Sustainability Archives - Page 9 of 10

35% CUT FOR CALIFORNIA

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?

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.

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

On 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.

FALCON MEDIA COVERAGE: SPORTS TECHIE

Three months ago, we announced Jason Gore as our new Falcon ambassador. Just like us, Jason is a California native and has grown up experiencing first hand conservation and the California way of life. In the article below, Sports Techie blog does a great job at illustrating our local water conservation campaign (CA Shut the Flush Up) and why Jason is a perfect fit.

ARTICLE PUBLISHED BY SPORTS TECHIE BLOG:

Falcon Water Technologies sponsored PGA Tour golf professional Jason Gore to evangelize water savings rebate programs implemented by local utilities throughout California in order to help overcome the possibility that the state has one year of stored H20 left after four years of drought. The Sports Techie community blog spoke to Gore about his social media efforts to spread awareness about this global epidemic that has led to unprecedented glacier melting in Greenland, the Article Circle and Antarctica, the largest land mass of ice on the planet resulting is ocean levels rising with the potential to displace millions of human and animals that live on the many coast lines around the world. The time is now for all golf courses to meet this dilemma head on with conservation efforts much like Scott Heyn, General Manager at Oakmont Country Club in Southern California has persuaded his private equity course members to initially fund. Steve Nuskiewicz, Falcon Senior VP North American Sales, also shared with us why the rebate program is in place and how their tech eliminates the need for flush or low flush urinals.

Falcon Waterfree Technologies, LLC promotes conservation of fresh water and supports sustainable resource management by providing the #waterfree urinal system. Golf course restrooms are the focus of their “CA Shut The Flush Up” campaign because by installing water-efficient or waterfree urinals, up to 40,000 gallons of water per year/per urinal is saved a year. In order to save 88,000,000 gallons of water a year, each one of the 1,100 golf courses in California would need to install two waterfree urinals in their bathrooms. Gore said, “Making the switch to waterfree urinals is a very small undertaking with unlimited savings potential.”

The Los Angeles and San Francisco water utilities are doing their part to conserve water by incentivizing golf courses with rebate programs designed to pay for the total purchase and installation price of the waterless urinal. Los Angeles Department of Water & Power has a $20 million rebate program that allows L.A. area golf courses to subsidize out of pocket costs on the $500 fixture purchase and installation in most cases. An added bonus is there are no limits on redeemable rebates per location. Installation takes a mere one hour in many cases.

“Golf courses get a bad reputation, sometimes deservedly so, when it comes to water usage and while they’ve come a long way in the last 10 years, there are still important steps for them to take to finish the job,” emphasized Gore.

Riviera Country Club, Los Angeles Country Club, Hillcrest Country Club and Bel-Air Country Club are already saving money on water bills and cutting back on usage due to Falcon Waterfree urinals installed in their clubhouses, locker rooms, restaurants and pool areas.

Gore is a CA native that lives in Valencia. He has known Tiger Woods since he was 11. Jason graduated from Pepperdine where he helped lead the Waves to the NCAA Championship in 1997. Before transferring there, he won the Pac-10 individual championship as a freshman and sophomore at the University of Arizona. Besides holding the record for most wins in Web.com Tour history, Gore once shot an impressive 59 on the PGA Tour.

“As a global company with California roots, we jumped at the chance to work with Jason to help raise awareness for our efforts,” said Falcon Waterfree CEO Simon Davis. “We are always looking at new, fun ways to reach important market segments and Jason will help to ensure we get our message out there. We look forward to a long relationship and we are convinced he will win on the course and we will win off the course.”

Jason wears the Falcon logo on his polo shirt sleeve during tournaments and after play. The business relationship began at Valencia CC because Davis and Gore are fellow members. PGA golfers have asked him about the logo and placement. Gore mentioned that Rory McIIroy and Phil Mickelson both liked it. Gore’s caddy loves the sponsorship and thinks it is great. His social media content was met by PGA Tour characters with jokes such as, “that’s why we use trees,” but some have retweeted his noble efforts.

Shut The Flush Up
Steve Nuskiewicz spoke to me about the severe California drought and the need for more awareness which is why the Shut The Flush Up campaign was created. He is eager to watch the ROI Gore provides on social media via targeted marketing.

