Community Archives - Page 2 of 8

TECHNOLOGY SPOTLIGHT: Edward C. Little Water Recycling Facility

In the face of a severe drought between the late ’80s and early ‘90s, West Basin Water District in Southern California transformed their business model from imported water wholesaler to a leader in conservation and water recycling. After receiving state and federal funding to design and build a world-class water recycling treatment facility in 1992, the Edward C. Little Water Recycling Facility opened its doors in the City of El Segundo.

Since then, The West Basin Municipal Water District has become an important provider of safe and high-quality water to the communities it serves. The facility operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, producing approximately 40 million gallons of usable water every day. It conserves enough drinking water to meet the needs of 80,000 households a year. West Basin works alongside with the Water Replenishment District to supply 75% of the water injected into the West Coast Groundwater Barrier, conserving 5,000 acre-feet of water each year. They are expecting to increase that amount to 100% in the future.

The Edward C. Little Water Recycling Facility (ECLWRF) is not only the largest water recycling facility of its kind in the United States, but it is also the only treatment facility in the country that produces five different qualities of “designer” or custom-made recycled water that meet the unique needs to the communities it serves.

The water treatment plant also contains a 60,000 square foot solar power generating system that reduces their carbon dioxide emissions by over 356 tons in one year’s time. This is the equivalent to planting nearly 100 acres of trees or not driving 890,007 miles. The solar power generated at this facility also supplies 10% of their peak energy needs.

In addition to their continuing sustainability efforts, their visitor education center created a recycling program to teach its visitors the importance of conserving energy and water. Grade-school children can also visit the West Basin Water Recycling Phase IV Expansion site to show them how valuable and rare water is.

In a future, where water demands might urge the world to create new sources of water, it seems that recycled water- in combination with building a more drought resistance infrastructure- has the potential to help us be more climate-independent. The Edward C. Little Water Recycling Facility is establishing the technology framework that can potentially help to alleviate California’s continuous water scarcity issues.

The Pacific Council Awards Mary Robinson

We were so pleased to be able to come together Tuesday evening for An Evening with Mary Robinson, hosted by the Pacific Council on International Policy, to honor Mrs. Mary Robinson with the Warren Christopher Public Service Award for her commitment to ethical international and national affairs and government service as a noble pursuit.

Mary Robinson has been instrumental in environmental thought leadership and has created the Mary Robinson Foundation- Climate Justice to help spur education and advocacy on the struggle to secure global justice for those people vulnerable to the impacts of climate change who are usually forgotten – the poor, the disempowered and the marginalised. Climate injustice is an often overlooked impact of climate change, making the work of the foundation all the more important. We couldn’t be more proud to congratulate Mary Robinson on her incredible journey so far and her perseverance to push forward and tackle worldwide socio-environmental issues.

To learn more about the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, visit their website here. We encourage you to join her to help bring justice, equality and empowerment to our responses to climate change.

ABOUT THE PACIFIC COUNCIL The Pacific Council was founded in 1995 to expand foreign affair and global issue conversations beyond Washington D.C. to the West Coast. Since inception, the Pacific Council has built a network of globally-minded members, that includes: current and former diplomats, industry leaders, media representatives, politicians, scholars, and Falcon’s own Chairman of the Board, Marc Nathanson (Co-Chair of the Pacific Council) and longtime Board Member, Dr. Jerrold Green.

ABOUT MARY ROBINSON Mary Robinson is the first woman President of Ireland (1990-1997), former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997-2002), and founder and President of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative (2002-2010). She has spent much of her life as a human rights advocate and sought to use law as an instrument for social change. In August 2014 she was appointed the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Climate Change.

GRINCH-LIKE DROUGHT

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.

GIFT THAT KEEPS GIVING

The shopping spree starts with Black Friday and extends all the way through the month of December. With overcrowded malls and stores, shopping for loved ones has turned into more of a chore than the feel good act of giving. Since it is inevitable to shop this holiday season, we decided to focus on gifts that keeps giving, and what better one than running water?

Our friends at DigDeep have an amazing new website for their holiday campaign and we are super excited to share it with you.

DigDeep is an Los Angeles based non-profit that focuses on educating those who have water and providing it to those who don’t. They have been featured on VICE News (yes, they are pretty cool peeps) and many other media outlets around the country. The Navajo project one of many projects they lead and is what this campaign focuses on. This holiday season you can shop a few well curated items and all profit from your purchase will take running water to Navajo homes. The really cool thing about their shop is that, not only do you get to shop items for yourself and others on your Christmas list, but you also have the chance to sponsor a running water system. These systems can be expensive and you can help by buying separate parts to help build a brand new one. Pretty neat, right?

To learn more about the reason behind the Navajo Project and how it works here are a few media coverage done by CBS, The New York Times, and NPR.

MAKECHANGE AWARDS

The MakeChange Awards in Los Angeles recognizes companies and organizations creating the most impact for a better LA – and this year we will be attending!

The awards will be recognizing both non-profit and for-profit sectors and there will be a good number of B Corps on the list. The companies have been evaluated based on sustainable growth and financial performance, innovation and creativity, impacts and improvements, customer and community engagement, leadership management, ethical business management and workplace well-being.

It will take place tomorrow, December 8th, in Downtown Los Angeles and we can’t wait to celebrate with these amazing companies. Let’s make LA a #HappyCity and #MakeChange!!!!

THE BEST BANG FOR THE BUCK IN DWP REBATES

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.

PARIS CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Paris, the U.N.’s global conference on climate change has become more important than ever. This week, the governments of 190 nations will gather in the capital of France to discuss a possible new global agreement on climate change, and to re-affirm a shared commitment to addressing common threats.

Too often the risks associated with climate change are unknown or opaque. Only in the past few decades have scientists begun the measurements necessary to establish a relationship between current carbon levels and temperatures, and the science conducted since then has consistently pointed in one direction: that the rising greenhouse gas emissions, arising from our use of fossil fuels and our industries, had led to higher temperatures. The good news in all of this is that we are making progress and the Paris Climate Change Conference can only be even more beneficial.

Reducing carbon pollution has been proven to promote economic growth by attracting not only people, but also capital. The new generation wants to change what has been done wrong in the past and business owners are starting to get on track. Organizations are making it easier for companies to adapt and reduce the production of greenhouse gas emissions.

We are super excited to see the results after the Paris Climate Change Conference. What will agreement will governments produce for the decade after 2020, and potentially beyond? Follow the hashtag #COP21 on twitter to see what’s going on live. We sure will!

HOW TO SAVE WATER ON THANKSGIVING

This Thanksgiving, we’re thankful that — despite the epic drought in California — we still have enough water for essential uses. We are still able to cook a delicious holiday feast with our family. But as you prepare to brine that turkey, don’t forget about all the opportunities you have to celebrate this awesome holiday in a sustainable way.

Hope you have a great Turkey Day!!

DROP 100 CAMPAIGN

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.

JOINING FORCES FOR WATER

The drought is everybody’s business. We are proud to pledge alliance with other local businesses to show support for and draw attention to the critical need to implement a comprehensive water management plan for the state of California and for local regions, like L.A.

We need to act with a sense of urgency and encourage more Angelenos and Californians to support sound initiatives that will put CA on a more sustainable path. The longer we wait, the greater the impacts this drought and future shortages will have on the environment, economy and jobs.

Link to the ad here.