Community Archives - Falcon Water Free

Sloan and Falcon Team Up to Donate to the Orthopaedic Institute for Children

Here at Falcon, we believe in using the power of our business and products to help the planet and everyone on it thrive. Today, we are delighted to announce a donation made in conjunction with our go-to-market partner Sloan, the world’s leading manufacturer of commercial plumbing systems, to the Orthopaedic Institute for Children.

Both companies are donating and installing Sloan’s industry-leading water conserving fixtures in every restroom at the hospital, valuing a total of $25,000 for 40 low flow faucets, 16 high efficiency toilets and 15 waterfree urinals. This complete restroom retrofit will not only upgrade the facility with the best restroom technologies available to market, but will also provide beneficial water savings, cutting the cost of the hospital’s water bill in this time of serious water scarcity.

“We could not be more excited about giving back to our community and as a water conservation technology company; we are thrilled to be assisting such an amazing institute in Los Angeles save water during this ongoing drought,” stated President and CEO of Falcon, Simon Davis. “Together, with Sloan, we are enabling an establishment essential to our community to reach water conservation goals that are imperative during this drought.”

Like the Orthopaedic Institute for Children, Sloan, the leader in high efficiency water and energy solutions, has been committed to bringing quality to those we serve for 110 years. Sloan products connect the systems that manage our planet’s most precious resource and are built to last.

“Sloan is proud to work with companies like Falcon Waterfree Technologies that share our passion for a sustainability to bring smart, cost-saving restroom products to the Orthopaedic Institute for Children,” said Parthiv Amin, Vice President of Marketing, Sloan. “We appreciate the value the institute brings to our community, and it is critical we raise awareness and commitment to the water conservation effort for our children and our children’s children.”

About FALCON

Founded in 2000, Los Angeles-based Falcon Waterfree Technologies is the sustainability and technology leader in the development of water conservation solutions for the commercial restroom. Follow Falcon on our Blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and on YouTube.

About SLOAN

Sloan is the world’s leading manufacturer of commercial plumbing systems and has been in operation since 1906. Headquartered in Franklin Park, Illinois, USA, the company is at the forefront of the green building movement and provides smart sustainable restroom solutions by manufacturing water-efficient products such as flushometers, electronic faucets, sink systems, soap dispensing systems, and vitreous china fixtures for commercial, industrial and institutional markets worldwide. Follow Sloan on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and on YouTube.

Greenbuild 2016

Greenbuild is coming to LA! And we cannot be more excited! In case you have been hiding under a rock, Greenbuild is the world’s largest conference and expo dedicated to green building. The three-day long gathering promotes networking opportunities, industry showcases, LEED workshops and tours of the host city’s green buildings.

The event also provides the opportunity to visit more than 600 suppliers and top manufacturers of the latest green building equipment, products, services and technology available in today’s market and over 200 educational sessions.

Additionally, Greenbuild committee develops a roster of events to complement the conference and expo. This year, attendees can participate in:

Greenbuild Film Festival, which screens documentaries, films and informational videos.
The USGBC Leadership Awards Luncheon that recognizes outstanding individuals and organizations committed to advancing green building design, construction and operations.
TalentFX is a green job fair
The Women in Green Power Breakfast is a gathering for sustainability leaders who are shaping the green economy to mentor and motivate new leaders.
The GBCI Certification Work Zone is a place for project teams to interact with GBCI project reviewers.

Greenbuild is more than your average conference. To minimize Greenbuild’s their environmental impact, they meet seven objectives:

In order to move toward a zero waste event, the organizers created a waste bin makeover and The Walter E. Washington convention center achieved an 84% waste diversion

To increase the stakeholder education and engagement, the Greenbuild Team engages attendees around sustainable practices from the time they register and select a hotel to helping them plan public transportation to the airport for their flight home. The team also works with TripAdvisor, who recognizes hotels that implement sustainable practices with a free certification.

In 2015, the Greenbuild Team accomplished to eliminate materials like vinyl and polystyrene from their show design.

Greenbuild also improved their waste performance tracking.

