Dec. 15th: Bathe for Water
It’s the fifteenth day of our Advent Calendar, and a Wednesday, so today we present The Refinement Club’s very own Gro Larsson’s idea about how to raise funds with your water consumption.
Bathtubs are pretty damn awesome, and on cold days I especially wish I had one. But I can’t help think of how much water you end up using if you have a bathtub. In Norway we have plenty of water, but that’s definitely not the case a lot of other places in the world.
Problem:
Is there a way to make people more aware of how much water they use, and at the same time raise funds for projects that help less fortunate people get access to clean water?
The Tap Project is a project from UNICEF that receive funding from restaurants that ask their patrons to donate a small sum of money to drink free tap water. I think they could go further.
Solution:
A gadget/s that you connect to your water system that records how much water you use, and a webservice where you can monitor your water use. In this case bathroom product suppliers take the role restaurants have in The Tap Project, informing about the gadgets and selling them for a symbolic sum which is donated to e.g The Tap Project (you can also order them online). It’s an advantage for the suppliers to be part of this project, since making people more aware of their water usage can encourage people to change their old products into newer, more water- and energy efficient ones.
On your online profile you will also see your water usage compared to people in different parts of the world, and you can choose to donate a certain amount of money per liter of water you use to e.g The Tap Project. In that way people, who live in areas where water is plentyful, can still enjoy baths and long showers knowing that they are contributing and helping less fortunate people gain access to clean water.
About me:
My name is Gro Larsson and I work as a Concept developer & Art director at Hyper Interaktiv in Oslo, Norway. My credo is that if I can make concepts that can do good in some way, why shouldn’t I? I like it win-win. Last spring I started The Refinement Club together with Johannes Rummelhoff, and one of our goals is to encourage people to share their ideas (hence this calendar).
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