Waterfree technology developed by Falcon is the marketplace leader and more advanced than any other urinal. They constantly bring new concepts to market and are innovators in the janitorial and maintenance space saving hundreds and thousands of gallons of water for customers and the environment. The cartridges take three minutes to change, either you do it or sign up for the Falcon maintenance program. Day to day operation is simple, spray and wipe down the urinal, no engineering staff is needed for installation.

The rebate program in Southern California has been around since 2002/2003. The first facility to install Waterfree was the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. The initial 300 urinals will be added to the extras recent stadium renovations called for. Staples Center installed Waterfree back in 2007 and saves millions of gallons of water spread across their 330 events a year.

Phillips Arena here in Atlanta is not a present client. Throughout Georgia, some school districts and office spaces are using Waterfree but not The Masters at Augusta National. Even though water rates are not as high here or in other states compared to CA, sewage rates and waste water elimination is.

They offer a “Greener Restroom” for facilities that comes with waterless urinals, high efficiency toilets and solar powered faucets. The Sloan Valve Company produces the solar facets that actually are a Falcon private label relationship for Sloan water free, solar facets, sinks and flush valves.

I learned a new term from him, Zeroscape. It basically means a desert like ecosystem that requires no water, something golf courses and resorts around the globe are beginning to embrace.

Read the article here and more about our California campaign here.

SPOTLIGHT: WAXIE

Welcome back! It is time for our Spotlight series. This space is reserved for highlighting all the great things our partners and customers are accomplishing worldwide. These companies, institutions and venues are as much a part of Falcon’s journey to conserve, as our employees. Let’s get right to it, shall we?

Since 1945, Waxie has grown from a small store in San Diego, CA into America’s largest independent family-owned sanitary maintenance supply distributor. From your everyday basics like cleaning supplies to paper towels – to more specialized items, like our cartridges, Waxie provides excellent customer service with an underlying commitment to the environment.

With goals such as promoting responsible business practices and advancing platforms to support achieving a green building status, Waxie has been a purpose-built company from the start. We are proud to work with them and be a part of their pledge to sustainability.

Stay in touch with the latest industry changes, improvements and news on their blog, Facebook and Twitter pages!

WHAT WE’RE READING: WATER – THE FATE OF OUR MOST PRECIOUS RESOURCE

The underlying premise is simple: water is life. It is a necessity that flows through every part of our day, every day of our life. We depend on water for everything from basic survival to generating the energy that lights our homes and fuels our businesses. Therefore it is very important that we take water conservation seriously and start to innovate new ways to make what limited resources we have last.

In Water, Marq de Villiers tours the world to examine the state of its most vital resource. What he finds is not encouraging. From Africa to Asia and Australia, from Europe to the Middle East and the Americas, too many people depend on too little — and increasingly limited — water. Despite engineering schemes constructed to water deserts and to store and deliver water where it would otherwise not be available, demand for water will almost surely continue to outstrip supply unless we dramatically alter our behavior.

In addition to the problems of supply and demand, the book describes the ecological damage incurred by the use and abuse of water sources. Through pollution, diversion, and degradation, industrialization of the world has taken a heavy toll on water quality.

The author creates his narrative based of childhood memories. Growing up in an arid and rural South Africa, de Villiers is aggressive with the value of clean, uncompromised water. The book brings both ecological and historical knowledge alongside his frank criticism of how the world’s water resources has and continue to be managed. He states that, “Humans consume water, discard it, poison it, waste it, and restlessly change the hydrological cycles, indifferent to the consequences: too many people, too little water, water in the wrong places and in the wrong amount. The human population is burgeoning, but water demand is increasing twice as fast.”

Thanks to de Marq de Villiers’s humane tone and unique curiosity, Water ends on a positive note. There is much to be learned here and even though it takes a long time to change a mindset, with education and awareness we go from just talking about it

SPOTLIGHT: DIG DEEP

Welcome back! It is time for our Spotlight series. Today we will be featuring an Los Angeles based non profit, DIGDEEP. Let’s get right to it, shall we?

Not many people stop to think about where their water is coming from when turning on the tap and grabbing a bottle of water. It’s hard to create an emotional desire for clean water when we haven’t faced the lack of it and when clean water is abundant and at our reach whenever we want it.

