Shortly after arriving at college, she remembered brushing her teeth next to her new roommate. “What are you doing?” her roommate asked her, gesturing to the tap she’d left on as she brushed. My teacher didn’t realize what the big deal was until she looked over at her roommate’s tap and saw it was shut off. The roommate came from a dry area in California, my teacher from a water-rich town on the East Coast. By the time they met each other as teens, they’d formed vastly different views on the same resource. Of course, there are plenty of good reasons to waste less water at home—no matter where you live. Here, experts unpack a few of the most important and share their favorite strategies for conserving water, beyond just turning off the tap when you brush. In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency1 (EPA) estimates that the average family household now goes through more than 300 gallons of water every day. That’s enough to fill about 10 standard backyard swimming pools each year. While it’s tough to say how much of that water is “wasted” and used unnecessarily, it’s not hard to believe that most of us could fulfill our basic needs using far less. But if you live in a place that isn’t water-stressed (you can find out the overall water risk of your region on this map), you might be wondering why your personal water use matters so much. This is a question that Newsha Ajami, Ph.D., a hydrologist and the chief development officer of Berkeley Lab’s Earth & Environmental Sciences Area, thinks about a lot. After more than a dozen years studying water demand and urban water policy, she’s come to the conclusion that small household changes can add up to make a huge difference on the community level. Consider, for example, the fact that if your home gets public water, it takes a fair amount of energy to transport that water to you, and whisk it away when you’re done with it. And since all the water piped into our homes—from sink to toilet—is potable (ready to drink), it also requires a fair amount of chemicals to clean. Every time we waste water, we waste these resources, too. Ajami emphasizes that thinking about your water use in the context of this whole system is the key to understanding the importance of your tap. “The less we use, the less impact we are putting on the environment from the top and the bottom,” she tells mbg. If many people in a community reduced the amount of water they used at home, it would significantly lighten that community’s water demand. And in the future, as the population continues to grow and climate change threatens water supplies around the country and the world, the more we can reduce the pressure on our local water systems, the better. Nanda Aung, a corporate water stewardship associate at the World Resources Institute, explains that the amount of water lost in transit differs from place to place, but it’s usually a significant figure. In the Netherlands—where Aung works to help businesses achieve their water reductions goals—he says that about 4 to 6% of usable water disappears on the journey from water treatment plants to homes, while as much as 40 to 60% of water can get lost in transit in developing countries like India. Ajami points out that an incredible 50% of household water use in the U.S., on average, is used outside to water lawns. “The biggest irrigated crop we grow in the U.S. is actually grass,” Ajami explains, pointing to a study published in the journal Environmental Management2 in 2005. Now, some people might not consider a green lawn to be a waste of water—but ask yourself: Do we really need to be using drinkable water to keep our lawns looking pristine? Not only are thirsty turf lawns a waste from a water perspective, but they also come with a hefty carbon footprint and don’t do local wildlife any favors. “There is no fixed formula for reducing water demand, so start by assessing your own behavior,” he suggests. Do you tend to take long showers? Do you do a lot of laundry—even when the machine isn’t full? Once you have a better understanding of your personal water footprint, you can employ any of these expert-approved steps for reducing it: Emma received her B.A. in Environmental Science & Policy with a specialty in environmental communications from Duke University. In addition to penning over 1,000 mbg articles on topics from the water crisis in California to the rise of urban beekeeping, her work has appeared on Grist, Bloomberg News, Bustle, and Forbes. She’s spoken about the intersection of self-care and sustainability on podcasts and live events alongside environmental thought leaders like Marci Zaroff, Gay Browne, and Summer Rayne Oakes.
