Story of a Retrofit Archives - Falcon Water Free

STORY OF A RETROFIT: DOWNEY POOL

Welcome back to our series of post where we will be showing before and after pictures of some of our installations. Have you ever wanted to know what goes on behind the scenes of a bathroom renovation? Well you have come to the right place. Today we will be taking you inside the Downey Recreation Center, in Los Angeles, California.

Just across the Los Angeles River, you can find the Downey Rec Center as well as the Downey Pool. A few years from now residents be able to experience a full-on, 6.3 acre, river-adjacent park, with much needed green space, a soccer field, stormwater treatment features, and a bicycle hub for the park. For now, residents are able to use the pool across the street. It is one of the oldest public swimming pools in the city of Los Angeles and we were able to retrofit three of their urinals from water-fed to waterfree.

The Downey Rec Center was the venue to the Empty Pool Party last Saturday. While the party was fueled by good times, the heart of it laid with the concern of the drought affecting Los Angeles and surrounding areas. To bring awareness to water conservation, the non profit Dig Deep hosted the party alongside partners such as the LA mayor Eric Garcetti’s office, Falcon and Change the Course.

Together we saved 550,335 gallons of water at the Empty Pool Party, with:

Pledge to save 44,746 gallons with the tickets; vegan, water-friendly tacos from Whole Foods saved 103,432 gallons needed for beef; the drinks were made with recycled pool water; Falcon’s waterless urinals saved 150 gallons and using an empty, seasonal pool saved us 402,000 gallons. And trust us when we say, that after spending a hot day in an empty pool, we felt this one the most!

More about the party here.

Happy weekending guys!

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.