Being part of the irrigation and landscape industry it’s hard for me to gain perspective sometimes on how far the water conservation message has spread. Like everyone, I walk out of retail stores and see signs stabbed into islands of synthetic turf and succulents reminding us all to purchase water saving products and be water smart. Grateful as I am to see the message consuming parking lots, I never expected such a poignant topic to make it into the store and ultimately limit certain products the store would sell as not to contradict the parking lot message. This was the case recently when I needed to purchase 3 kiddie pools for a promotional event in Los Angeles.
DigDeep Is Challenging The Way People Think About Water
Initially I was excited when asked to attend a pool party on a Saturday by my boss, but details quickly flooded in and the key detail became that the pool was empty. As expected though it was for a great cause and momentum built quickly leading up to the event. The Empty Pool Party was put together to raise water awareness and kick-off the The 4 Liter Challenge. A challenge practically the opposite of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, people are asked to use only 4 liters of water within a 24 hour period. See 4liters challenge for more details on the challenge.
Jain’s contribution to this event was 3 kiddie pools converted into mini-native gardens with drip irrigation and some really cool reusable water bottles. This leads me back to the initial discussion about big business and how serious they are taking their drought message. Serious enough that they pulled kiddie pools from their shelves. I was shocked to try half a dozen major outlets and all tell me they were asked not to reorder the pools. While simultaneously pleased and growingly concerned about project completion I decided to make the drive south and try one more “SuperCenter”. The store truly was super and I found a stack of $5 plastic kiddie pools, understandably an anti-climactic ending but the message was clear. Some big business outlets are responding to local water saving initiatives by reducing the amount of water wasting products they sell.
Take The 4Liters Challenge
Thank you to George McGraw and DigDeep for all they are doing for water conservation and for rocking a great Empty Pool Party. The combination of the kiddie pool enlightenment and Empty Pool Party were enough to convince me to do my part and partake in a day of 4 liter water usage. I ask everyone, especially in Southern California to rise to the challenge.
