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The Griswold family in National Lampoon’s, “Vacation,” maybe the ultimate American icon for that favorite of summer pastimes: Road trips!

But now the EPA  is whistling down the on-ramp and they’ve got the pedal to metal. They’ve replaced Clark Griswold behind the wheel of the Wagon Queen Family Truckster with Flo and a hybrid. Flo is the “spokesgallon” for WaterSense’s new “We’re for Water” campaign. And instead of Wally World, their destination are water-stressed communities across the country.

Why the grand road trip?

Flo will stop at national landmarks and tourist attractions from Los Angeles to New York City, spreading the word about water efficiency along the way—from July 14 until August 2.

The EPA reports that 36 states have projected some degree of water shortages through 2013. With the U.S. population doubling between 1950 and 2005, and water use tripling, the EPA decided to send Flo on a drive-about to educate all of us on the little water-saving tips that can make a big difference. Plus, they’re pushing WaterSense labeled products on their trip.

Go to their site and you can take an “I’m for Water” pledge. You can even friend them on Facebook.

It’s great to see the EPA hit the road with this kind of messaging. The Water – Use It Wisely campaign has been at it for almost 14 years with our now famous, “100+ Ways to Save Water.”

I hope Flo makes it to Phoenix, because our own Wayne Drop could use some company (Although I’m not sure Flo can hold a candle to Christy Brinkley in her Ferrari).

• It’s 112 in Phoenix, do you know where your 100 Ways to Save Water list is? http://bit.ly/dw8Ais #
• Now you can place the FREE Water-saving tip widget on your site. Updates a new tip every day. http://bit.ly/bOKGZq #
• If you’re a professional water conservationist and are interested in social media, join our Ning network: http://h2osocialmedia.ning.com/ #
• Grab a cup of Joe and see if you can keep the goldfish from going down the drain in Tip Tank: http://bit.ly/dp9BRV #

How We Landed Water – Use It Wisely in the Wall Street Journal

The WSJ was looking for a story about small business and sustainability. Park Howell and his agency Park&Co, the creators of the Water – Use It Wisely campaign, were asked to share their story about its use of a cool new internal sustainability platform called GreenNurture.com.

The writer also requested a photo for the story. Never one to miss a promotional opportunity, Park stood himself in front of the posters for the Water – Use It Wisely campaign.

The agency is one of the first to adopt this new website/enterprise platform that helps companies large and small become more sustainable through micro-eco actions created out of upping the conversation about being “Green” within the company. The WSJ wanted the story

The team at Park&Co have been using GreenNurture.com to share ideas on the little things we can do to reduce, reuse, and save around the office.

From our production manager: “I know I may look like a vampire but I don’t think the extra lamps are necessary all the time-especially in the morning.”

From our ACD: “Keep the thermostat a couple degrees higher in summer so people aren’t wearing sweaters at work on a 100+ degree day.”

From our bookkeeper: “We should take the recycling of the job jackets one step further to have our ultimate goal be “to be paperless.” We could store all necessary documentation on the server under a file of the job so that both the accounting and job folders could be viewed. Ultimately we could remove those file cabinets and replace them with a green hammock to catch up on “Z’s” for all the extra time we’ll have created.“

From me: “What if we issued just one ream of paper per person per year for basic documents? And then if and when you needed a second ream, you would have to petition for one describing the merits of your need? Would this makes us all think twice about running something through our printers?”

If you haven’t yet checked out GreenNurture.com and what it can mean to your company, utility or municipality relative to reducing waste, recycling, and saving water and money, it’s definitely worth about 20 minutes of your time. That’s all it takes to get your internal eco campaign up and running.

In the meantime, do you want to step up to the “One Ream Per Person Per Year” challenge? It truly monetizes a product that everyone views as a commodity. Think of the money + trees + paper + printer ink + printer power + the cost of recycling + the carbon footprint, you and your company will save just by reframing a ream of paper as something worth vastly more. Scarcity has a way of increasing the value of all items. Basic economics.

Click to visit the site.

You can imagine the gigantic smile on my face when I come across websites like The Green Samaritan, a site inspired by the “Good Samaritan,” but with a green twist. I like it. And I love the fact that they feature our water-saving tip widget from the Water – Use It Wisely campaign prominently on their homepage.

The campaign’s easy-to-use sustainability message found in the widget fits perfectly with Green Sam’s mission of, “Being kind to your environment through refined, renewed and resourceful living.” It’s extremely gratifying when a simple project you spearhead helps others.

Click here to experience the interactive home water audit.

Feel free to add our water-saving tip widget to your site. And while you’re at WaterUseItWisely.com, check out our new interactive home water audit and share it with your peeps. That’s what it’s there for.

Thank you Green Samaritan for helping us to further ignite the growth our water conservation movement.

This post originally appeared in Park Howell’s “Sustainable Storytelling” blog. Park&Co is the sustainable marketing firm that created the Water – Use It Wisely campaign

Throughout the month of June, the Mesa Red Mountain Library, 635 N. Power Road in Mesa, Arizona, will feature a 16-foot tall, 136-gallon water jug pyramid as part of the City’s Water – Use It Wisely campaign. The display represents how much water one person consumes per day in their home.

“This impressive display illustrates the need for all of us to be more aware of how much water each of us uses on a daily basis,” Mesa Conservation Specialist Donna DiFrancesco said. “We hope this urges our customers to be responsible in their water usage to protect this valuable resource.”

