Do you delay opening your utility bills, dreading the monthly expenses? Are you baffled by exactly what all those gallons, kilowatt-hours or cubic feet actually mean?
A start-up called MeterHero wants to simplify all those numbers and encourage you to save by comparing your water, gas and electricity consumption against your neighbors, and then offering rebates to those who conserve more. Earlier this month, the company started returning $1 for every 100 gallons of water a customer saves below their two-year average, TakePart reports.
Although MeterHero’s new refunds may seem small at first glance, the Environmental Protection Agency says the average American family of four guzzles through 400 gallons of water every day. So cutting 40 minutes from your household’s daily shower time or doing larger (yet fewer) loads of laundry means an extra dollar in your bank account. And with 29 percent of the continental U.S. facing drought conditions, it also means huge benefits for the environment.
The idea for the company was sparked at Marquette University in Wisconsin when two dozen students brainstormed how to motivate people to save water. Testing a form of peer pressure, they developed an online platform to compare utility bills. Heavy users would be urged to reduce waste through “the force of friendly competition,” Nathan Conroy, a graduate student involved with the project, tells the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
“As humans, how we compare to others informs our behavior,” Conroy says. “We don’t need everyone to become prophets of water scarcity; we just want people to be empowered to understand their water use and take action that works for them.”
McGee Young, a professor at Marquette, founded MeterHero this year after seeing huge demand for his former students’ work. He said the website is groundbreaking because utilities rarely offer incentives for water conservation since “their revenues depend on using water.”
One thousand users in the U.S. and Canada have registered so far. Anyone with a meter, old utility bills or willing landlord can sign up. MeterHero’s next challenge will be obtaining $100,000 in commitments by early next year — enough to fund rebates for 10 million gallons of water saved. They also have plans to launch a mobile app soon, GreenBiz reports.
“There’s going to be no greater public policy challenge we’ll face in our lifetime than managing increasingly scarce resources in a growing population,” Young says. “That’s why we’re doing this. We have no alternative but to think creatively and outside the box on how to manage our water supplies.”
Source: TakePart
Tag: Water Use
This App is Helping Californians Understand Their Drought Problem
As California continues to grapple with one of the worst droughts on record, government officials are scrambling to provide an accurate picture of just how severe the water problem is.
In fact, just last month, the state’s water board admitted that it doesn’t actually know how much water residents are using, which makes it pretty difficult to implore Californians to cut back. But a new app is working to help complete that picture for the state, enabling residents to track how much water they use daily.
Dropcountr monitors water use in real-time, alerting users when numbers are particularly high and creating reports to show trends over time. The app also allows users to compare how much water they’re using to other neighbors with similar sized-homes, according to Fast Company.
“The first response we get from folks is, ‘Wow, I had no idea that I used that much water,'” said Robb Barnitt, CEO of Dropcountr. “That’s really the first piece we’re trying to deliver — transparency and visibility. It’s really tough to gain much insight from your water bill.”
The app also informs customers about new regulations or rebates from their local utility. For instance, a resident might not be aware of California’s $500 fine for overwatering lawns or excess use for washing sidewalks and driveways.
“It’s really difficult to understand how much water you’re using, or whether that’s reasonable and appropriate based on your household size,” Barnitt says. “We’ve taken a social approach, where we compare a given account to others like them. We’ve seen that’s a powerful motivator in similar programs on the energy side. People are very interested in how they compare to others.”
The company has just started partnering with utilities and working with property management companies, which typically are unaware of how much water their tenants use. The app is a more accurate alternative to the water bill residents receive every one to two months, illuminating how wasteful people can be. In some areas of California, including parts of Sacramento and Bakersfield, officials don’t use water meters at all.
But the app is not available yet for all 440 water agencies across the state. The startup continues to partner with more utilities, as well as implemented a “poke” feature to enable customers to alert their utility about the service.
Dropcountr is also working on developing a feature that will use patterns of flow to discern how someone is using water. For example, if a person is using water for an outdoor irrigation system or appliances, Barnett told Fast Company, it’s easily identifiable.
Last month, 58 percent of the state was considered to be under “exceptional” drought, notching the harshest level of a five level scale. Implementing an app like Dropcountr is not only smart, but seems critical.
MORE: Even as the Drought Continues, Californians Can Drink From a Firehose of Solutions
How States Are Hunting Down This Cosmetic Culprit of Pollution
Two of the country’s most populous states are trying to ban a very common component in face wash: microbeads. Following in the footsteps of New York, lawmakers in California recently proposed to stop the sale of cosmetics containing these tiny plastic particles.
Microbeads don’t look too intimidating, but they pack quite the environmental wallop. Because they’re so small, they can’t be removed by water treatment processes after getting washed down our sinks. As One Earth reports, these teeny environmental menaces have been showing up in our Great Lakes, with as many as 450,000 bits per square kilometer. Mistaking them for fish eggs, unsuspecting wildlife are eating these little balls, possibly bringing them into our own food chain.
As Grist reports, last month New York Assemblywoman Michelle Schimel introduced a bill that would ban sales of products containing microbeads. The initiative was taken a step further when Assemblyman Robert Sweeney, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the nonprofit 5 Gyres introduced legislation that would not only ban the sale, but would try to stop the its manufacture and distribution.
MORE: To Restore Water to the Colorado River, All These Teens Had to Do Was Send a Text
New York League of Conservation Voters President Marcia Bystryn said the bill would “set an example for other states around the country to address this emerging environmental threat.” Indeed, California Assemblyman Richard Bloom recently took on the cause and introduced a bill that would ban the sale of most products with microbeads.
Fortunately, cosmetic companies such as Proctor and Gamble, Unilever, and Colgate-Palmolive have already taken the initiative to phase out using microbeads in their products without legal prodding. So until your state follows the lead of New York and California, when you look for facial scrubs, avoid products that contain polyethylene or polypropylene. You can also opt for washes with oatmeal or apricot/walnut shells that work just as well. You don’t want to pollute the waterways just to clean your face.
Growing Red Cranberries the Green Way
Twenty percent of the nation’s cranberry crop was enjoyed on Thanksgiving, and this year some cranberry farmers in Cape Cod have a new high-tech, water-saving growing system to be thankful for. Growing cranberries takes a lot of water. Farmers spray their cranberry bogs when temperatures dip because the water generates heat as it freezes, protecting the berries. The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave a conservation innovation grant to cranberry growers in Cape Cod so they could update their irrigation systems to include sensors that automatically detect when it’s time to turn on the water and when it’s time to turn it off instead of using old-fashioned manual watering. Switching to automated water delivery can save 280,000 gallons of water a season.