It’s the most wonderful time of the year… but not without the perfect Christmas Tree. The feeling of heading out to a Christmas tree lot, walking through the freshly cut pines and claiming your favorite is definitely a memory most people have of the holiday season. It may vary depending on where you grew up – maybe you cut down your own tree, or you had a row of artificial ones to pick from – but the feeling is mutual when it comes to claiming your favorite and taking it home to decorate with your family.

California’s prolonged drought has wreaked devastation to agriculture across the state. So it shouldn’t come as any surprise that its Grinch-like ways have also struck at the fort of holiday tradition — our beloved Christmas tree. Christmas tree growers across the state are struggling with growing issues as a shortage of rainfall has caused some varieties of trees to dry up or grow at a much slower pace. This has been forcing many tree farmers to import Christmas trees from out of state, mostly from Washington and Oregon. Since they need a lot of water, it has become nearly impossible to grow them in California.

Maybe the drought won’t make a difference for consumers, but if they seem a little off this year, you can blame the drought. The lack of rain is making the centerpiece of the holiday shorter than normal, and they may not stand as tall and poised as you would want them to.

There are still plenty of things we can do to help save water: give back this holiday season, save water in your house and place of business, shop local and sustainable.  

 

On November 20th, the city of Los Angeles controller released an audit which laid out all rebate options available from the Department of Water and Power conservation programs and which ones are the best bang for your buck.

Even though, we have all seen plenty of turf programs in the media, it so happens that they saved less water per dollar spent than any other rebates offered. The research done by the city controller comes to show, that the money spent for rebates on items such as high-efficiency appliances yielded much higher water savings.

What this means is, the city should be focusing more on water infrastructure and technology investments, such as waterfree urinals and high efficiency toilets. These programs will achieve longer sustained and more cost-effective water savings for Los Angeles. It may be something that doesn’t really cross your mind on a daily basis, but your water usage in the bathroom is very significant and can be decreased with a simple product upgrade.

The city’s water conservation efforts goes beyond reacting to the current crisis, but rather changing the way we think and use water forever more. Changing the way we do our landscape is now proven as a minuscule piece of the puzzle, and even though it has initiated a healthy educational conversation  on water usage, it shouldn’t be considered the last step we should take.  With substantial rebates still available for fixtures and the Mayor’s Audit Report now public, we encourage everyone to take advantage of our high-performance water conservation products, available through Sloan Valve Company, that provide long lasting water and monetary savings.

On November 10, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the Los Angeles Better Buildings Challenge (LABBC) Drop 100 campaign, an initiative developed to save 100 million gallons of water per year by increasing water efficiency in commercial buildings across the City of Los Angeles. Drop 100 promotes high-impact water saving technologies, some of which are unique to commercial buildings.

“I’m proud to partner with the L.A. Better Buildings Challenge, and our city’s business community, to help our commercial buildings get even smarter about water conservation,” said Mayor Garcetti.

Drop 100 is an expansion of the Save the Drop campaign for residential property owners. The LABBC has partnered with the Mayor’s Office, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator, an the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce to develop a focus on large commercial buildings, which account for 19 percent of water use within the City – that’s how Drop 100 came together. We are thrilled about it and can’t wait to work towards and promote all the amazing things that will come out of it.

Read the full press release from the mayor’s office here.