Typical residential water usage in Mesa ranges from 80 to 180 gallons of water per person per day, including indoor and outdoor use. Water use is broken down in the following categories:

• Consumption – 6 gallons
• Showers and Baths – 16 gallons
• Toilets – 18 gallons
• Household Cleaning – 22 gallons
• Outdoors – 74 gallons

The campaign recently introduced the Home Water Challenge, an educational video that provides water conservation information, tips and helpful links that show how to conserve water in and around your home. Find it on our site by clicking here.

Participants can then input their monthly water use from their utility bill into a worksheet to see how their own water use stacks up to the average.

Water – Use It Wisely Regional Campaign Partners include the cities of Phoenix, Mesa, Scottsdale, Chandler, Glendale, Tempe, Avondale, El Mirage, Fountain Hills, Peoria, Surprise, and Queen Creek. Additional partners include the Arizona American Water Company, Arizona Municipal Water Users Association, Global Water Resources, Liberty Water Company, and Salt River Project.

By Ian Satter, City of Mesa

Water-Use It Wisely was recently mentioned in a post on www.livestrong.com , a website dedicated to helping people take action to make the most of their life, time, body and world. Since saving water is essential to life on earth, it is vital that people learn the best ways to conserve this precious resource.

Click here to read the article and learn 5 simple ways to save water.  For even more ways to save in and around the home, check out the Water-Use It Wisely online home water challenge.

Do you know how much water you’re using each month? Are you doing the right things in your home to help you save water and reduce your water bill? Did you know that up to 70% of water use happens outdoors? These questions and more can be answered when you go online to take the new Water-Use It Wisely Home Water Challenge.

The Home Water Challenge is a short animated educational video that provides you water conservation information, tips, and helpful links that show you how to conserve water in and around your home.

Click on the 15 second spot below for a sneak peak.

For the full-length video, go to www.wateruseitwisely.com/arizona

· Trees clean pollutants from the air

· Trees produce oxygen

· Trees conserve energy

· Trees reduce stormwater runoff

· Trees add value to communities

· Trees provide food and shelter for wildlife

· Trees create shade and cool the environment

Arbor Day in Arizona is celebrated any time from February through April, but the National Arbor Day is designated for Friday, April 30^th. It is a very special day, set aside as a time to plan – and to plant – for a healthier future. A tiny seedling planted today will give back for a lifetime. According to the US Forest Service, over a 50-year lifetime a tree recycles $37,500 worth of water and generates $62,000 worth of pollution control. Now that’s something to celebrate! Planting a tree in your neighborhood is one of the best things you can do not only for your community, but for our planet as well. Make a difference. Plant a tree.

What does planting a tree have to do with saving water? There are many trees that not only save water, but that also perform well and are easy to maintain in the desert. Check out our listing of over 200 low-water use plants in our booklet Landscape Plants for the Arizona Desert, or find the information online here.

Courtesy of City of Scottsdale

WUIW Arizona is excited to announce the beginning of their spring media campaign buy that is currently running in April through the end of June. The campaign consists of an animated outdoor water-use TV spot on Channel 12, bright, colorful print ads in the Arizona Republic on the weather page, and in just a few weeks, a web campaign on azcentral.com introducing a brand new edition to the Water-Use It Wisely website, “The Online Home Water Challenge”. This water challenge is an animated short video that provides information on water conservation facts and easy tips that will help you save water inside and outside the home. In addition, WUIW will have five live interviews on Arizona Midday with the first segment scheduled today, April 22nd -Earth Day, featuring water saving topics, advice, and tips. If you missed these segments, you can always watch them online at azcentral.com. Lastly, be sure to cool off and visit one of the many Harkins Theaters throughout the Valley in June where WUIW will run the animated outdoor water-use spot.

For more information on water conservation information, tips and events throughout the Valley, visit www.wateruseitwisely.com/arizona

Water – Use It Wisely Regional Campaign Partners include the cities of Phoenix, Mesa, Scottsdale, Chandler, Glendale, Tempe, Avondale, El Mirage, Fountain Hills, Peoria, Surprise, and Queen Creek. Additional partners include the Arizona American Water Company, Arizona Municipal Water Users Association, Global Water Resources, Liberty Water Company, and Salt River Project.

The Water-Use It Wisely Regional Partners made a huge splash last weekend (March 18-20th) as part of the Southwest Build-It-Green (B.I.G.) Expo & Conference at the Phoenix Convention Center. The expo showcased a wide variety of sustainable products and services that impact every area of our lives. Many visitors stopped by the WUIW booth for expert information on landscape maintenance, xeriscaping, low-water use plants and other outdoor water-saving tips. In addition to the free advice, a lot of swag was given out as well, including pens, jar openers and fortune cookies that offered water saving tips inside. Best of all, every visitor received a free ticket to enter a drawing for one of several home water-saving items. For more information on simple ways to save water outdoors and indoors, visit www.wateruseitwisely.com/arizona

Water – Use It Wisely Regional Campaign Partners include the cities of Phoenix, Mesa, Scottsdale, Chandler, Glendale, Tempe, Avondale, El Mirage, Fountain Hills, Peoria, Surprise, and Queen Creek. Additional partners include the Arizona American Water Company, Arizona Municipal Water Users Association, Global Water Resources, Liberty Water Company, and Salt River Project.