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A simple new iPhone/iPad app. called Drip Detective lets you quickly find out how much that dripping faucet is costing you. Drip Detective is only $1.99 at the iTunes store, and it could save you hundreds of dollars.

There are two easy ways to determine the rate of your leak with this app.

1. Simply tap the screen each time a drips falls from your faucet. After four our five taps, Drip Detective determines the average drip rate. You input the cost per gallon of water from your water bill, and it calculates how much money is going down your drain.
2. If you have a fast leak, you can measure by volume.

Drip Detective supports both Metric and American volumes, and totals your water and dollar waste by day, week, month and year.

In think Drip Detective is one of the easiest, most practical apps. available for understanding the impact of what may seem like an inconsequential waste of water. It’s a water conservation tool that will help you achieve savings that will really add up.

Rock yards and cactus are not the only solution to a water-wise landscape. Managing the amount of water used is also a factor. Most of Arizona receives very little rain each year; therefore people rely on municipal water for landscape plants and gardens. Selecting low water-use plants is important but managing what little rain falls can make a difference, too.

Rainwater harvesting is the process of catching and storing rain or creating a path for the water to find its way to trees, plants, or gardens. Watch how water flows on a property during a rain storm. Direct it in to storage barrels or cisterns with gutters and use it later. Slow the flow on hills or slopes by creating a slight ditch (or row) on contour to prevent soil erosion as well as allow the water time to settle into the soil.

When it rains automatic irrigation systems can be turned off, even if it is just for a day or two! Rain stored in barrels can be used as needed over a period of weeks or months depending on the quantity stored. Properly managed and stored rainwater in the desert can make a difference in an arid environment.

Check out the Landscape Water Guide and “Watering By the Numbers” to help you determine the irrigation needs of your landscape.

http://www.harvestingrainwater.com/

Our guest author this week is Doreen Pollack. She is a Master Gardener, a Permaculture Designer and the owner of Down 2 Earth Gardens. Doreen provides advice to homeowners on how to reduce the use and dependency of outside resources in their landscape. She specializes in working closely with do-it-yourself gardeners and people just starting to use their yard for food production and respite from their busy lives.

Water not only sustains life. It quenches a lifestyle thirst. And when its use is abused, it can vanish. And with it, the life around it evaporates.

This withering of water and life is captured in the stark yet beautiful photos of Gigi Cifali’s series, “Absence of Water.”

You can feel the former living, breathing character of these now derelict lidos and baths in the United Kingdom through the architecture, which feels as though it’s frozen in time. The decided absence of one element – water – is what has lead to their ruin.

Through her photo essay, Cifali hopes to “express the importance of water” as an “element of regeneration for the human spirit.”

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).

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

Today marks “World Water Day,” and National Geographic is offering a free download of its extraordinary water issue. The pictures are nothing short of phenomenal.

Drink up.

Water – Use It Wisely founder, Park Howell was named the 2010 “Ad Person of the Year” at the 25th Annual ADDY Awards held this past weekend in Phoenix. The ADDY’s are an extension of the American Advertising Federation and are held each year to recognize the top advertising campaigns and individuals in the state.

It was great to see Park recognized by his peers for his contributions to the industry over the last 25 years. But the most gratifying part of Park’s win is being recognized for the difference he’s made in the community and his passion for causes, including Water – Use It Wisely.

Park’s been instrumental in growing Water – Use It Wisely from its humble beginnings in Arizona to one of the world’s largest water conservation campaigns. It’s Park’s drive that’s given rise to Water – Use Wisely and it’s what ultimately won him the “Ad Person of the Year” too. Knowing Park he’s likely to deflect any praise to those who’ve worked with him throughout the years but we’d like to take the time to recognize him for his victory and all of his accomplishments. Congratulations Park! You deserve it. Check out the official press release here.

Does what we say matter? Do people listen? If the hear us are they acting on it? A new study by the Water Research Foundation provided some insights into these questions and more.

The project, “Water Conservation: Customer Behavior and Effective Communications investigates the effect of communication tools and strategies on residential water use and water conservation behavior of residential customers…” Basically, that’s a fancy way of asking if the stuff organizations like Water – Use It Wisely so passionately promotes resonates with its audience.

We invite you to take a look at the entire study for a comprehensive look at the results but a peak into a few insights are certainly encouraging. Below are a few results pulled from the Phoenix portion of the study (Water – Use it Wisely’s hope base):

• “There are a number of ways to save water and they all start with you” message was seen or heard by 75% of survey respondents.
• “Water your plants deeply, but less frequently to create healthier and stronger landscapes” message was seen or heard by 69% of survey respondents.
• “Use a broom instead of a hose to clean your driveway or sidewalk and save 80 gallons of water every time” message was seen or heard by 61% of respondents.
• Customers that reported that “air pollution” is an environmental concern in the community were associated with lower water use.
• Customers that found sales associates at hardware stores “rarely credible” or “not credible” were associated with lower water use.

It’s encouraging to see that our message is being heard and we’re truly grateful to those passing that message along. It’s because of you that we’re making a difference so let’s turn it up a notch. Help us spread our message even farther in 2010.

Two recent segments from CBS news are worth highlighting. The first is the “60 Minutes” report on California’s drought and the toll it’s taking on the state and nation.

Second is a recent feature in the CBS News series “Where America Stands,” entitled, “America’s Dwindling Water Supply.” The article details some sobering facts including how the U.S.’s water use stacks up against the rest of the world. According to the article Americans average using 150 gallons of water per day with 30 gallons being used by 9 a.m. Compare that to the 40 gallons of water per day used in the U.K. and 13 gallons per day used in some of the worlds poorest countries and it seems we’ve got a lot of work to do.

The rest of the article points to how we got here and what we can do to make a difference. There’s even a link to the Water – Use It Wisely tips page as a resource for how to get started. While there is certainly an urgency to make a difference now, the good thing is there are plenty of easy ways to make a huge difference. Our job here is to help you understand that. But remember, no tip or resource works without your commitment. It doesn’t take much, just a little time and a little effort and we can turn this thing around in a hurry.