Sustainability Refined — Water Efficient Faucets (and the Water Shortage Problem)
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Faucets — sexy and efficient?
I doubt you’ve ever thoughts of faucets as being sexy, but neither did I until I started researching what products existed out there. This is another one of those posts that will show that sustainability means better design rather than compromise. I want to highlight a few companies I found that show a high commitment to water efficient products and sustainability within their company ethos, and have incredibly beautiful products as well. Further down, I’ll talk a little bit about the real issue at hand, which is the water shortage problem that the world is already starting to experience.
Moen
When I first heard about black faucets, my life changed. My dream home will most definitely have all black faucets. Something about that matte black finish against a white marble countertop gets me so thrilled.. It seems extremely modern, sleek, and so sophisticated. Moen is an American company that, fun fact, was the first company to introduce the single handed faucet (invented by the founder Al Moen), and is now dedicated to water efficiency as part of their design philosophy. They state that:
“All Moen bathroom faucets are certified to meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) WaterSense criteria, using up to 32% less water while maintaining the same great performance you expect from Moen.”
WaterSense is a certification by the EPA that they state can “help you reduce water use in your home and save money on water bills”, and refers to “bathroom sink faucets and accessories that use a maximum of 1.5 gallons per minute can reduce a sink’s water flow by 30 percent or more from the standard flow of 2.2 gallons per minute without sacrificing performance”. I actually didn’t know about this program and I think it’s really cool — because most of us don’t actually notice the exact volume of water pouring out of their sink. It’s similar to energy efficient light bulbs, where they’re just as bright but use way less energy (I’ll definitely do a post on that soon!). The EPA says that “we could save nearly $1.3 billion in water and energy costs and 69 billion gallons of water across the country annually” if all homes in America replaced their faucets to be WaterSense!! That’s crazy.
All of Moen’s product are WaterSense certified and they even state that “Moen associates lobby the government about the importance of adopting a program that will encourage a significant reduction in water use among U.S. consumers”. That’s quite significant and shows how committed the company is to promoting water efficiency. They also partner with other organizations like LEED, which provides credits for reducing water consumption, and NAHB (National Association of Home Builders) and NSF, which is a non-profit organization that focuses on consumer protections for food, water, and other goods.
U by Moen
The other really cool product I like from Moen is their voice-controlled smart-home faucet that integrates with products such as Google Home or Amazon Alexa. Personally, I’m not one for all this technology in the house, especially the voice-activated ones because we all know they’re listening in on our private conversations… but there are certain elements of the smart-home IoT (internet of things) set up that are extremely efficient and worth it. I think it’s great because it allows for precision when dispensing water. Imagine you’re baking and the recipe calls for 1 tablespoon of water. In normal circumstances, that’s pretty hard to do without turning on the faucet for at least a few seconds and letting a half cup of water go down the drain while you get your 1 tablespoon. With “U” by Moen, you’d say “Alexa, I need 1 tablespoon of water”, and you place your bowl underneath the faucet and exactly 1 tablespoon of water comes out. No waste! So easy and efficient. And again, very sleek and modern.
Last thing I’ll say about Moen that I found particularly practical, although not as sexy since it’s behind the scenes, is their water leak detection system, Flo by Moen. Moen says that up to 17 gallons of water are lost every day in a typical home due to leaks…that’s HUGE when it adds up! Fixing such leaks can help homeowners save on their water bills and remove risk of water damage and thereby saving on insurance costs. Seems like a win-win-win!
Pfister
Although I have no idea how to pronounce their company name, I do appreciate that Pfister shows their commitment to water conservation by clearly stating that:
“You can’t be a faucet industry leader and not be pro-water.”
They also have several partnerships and certifications, from WaterSense, CalGreen, CEC Compliance, and NSF Lead-Free. Pfister talks about the reasons for water conservation being that we have a finite supply of water on Earth, one can save money on water bills, and that we can save money and electricity too. I hadn’t connected the part about savings water to saving electricity so that was really interesting to me — Pfister mentions that the way water gets into our homes is through water pumps (duh!) and so if 1% of the US switched to water-efficient fixtures, we’d save “100 million kilowatts”. I’m not clear on if that means yearly, or over what period of time… so it’s a nice statistic but needs to be clarified.
Let’s talk more about Pfister’s first point: the fact that we have a finite supply of (drinking) water on Earth. This is serious.
“Water is the New Oil”
The above quote is fromTexas oilman T. Boone Pickens. We know that our current society is heavily reliant on oil; fights over oil, both over its production and consumption, have resulted in wars. This, of course, can also be applied to water — we need it to survive, more so than oil actually. According to Suzanne Goldberg, water shortages can results in compromised food and energy supply and could end up being a major factor in starting wars. There are minor “wars” over water even today, and they are mostly occurring in the poorest areas of the world. These conflicts are expected to increase, as water is becoming a more privatized commodity.
This is an issue because private companies are in the business to sell water (think of Nestle, Danone, Fiji, or any other bottled water company). This, of course, means their revenues are based on how much water they sell, so they actually have no incentive to preserve this natural resource. An example of such a company is Nestle; Bloomberg BusinessWeek did an expose on the company stating that Nestle continuously goes into “economically depressed municipalities with the promise of jobs and new infrastructure in exchange for tax breaks and access to a resource that’s scarce for millions”. In Michigan, Nestle pays just $200 as an extraction fee. Using clever marketing, and by becoming a generic name (Such as Kleenex for tissues or Xerox for copies), private companies like Nestle come in and “[take] the pressure off the government to fix its utilities” so people end up drinking bottled water rather than publicly available tap water. Or, they drink it out of necessity — take the Flint water crisis from 2014, which is still ongoing. The Bloomberg article says that “Flint residents have paid thousands of dollars to purchase bottled water for drinking, cooking, washing, and bathing. ‘Between 2005 and 2016, Nestlé has taken over 4 billion gallons of our water for pennies and sold it back to us for huge profits.’”
Moreover, this article on Newsweek notes that the “free markets” do not apply to controlling water costs. Water is not subject to price elasticity, meaning it doesn’t matter what it costs, we need it to survive and will continue using it. The article quotes James Olson, a lawyer who specializes in water rights, who says that “Markets don’t care about the environment, and they don’t care about human rights. They care about profit.”
This is not something we think about often in industrialized countries, where we turn the faucet handle (or wave our hand over the faucet in the case of the “U by Moen”) and water comes out. We just expect fresh, drinkable water to always be available. But the reality is, it will not always be there and we need to do as much as we can to be efficient about the water that we do use. Granted, it’s not individuals like us who are causing the water shortage issues; it is companies like Nestle or the massive industrialized agriculture industry, who use 80–90% of the nation’s water supply. But we have to do our part as well, by being aware and making better decisions when designing our homes.
Originally published at https://www.sustainabilityrefined.com on August 9, 2020.
