiene. They are all intertwined and constantly work together to propel us forward in our journey. Whether it is investing in local communities, promoting environmental conservation, or developing products that reduce footprint, save water, cut back on unnecessary energy consumption.

More details on the event can be found here. If you are interested in learning more about our green story click here.

Falcon Gives Back Locally for Earth Day 2015

Falcon supports local community groups by hosting pop-up park in honor of Earth Day on April 25

 LOS ANGELES – April 22, 2015 – Falcon Waterfree Technologies is pleased to announce it is sponsoring an upcoming Free Lots Angeles pop-up park, through the work of Kounkuey Design Initiative, a core member of Free Lots Angeles. The group will transform a vacant lot located on Central Avenue and 41st Street into a thriving community hub. The one-day only pop-up park will be hosted a few days after Earth Day on April 25, 2015 and will feature adult and kids workshops, art installations, a Zumba class, live music and more from 10 a.m.–6:30 p.m.

“As a Los Angeles based company, we are focused on giving back locally and hope that this one-day park has a chance to become a permanent fixture for the community,” said Falcon Waterfree Technologies CEO Simon Davis. “Free Lots Angeles and KDI’s mission to improve underserved communities is commendable and we are honored to be part of it.”

Low-income communities in the City of Los Angeles lack access to green space amenities while hosting a vast network (over 7,500 miles) of streets and a surplus of city-owned, vacant parcels of land. Such spaces attract illegal dumping and other criminal activity, are blemishes on a neighborhood’s appearance, and deplete the positive self-image of communities.

Free Lots Angeles, made up of six Los Angeles based non-profit organizations in partnership with The 9th,Council District, The Mayor’s Great Streets Initiative and its primary funder, CA Endowment: Building Healthy Communities, noticed the excess of vacant land and the community’s desire to do something about it. By working hand-in-hand with the local community, this collaborative is helping to build a permanent space that fits the needs of the local residents and shows that parks do not have to be costly. Each Free Lots Angeles activation is the first step in a vacant lot’s permanent transformation process. The ultimate goals of Free Lots Angeles are to enable long-term transformation of vacant lots for community benefit, in the most resource-poor parts of Los Angeles, and to advocate for the policy change needed to make the transformation process feasible and more efficient.

The Central Avenue Free Lots Angeles activation will provide recreation, performances, art-making, learning, and civic engagement activities throughout the day in a transformed and beautiful environment. The one-day park is located on Central Avenue and 41st Street in Los Angeles and will be available 10 a.m.-6:30 p.m.  The park and its activities are free to attend and guests can RSVP on Free Lots Angeles Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/events/1036967489663858/.

 ABOUT FREE LOTS ANGELES

Free Lots Angeles is a coalition of 6 Los-Angeles-based organizations working together to help communities transform vacant lots in low-income neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles into neighborhood resources. Free Lots Angeles serves as a connector between residents and decision-makers for better utilization of vacant lots in a community, leads a community-driven planning process and acts as a production team for “pop-up” vacant lot transformations that reflect the vision of the local community, and enables long-term transformation of vacant lots for community benefit via policy change, guidance to implementers, and support to FLA members’ permanent projects. Its members include Community Health Councils, T.R.U.S.T. South LA, Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust, LURNetwork, Esperanza Community Housing Corporation, and Kounkuey Design Initiative.

 ABOUT KOUNKEY DESIGN INITIATIVE

Kounkuey Design Initiative (KDI) – a non-profit design and community developments firm that partners with people living in extreme poverty to permanently transform their communities and improve their quality of life. KDI partners with underserved communities in Africa, Latin America, and the United States to design and implement projects that improve the physical environment and simultaneously introduce new economic activity and social development opportunities. www.kounkuey.org

 ABOUT FALCON WATERFREE TECHNOLOGIES

Founded in 2000, Los Angeles-based Falcon Waterfree Technologies is the market leader in the waterless urinal market. Falcon has offices in 6 countries and distribution affiliates in more than 50 nations, including marketing partnerships with some of the world’s best known urinal and washroom products manufacturers such as Sloan Valve Company, Bobrick Washroom Equipment, Corona, Ideal Standard and many others.  Falcon urinals are in use worldwide in entertainment venues, educational facilities, airports, restaurants, office buildings, and many other types of commercial and governmental facilities. Falcon urinals use a patented cartridge system that can save an annual average of up to 40,000 gallons / 151,000 liters or more of fresh water per urinal. Falcon urinals eliminate most related sewage costs, reduce carbon emissions by eliminating the energy needed to transport water and sewage, and are up to five times more hygienic than flush urinals. Falcon is privately owned by entities of Mapleton Investments and Capricorn Investment Group.  For more information visit www.falconwaterfree.com.

 

EARTH DAY CELEBRATION

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On Wednesday, we celebrated Earth Day at out L.A office. We started the day with our very first Twitter Party and we’re excited to say is was a success! Our B Corp friends at Badger Company created a collection of the conversation if you care to read. After the hour long online engagement, the Falcon team came together to BBQ and garden. Needless to say we had a great time!

As a part of our celebration we are pleased to announce the sponsoring of an upcoming Free Lots Angeles pop-up park, through the work of Kounkuey Design Initiative (we wrote a blog post about them here), a core member of Free Lots Angeles. The group will transform a vacant lot located in Downtown LA into a thriving community hub. The one-day only pop-up park will be hosted Saturday, April 25, 2015 and will feature adult and kids workshops, art installations, a Zumba class, live music and much more. We are focused on giving back locally and hope that this one-day park has a chance to become a permanent fixture for the community. Free Lots Angeles and KDI’s mission to improve underserved communities is commendable and we are honored to be part of it.

