Promote water conservation by helping H2OScore
With population growth and uncertain future weather patterns, water conservation is becoming a much larger issue in our communities. Therefore, water conservation efforts need all the help they can get. A student-led social entrepreneurship venture based at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin has started up and they are trying an innovative idea to get people to understand their water usage patterns better. Project H2OScore is designed to promote water sustainability and empower water users through the innovative use of data and community-building web and social media applications. The project is led by Dr. McGee Young, a professor at Marquette University and David Snopek, a programmer with a background in entrepreneurship.
What is an “H2OScore”?
H2OScore is a way to deploy data about water that empowers communities and individuals to commit to sustainability without resorting to drastic rationing, dramatic price increases, or other invasive regulatory options. They hope to do this by getting water use data from cities and communities across the United States through Freedom of Information Act requests. They take this data and then translate it into their database. From their website, you will be able to enter your address and number of people in your household and they will calculate your H2O Score. You will then be able to see a true picture of your water usage patterns.
They’ve recently launched a fundraising campaign to help add 100 new cities to their database before the end of the year. They recently contacted me to help promote their efforts on my blog. There are only a few days left in this campaign. Hopefully they will open another crowd-raising campaign because this is a great idea to help promote the understanding of just how much water you use in your household. Every little bit helps and they give awesome perks to you, even if you only contribute $5.