In 2014, the event has become the largest US conference to be 100% carbon neutral.

Greenbuild has been positively impacting communities through their Urban Food Garden and Women in Green Power Breakfast.

Finally, the conference has been catalyzing the advancement of green building initiatives and sustainable operations within the hospitality industry.

You can check out their full 2015 Sustainability Report here.

Still wondering if going to Greenbuild is for you? Falcon Waterfree Technologies would be there! Come and meet us on October 5^th-7^th,2016!

What is SMURRF?

As a company, founded on the principle of ecological conservation, we love to learn more from other-like minded parties and their pioneering water saving solutions to comply with California’s strict conservation measures. Thanks to Joel Cesare, Sustainable Building Adviser for the Office of Sustainability and Environment in the City of Santa Monica, we learned about Santa Monica Urban Runoff Recycling Facility, also known as SMURRF.

This project is the first one in the nation and perhaps the world that was designed to treat the water that originates from the streets of Santa Monica.

In Southern California, most runoff water comes from excessive irrigation (leaks and overspray), spills, construction sites, pool draining and car washing. All these wasteful activities discharge polluted water into the storm drain system. The water then flows directly to the ocean without any treatment, becoming one of the largest sources of marine pollution.

The treatment process includes 5 steps:

1. Screening trash and debris: The incoming water goes through a rotating drum screen that removes trash and debris.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R6gHwFLutY]

2. Grit Removal: The spinning action in the chamber forces small particles of rock, sediment and sand to sink down.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpU3ylUvEWk]

3.Oil and Grease Removal: The Dissolved Air Flotation or DAF Unit injects dissolved air and a coagulant to the pressurized water to remove oil and grease particles.

4. Micro filtration: In this process, the water goes through a plastic microscopic membrane that blocks all the remaining sediment impurities.

5. Disinfection: Until there are more restrictive water quality standards, this is the final treatment process. Water is exposed to ultraviolet radiation, and the completed recycled water cascades into the 250 000 gallon sub level storage.

6. Reverse Osmosis: In the future, water would be pushed through a semi-permeable Reverse Osmosis Membrane to make it drinkable.

Once treated, the water is delivered to a number of city and private customers such as the Santa Monica Freeway, City of Santa Monica parks, the Woodlawn Cemetery, RAND Corporation and public school grounds. Dual-plumbed customers include the City of Santa Monica’s Public Safety Facility and the Water Garden located at Olympic and Cloverfield.

SMURRF would not be complete without its artistic and educational components. Visitors have a complete view of all the equipment and processes to treat the urban runoff water, and in several locations, the water is exposed to the open air to allow visitors to see the water treatment process.

Santa Monica is building a more sustainable long term infrastructure plan to protect its water resources by combining revolutionary technologies with water efficient ones, such as the Hybrid and Waterfree Urinals.

Click here for more information about SMURRF

*Special thanks to Neal Shapiro, Watershed Management Program Coordinator.

BabyLisa Project: UPDATE

Here at Falcon Waterfree Technologies, we believe in harnessing our power of our business to tackle complex social problems. We align our sustainability initiatives with goals for a broader audience, and by using business as a force for good we are helping our society move towards a future with clean running water for every child and family. On World Water Day (March 22nd), we announced our partnership with DigDeep on the BabyLisa Project, and as part of our Earth Week’ celebrations, we want to give you an update to this campaign.

In America, Baby Lisa is one of the hundreds of thousands of children living in water poverty. She was born with microvillus inclusion disease, a life-threatening condition that prevents the absorption of nutrients from food during digestion, resulting in malnutrition and dehydration. Since her family’s home does not meet sanitation requirements and does not have access to running water, she is forced to live in a medical facility three hours away from her home, located in the remote Arizona desert.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaNi6i7v74U&feature=youtu.be]

Today, Falcon Waterfree Technologies is proud to announce our donation of all the plumbing fixtures – a gift worth over $4000 to the family of Baby Lisa. We have also committed to purchase only the most water-friendly models on the market that will save Baby Lisa’s family hundreds of dollars in water bills. In addition, our employees have gotten together to fundraise – giving up their paid lunches at work and putting that money toward Baby Lisa’ campaign. Simon Davis, our CEO, has also agreed to match all employee contributions to the Baby Lisa campaign.