If you are looking for an Earth Day event to attend in Los Angeles, come join us from 10 a.m.–6:30 p.m. at Central Avenue and 41st Street in Downtown Los Angeles.

We’ll see you there!

WE’RE HOSTING A TWITTER PARTY!

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We are so excited for Earth Day next week and I am sure you are as well! In order to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the event, we decided to organize a party. Even better, a twitter party. This way people from different parts of the world can participate. A Twitter party is a brief and engaging virtual conversation that uses a hashtag (ours is #OurEarthDay) to bring people together to discuss a specific topic. Our party will last one hour and will be a great way for like-minded people to connect and create community.

As mentioned above, the theme for this party is Earth Day’s 45th anniversary.This could be the most exciting year in environmental history. The year in which economic growth and sustainability join hands.The year in which world leaders finally pass a binding climate change treaty.This is our time to come together and take action in regards to climate change. Our intentions for this twitter party is to engage with our friends and followers in a conversation around environmental issues and how businesses can come together to ‘do good FOR the world.’ And of course to have fun!

The party will begin at 11 am PST with a brief introduction. Then Falcon will pose 10 questions (one every six minutes) designated with Q1, Q2… to prompt responses from participants (you and your followers) using A1, A2…

If you are on twitter follow us @shuttheflushup and come join the party! Send us an email at mhodges@falconwaterfree.com to get the details. Don’t forget to use the #OurEarthDay to be apart of the fun.

Tweet you there!

35% CUT FOR CALIFORNIA

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Can’t say we didn’t see this coming. With the current state of the drought it was a matter of when and not if. Therefore, when Governor Brown announced the mandatory statewide water restrictions last week, we weren’t surprised to see it hit the media in full force.

In an aggressive push to reduce water usage statewide, California regulators are proposing that the biggest urban water users cut consumption by as much as 35% over the next year. California’s cities consume 178 gallons per person per day, on average. That’s 40 percent more than the per capita water consumption in New York City. Pretty crazy!

Brown’s mandatory statewide water restrictions is the first in California’s history. And the timing makes perfect sense. The state of California endures a fourth year of drought and with Groundwater levels in some areas have plunged, causing the ground to sink it shows the magnitude of the situation. Farmers have been cut off on irrigation deliveries, which has forced thousands of acres of inactive cropland. Some small communities have ran out of water, and while reservoir levels are higher than last year, the mountain snowpack, which provides about a third of the state’s water supply in normal years, is at a record low.

With the mandatory cuts, water districts are offering rebates for home and business owners to retrofit appliances. This comes as an incentive since after Brown’s announcement, California Energy Commission approved standards for water efficient appliances. The standards require water appliances to consume less water thereby using less energy while performing the same function and it ranges from low flow toilets, waterfree urinals to kitchen and lavatory faucets.

The drought has never been so evident as it is today. It is all around and affects every aspect of our daily lives. But the challenges faced bring to surface discussions and changes that are long overdue. We can blame it on climate change, misuse of water supplies, or all the above. But one thing is clear, it is not going away and we have to alter our relationship with water.

STORY OF A RETROFIT: WATT PLAZA

Hey guys, welcome back!! Today is the third post of our monthly series where we show before and after pictures and a few stories behind our installations. Today we are changing it up a bit and instead of just featuring pictures, we are going back to when the drought wasn’t so predominant in the media and telling you how Watt Plaza initiated a sustainable change within office buildings in Los Angeles. Let’s get right to it shall we?

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Back in the summer of 2007, the city of Los Angeles started a conversation surrounding water. Local residents initiated water cuts and were on board with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s conservation goals. Local water agents such as the LADWP encouraged water savings by providing rebates – this was when Watt Plaza made the decision to retrofit their bathrooms with waterfree urinals and led the way to create a more sustainable Los Angeles.

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Using the rebates available they were the first class A office building in the city to retrofit a total of 88 waterfree urinals!

The interesting thing about this story is that up to 2007, it was not possible to install waterfree urinals in high-rises and large venue buildings. However under the direction of Mayor Villaraigosa, the Department of Building and Safety amended the building code to finally allow for water saving fixtures to be installed in locations such as the Watt Plaza, the Staples Center, Hollywood Bowl, and Dodger Stadium.

What a great initiative indeed! Since the first Falcon Waterfree urinal was installed, our products have saved an estimated 20+ BILLION gallons (75+ BILLION liters) of fresh water from being flushed down the drain! Imagine what we could accomplish together if the City of Los Angeles used the LADWP rebates?

Until next time.

 

HEALTH AND WELLNESS IN GREEN BUILDINGS AND COMMUNITIES IN CHINA

china-wellOn the week of March 27th, the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) and the International WELL Building Institute, announced the new WELL Building Standard implemented in China. It is a “performance-based standard to improve the health and wellbeing of Chinese” citizens, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Chinese people are facing with an increased environmental awareness and are actively looking for solutions to improve the quality of life in the country.

“Our world today is confronting massive health challenges that are assaulting our complete physical, mental and social wellbeing,” said Rick Fedrizzi, CEO & founding chair, U.S. Green Building Council. “As these challenges continue to mount, all of us have an obligation to be more purposeful when addressing how human health relates to our built environment. The WELL certification program is a powerful way to accelerate better, healthier buildings throughout China.” The WELL Building Standard is a performance based system that measures, certifies and monitors features that impact human health, through air, water, nourishment, light, and comfort.

If you stop to think about it, we spend most of our time inside buildings. If these are not monitored closely, things like air quality, can have a huge impact on our health and productivity. With this new standard, China can make a positive impact in the quality of the built space it has and by extension, the environment and the people around.

Read more here and here.