Water and Energy Activity

Artist: Kimberly Ortiz (Alumni Teen Production Council)

Introduction

Have you ever thought about how much water and energy you consume each day? For many of us, we simply open the faucet and switch on the lights when we need it, but rarely think about the ecological impacts of our consumption. Before you get started, take a minute to read the following background information and simply think about it for a bit! 

ENERGY USAGE: Monitoring your energy consumption isn’t just about saving money, energy usage also adds to the climate polluting emissions. Pay attention to your energy consumption and where you can make adjustments to save energy. NOTE: If you look around your home, you are likely to see a multitude of small appliances and electronics that are left plugged in around the clock. Surprisingly, even those that are turned off after use may continue to draw power, and the only way to truly power down many appliances is by pulling the plug. This effect is called “Phantom energy.”

Think about these following questions throughout the week: 

1. Are you turning your lights off when you leave a room? 

2. Are you unplugging your chargers when your devices are fully charged? 

Lamps, appliances, cable tv, wifi routers all use energy even when you are not using them! Be mindful. Unplug! Reducing energy usage doesn’t need expensive purchases of smart-devices or energy efficient-technology, like air drying clothes instead of using the dryer, or turning lights and electronics off when we’re not using them.

WATER USAGE: It is always good to respect and honor water. Depending upon where we live and what is going on with our environment, we might need to even be more vigilant at times, like during severe droughts in Los Angeles, or when there are rain storms in NYC where the sewers become flooded with too much water usage. So through this understanding of place--where we live--we need to learn to work with our environment! So, for the next few days, notice your habits and relationship with water.

Throughout your week, be mindful of:

1. When that water is just running and can be turned off9!

2.  Do you turn off the water while you brush your teeth?

3.  While you are soaping up the dishes? OR can you soap your dishes up without the faucet running? 

4. Shaving?

5.  Can you take shorter showers? 

6. And last but not least, “If it’s yellow, let it mellow if it’s brown, flush it down!” 

Step Overview

Split up your week into two sections. For the first few days, focus on either your energy or water consumption. At the end of the first half, switch over to the other one that you have not done yet. You can make a little chart beforehand to plan your week ahead, like so: 

Some ideas on how to track

Water: 

• put a bucket into your sink and wash your hands like you always do. Then look at how much it is and see if it's more than you expected. (this is more a mindfulness one). 

• do a little math: calculate the time you shower by the gallons/min to see how much one of your showers uses. 

• do an experiment for a day: fill a bucket of water and refrain from using any water outside of this. Predict how long it will last you and see how long you can go until you run out. 

• count how many times a day you use water and time yourself (use scratch paper). 

chatgpt: 

• Online Calculators: Use online water usage calculators to estimate your household water usage based on the number of occupants, appliances, and habits.

• install a Flow Meter: Attach a flow meter to your garden hose or main water line to measure the amount of water flowing through. 

Electricity: 

• collect a bunch of leaves, stones or sticks outside and put them into an old packaging box or something else you have in your house. Every time you turn on the lights, take one out and put it into a box next to it. When you turn it back off, put it back into the box. If you forget to do so, it will stay in the second box. Leave them there and at the end of the week, see how many are in the second box. 

• at the end of each evening before you go to bed, check your house and count how many appliances and lights are still plugged in and left on accidentally. 

• sit down with your parents to see your electricity bill and see how your usage compares to your neighbours (on the statement each month) and do some research on your usage numbers. 

• track with phone or scratch paper. 

• Track when you use the most electricity (washing machine, dishwasher etc) on phone or scratch paper. Do some research on when during the day you should be using these to minimize the impact (and cost!).

Reflection A) Now is the time to reflect on the past week and what you discovered about your energy and water consumption. 

Reflect for a bit and answer these questions: <

Reflection B) Then, please review the graphic short stories by William - Water Pollution and Gisleidy - Water Travels  (past RisingEarth interns) about how your water usage affects your local environment and write a reflection about the questions below. 

Helpful tip: 

One week is a very short time to see any drastic differences in your water and energy consumption, so do not feel discouraged if not too much has changed. Depending on the person, it can take weeks or months for habits to change. The goal here is not to see a complete change within a week but rather to set the foundation needed to shift habits and to help shift our culture towards treading lighter on our earth’s resources.

So chill out and trust the process!  

Now you’re ready to dive in. Start with baby steps at first. Commit yourself to a 3 day challenge! Do the routine for 3 days. 

Enjoy yourself! Try not to think too much but just notice and observe yourself as you move through your routine. 

In the next step, you’ll build on your 3 days, plus give yourself time to reflect.

Step 5: Change for the better 

To make this shift a little easier in the beginning, you can make some fun reminders for yourself in places you need them. All you need is some creativity and art supplies (you can easily use things that you already have in your house).

Some supplies you could use: 

These are simply some suggestions, so get creative and come up with some cool catchy phrases, symbols and icons!