As a B Corp, we combined innovation with collaboration because powerful changes can create sustainable markets and societies.

So far, the Baby Lisa campaign has collected almost $32,000 dollars. We still need $18,000 to renovate Baby Lisa’s home to meet the standards needed for her return. You can support the project by donating at http://www.babylisa.org/

No matter your budget, your gift will change the life of this American family. Together, we can reunite Baby Lisa and her mother LaTanya in time for Mother’s Day!

Santa Monica’s Water Self Sufficiency Efforts: an Interview with Joel Cesare

As a B Corp, founded on the principle of ecological conservation, we at Falcon Waterfree Technologies love uniting with other like-minded parties who share our same ethical vision to improve the world we live in. With that being said, we were very excited when Joel Cesare, who is leading Santa Monica towards complete water self-sufficiency, granted us an interview to discuss his current work and his plan for the future of the city.

When did you start working as a Sustainable Building Adviser for the Office of Sustainability and Environment in the City of Santa Monica?

After getting my Masters in Environmental Science & Management from the Bren School at U.C. Santa Barbara, I worked in the Bay Area as a Sustainability Coordinator. The focus of my degree was towards energy efficiency, and the City of Santa Monica is well known as a leader in sustainability and achieving aggressive environmental goals. So, I deeply appreciated the fact that I have been able to expand my understanding of green building as a whole since I started working 2 years ago. I regulate and ensure the City of Santa Monica continues to demonstrate and improve its energy, water and carbon footprints.

Santa Monica has been investing in a sustainable city plan since 1994. What are the City’s strategies for water conservation in 2016?

For Residential, Santa Monica has created rebates, which cover three components: yard, parkway and harvesting rain water, which people can apply through our website http://water.smgov.net/

For Commercial and Multi-family, the City encourages the use of high-efficiency toilets, urinals (such as the Falcon Waterfree Technologies), plumbing fixtures and equipment rebates through SoCal Water Smart. We also offer free water audits. To request one, you can send us an email at savewater@smgov.net.

Two of the City’s largest sources of water usage are laundry facilities and hotels. What has been the City’s approach to reduce their water use?

We have been promoting the use of recirculating systems and water reuse. LOEWS Santa Monica Beach Hotel is one of our success stories. The hotel recently retrofitted its laundry system to use recycled water. The system also keeps the water temperature steady resulting in additional water and energy savings.

What about Stormwater and Urban Runoff solutions?

Storm water / urban runoff is considered Santa Monica’s main source of pollution in the bay. Santa Monica’s Urban Runoff Recycling Facility, known as “SMURRF”, is one of our best examples of dealing with polluted storm water/urban runoff to protect our coastal waters. The facility provides high quality water for reuse in toilet flushing and landscape irrigation. We consider moving pristine alpine water thousands of miles to flush a toilet indicative of an urban city disconnection with nature, and we want to change that.

Does Santa Monica have other initiatives in place to achieve water self-sufficiency?

Brackish & Seawater Reverse Osmosis is a customizable reverse osmosis (RO) water filtration systems that pull semi-salty water from the sand and turn it into fresh water.

Another initiative is sewage mining, which extracts suspended solids from wastewater before they become sludge, and reduces sludge formation, introducing a model for sustainable and environmentally friendly wastewater management.

Have there been any setbacks threatening the 2020 deadline?

No. In fact, we are more confident than ever. The drought regulation simply accelerated and stimulated our response to be water efficient. In fact, the city, has achieved self sufficiency several times in the past months. In December 2015, the city was self sufficient for 13 days, and was able to shut off water imports back again for 19 days in January.

World Water Day: The Baby Lisa Project

We are always working on ways to give back to our local community and help to build a long term, sustainable infrastructure. We believe that every child and family should have access to clean running water and we could not be more proud to celebrate World Water Day this year by announcing our partnership with DigDeep on the Baby Lisa Project.