Every human being has a right to clean water and George McGraw is doing something about it. He is the Executive Director of DIGDEEP, a Right to Water Project in Los Angeles. DIGDEEP promotes human rights access to water. Transforming their lives with clean water and safeguarding their human dignity. Each of their water projects is designed using a human rights-based approach, a practical model that integrates rights and dignity into the plans and processes of development. .

The non profit is changing the way people think about water, protecting water access as a human right through education and awareness. An example of there ongoing campaign is the 4 liters challenge. The way it works is that for 24 hours, you can only use four liters of water for everything you do. It has created huge awareness to water poverty and by inserting it into people’s daily lives, an emotional connection to clean water was originated.

DIGDEEP is doing an amazing job defending those who can’t. Fighting for what is a right to them and bringing out the truth for us on the over side. And “the truth is that when it comes to needing water, each and every one of us is equal.” (George McGraw TedX talk)

IS WATER CONSERVATION A MINDSET?

Today we are kicking off day 2 at the annual trade show ISH, in Frankfurt.

One of the many talked about subjects regarding Germany is the outstanding way in which they conserve water. People here are known to flush toilets with old bath water and to take turns bathing in the same tub without refilling it. In addition to utilizing water efficient fixtures throughout houses and businesses. One would think that the reason why Germans are so conscious is for the lack of water in the country. However it is in fact the opposite. Germany is one of the world’s most water-rich countries and it could theoretically consume five times more water than it does now. But they don’t! They are taught since an early age to use water wisely no matter how abundant it is. We can’t help but think on how this affects other resources, like electricity, gas, to name a few. Wouldn’t the sustainable way of mind rub off on everything?

In fact, it is a way of thinking and acting. Kind of like a mindset if you will. If we start protecting our resources before the problem arrives, maybe it never will. There are several major droughts occurring in the world right now, such as the Western USA and the Sao Paulo metropolitan area in Brazil. However, what if the population and government support would haven taken extreme conservation habits before hand? Maybe with an ingrained conscious mindset we wouldn’t have to wait until the situation is dire before we scramble to try to change things.

Sometimes what matters most is the mindset. Conserving water, even when it is plentiful, energy even when it’s profuse, and gas even when it’s the cheapest.

ISH 2015: THE TOILET

ISH is quickly approaching and we couldn’t be more excited to share our latest water conservation technology with you. Time is ticking fast and we are almost ready to board the flight to Germany.

As we said before, ISH is the World’s Leading Trade Fair for The Bathroom Experience, and the exhibition is known for covering technology that surround water and energy. With everything from sustainable sanitation solutions, innovative bathroom design and energy efficient heating technologies combined with renewable energies to environmentally friendly air-conditioning, cooling and ventilation technology. ISH covers all aspects of future-oriented building solutions, and the key word for the trade show is innovation.

With that said, Falcon is currently in development of new toilet technology and has filed multiple patents on some very promising new solutions, aimed at water conservation combined with performance. At this point in time, we can’t say much about the technology, however we are taking it to ISH!!! If you happen to be attending don’t hesitate to stop by and take a better look at our new innovative flushing technology.

SPOTLIGHT: RIVIERA COUNTRY CLUB

Riviera Country Club was designed by George C. Thomas Jr. and William P. Bell and opened for play in 1927. Ben Hogan defeated Jimmy Demaret by two strokes to win the 1948 U.S. Open at Riviera, the first of his record-tying four Open titles. In 1998, three-time U.S. Open champion Hale Irwin sank a 12-foot birdie putt on Riviera’s 18th hole to edge Vicente Fernandez by one stroke and capture the first of his two U.S. Senior Open titles. Needless to say, that the Riviera Country Club holds a little bit of golf history.

Since the mid 1920s the members and guests of the country club have enjoyed the “Riviera Lifestyle,” which was built on the appreciation for life and the enjoyment of the natural resources that surround us. With that said, it is no surprise to see sustainable initiatives all around the Riviera grounds. From an organic vegetable garden that serves their restaurants, to water savings restroom fixtures throughout the club; the Riviera Country Club is committed to the ecology and sustainability of our community and the planet.

Read more about their sustainable initiatives here and here. Also, this week the PGA Tour will be taking place at the Riviera CC.