Baby Lisa was born in Phoenix, Arizona and has been diagnosed with microvillus inclusion disease, a life-threatening condition that prevents the absorption of nutrients from food during digestion, resulting in malnutrition and dehydration.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaNi6i7v74U&feature=youtu.be]

Since her diagnosis a year and half ago, Baby Lisa has been living in a medical facility 3 hours away from her home, located in the remote Arizona desert. Unfortunately, Baby Lisa cannot receive the medical attention she needs and return home until her family’s house can meet sanitation requirements and have access to running water. Baby Lisa’s family is one of many American families that suffer from water poverty – a tremendous issue that is often over looked and forgotten about in the United States. Water is crucial to Baby Lisa’s recovery and without access to running water in her home doctors are refusing to give her the transplant she desperately needs.

Even though the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) considers them ‘first priority’, Baby Lisa’s family still has to wait 2 or 3 years to get running water in their home – time that Baby Lisa does not have. In order to bring Lisa home, we are partnering with DigDeep, a non profit organization who defends clean water access as a human right, to provide sustainable, water conservation fixtures for Baby Lisa’s home.

Today, on World Water Day, DigDeep has launched an incredible campaign to help Baby Lisa’s family renovate their home to meet the standards needed for Lisa to return. We could not be more proud to help build a sustainable and hygienic infrastructure for Baby Lisa and her family, and we encourage everyone to join in and help contribute by donating at http://www.babylisa.org/ .

Together, we can build Baby Lisa home with running water and take her family out of water poverty!

The Michigan Club Unites For Flint

Here at Falcon, we believe in using business as a force for good. We are committed to supporting local positive impact efforts that aspire to solve social and environmental problems in our community. The Flint Water Crisis hits especially close home, as many of us at Falcon have personal connections to Michigan and the Detroit area.

The Flint water crisis started after the county decided to change its water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River in April 2014. It wasn’t long before the government officials started receiving various complaints of discoloration, smell and bad taste from the water. Unfortunately, the city continued to state that the water was safe to drink. From the beginning of this transition, Flint’s drinking showed numerous problems, ranging from coliform bacteria to elevated presence of trihalomethane- or TTHM.

However, tragedy, reached the highest point when aging pipes mixed with the new highly corrosive water supply, releasing large levels of lead into the water supply and exposing between 6,000 and 12,000 children to lead poisoning. Lower IQ, learning problems, slow growth and inability to pay attention are some of the effects of lead on young brains, which are “untreatable and irreversible.” Other effects from lead contamination include anemia and hyperactivity. On top of all this, the contaminated water might cause an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease. The waterborne bacterial infection has killed 10 people and affected another 87. Clearly, the people of Flint, Michigan need our support, and this need is tremendous.

The Michigan Club is a global social network and membership-based community whose mission is “to have a positive impact on the world by connecting forward-thinking, Michigan-minded people and inspiring social and economic change through business, education, personal development and travel.” Tonight the Michigan Club is hosting a fundraiser to help the community of Flint during the serious water crisis.

The Michigan Club partnered with the Community Foundation of Greater Flint, an organization that has been providing Flint families and children with resources to face this population-wide lead exposure. Proceeds will benefit the non-profit who aids in crisis response, early childhood education, nutrition education and other needed areas.

Join us in sharing your passion for this cause, and supporting The Michigan Club initiative:

* On Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/events/1673353692916098/

* Event Registration: http://bit.ly/1Vk13G8

* Donate: http://bit.ly/1QOhmqJ

* Website: http://www.themichiganclub.com

WHAT WE’RE READING: GREENTHINK

A culmination of decades of being at the forefront of national sustainability initiatives, Greenthink by Rick Fedrizzi, CEO and founding chair of USGBC, puts forth an argument that is as controversial as it is clear: leverage the motive of profit to save the world—and its humans—from environmental catastrophe.

For decades, he notes, environmentalists and the private sector have been at odds. Activists have decried the impact of industry on the environment. Business leaders, meanwhile, resent environmentalists for “job-killing regulations.” But in Greenthink, Fedrizzi turns conventional wisdom on its head by showing how profit can save the planet, and how sustainability is the biggest business opportunity of the 21st century.

To prove his point, Rick calls on his decades of experience as a marketing executive for United Technologies Carrier Corporation, then as head of USGBC, where he pioneered the green building sector, an industry that has had an immediate and measurable impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and driven vast innovation in architectural design, engineering practice and materials development in product manufacturing. The creation of USGBC’s LEED, the most widely used green building rating system in the world, helped create a market that didn’t exist 20 years ago and now anchors an industry expected to be valued at more than $3 billion by 2020. Rick has spent nearly his entire career working to bridge the polarized divide between environmentalists and business, because, as he rightly puts it, “they both will share the same fate.”

Original article published on the USGBC’s blog and you can read it here.

Our Sustainability Journey

Here at Falcon, we believe that in the journey to create a better future, businesses should become a force for good. We are founded on the principle of ecological conservation, and sustainability is embedded across our business’s operations and daily practices. We are working to help the planet and help everyone on it thrive.

A successful sustainable strategy clearly connects the organization’s mission, vision, ethics and long-term financial goals, then key ingredients for long-term growth and profitability such as growth of the company’s reputation, employee engagement, the retainment of top talent and market differentiation will continue to grow across the organization. Sustainable thinking is more about creating opportunity and less about mitigating risk.

Our employees have dedicated more than 170 hours volunteering with the local communities to contribute to diverse social and environmental initiatives. Such practices resulted in new and stronger partnerships with charitable organizations. As a way to give back to our hard-working staff, Falcon Waterfree Technologies provides skills based training to advance core job responsibilities, training for personal development, and offers 12 weeks of fully paid maternity leave to salaried workers.

On top of all this, we encourage our staff to behave differently. The kitchen is stocked with consciously-chosen, local and sustainably-sourced items. We implemented a “Rideshare Incentive” to help minimize our carbon dioxide emissions. Everyone onsite uses a mug, cutting back on paper cups, and our staff refill their water with their metal Falcon Waterfree Technologies canteens, the office is also a plastic bottle free zone.

Sustainability is a corporate journey with no final destination, as there is always room for improvement. Falcon is continually identifying further innovations to reduce our environmental footprint with the vision of creating technology-driven products that conserve our Earth’s precious fresh water supply.

WHY WE LOVE TWITTER AND ACCOUNTS WE THINK YOU SHOULD FOLLOW

Do you ever wonder why people love Twitter so much? Well, Twitter is a way of catching up on the latest news, following your friends, fostering the hashtag phenomenon and networking with other professionals around you. Twitter does one thing and does it well, which is why people love the platform so much. It is all about quick reads, not about extended discussion. It’s easy to scroll through and read top headlines or updates from your friends. Less is more. Even though most of the time, the quick, short discussions lead to a more extensive interactions.

The top reason why we use it at Falcon, however, is that we get to interact with all the amazing people in our industry and in the B Corp community. It helps us engage in daily conversations with these individuals, which usually ends up turning into real life gatherings and partnerships. It’s a fantastic way to show your support and promote all the cool stuff people around you are invested in. Below is a list of our champions on twitter. We encourage you to check them out by clicking the handles below.

Governor Jerry Brown @JerryBrownGov
Dig Deep Water @DigDeepH2O
LA Better Building Challenge @LABBC2020
USGBC LA Chapter @USGBCLA
Rrick Fedrizzi @rickfedrizzi
Sloan Valve Company @Sloan_Valve
Mayor Eric Garcetti @ericgarcetti
B Corporation @BCorporation
TreePeople @TreePeople_org
Matt Stevens @ByMattStevens
Northern Rift @NorthernRift
The Drop @SavetheDropLA
Round Peg Communication @roundpegcomm
Nora Livingstone @noralivingstone
Badger Balm @BadgerBalmUSA
Do Good Bus @DoGoodBus
Ryan Honeyman @HoneymanConsult
Dean Muruven @deanmuruven09