For the uninitiated, I’m talking about tapping enormous mountains of glacial ice — spawned from the 40-million-year-old Antarctic ice sheet — that store approximately three-quarters of our global fresh water supply. The comparatively petite 100,000- to 200,000-ton slabs that fall off every year (roughly 15,000 of them) are especially ripe for the picking now that global warming has really made its presence known.

But to successfully engineer the transportation of calved icebergs from Greenland and Antarctica to other locations in need of water, such as Saudi Arabia, has proven to be quite challenging due to the enormous cost ($100 million) and significant melt rate (sometimes as much as 38%), which pretty much defeats the purpose to begin with. Then, there’s the sheer time and labor necessary to drag a hulking chunk o’ ice behind a fleet of tugboats — upwards of eight months, in the case of the Middle East.

That’s why tapping ’bergs in their natural habitat is far more sensible, as iceberg-derived water companies like Johnny Genuine Canadian Iceberg Water, Glace Rare Iceberg Water, 80 Degrees North Iceberg Water, Naeve Water and Berg Water have proven. It’s is no joke, and consumers who embrace portable water are lapping it up, first and foremost because of the marketing.

Describing their product as “15,000-year-old water untouched by man’s contamination” that is as “exquisitely pure” as it is “velvety smooth,” liquefied iceberg-in-a-bottle sure sounds tempting enough, but then again, that’s what clever advertising copy is designed to do. When you get past the mystique, purported health benefits and sheer novelty of what you’re about to imbibe, you begin to think a bit more clearly.

OK, it probably is far more pristine than the municipal supplies that many of us drink on a regular basis, but just imagine the colossal carbon footprint of safely harvesting, transporting, melting and bottling this wonder tonic. Bergwater helpfully provides a description of the whole kit-n-caboodle on its website:

• An expert is first enlisted to scout out optimum ice chunks for harvesting.
• Targeted iceberg segments are then excised from their main ice mass, netted with mesh nylon and anchored to a speedboat.
• Next, the chunks are crane lifted onto the deck of a boat.
• Once on board, they’re rinsed with municipal water and/or high-pressure steam before being cut into smaller pieces.
• Already melted ice is reserved in holding containers while solid pieces are held in 150-liter drums in order to melt naturally.
• The liquid is then shipped off to a bottling facility, pumped once again into holding receptacles and finally packaged in PET plastic bottles (or in the case of Glace Rare Iceberg Water, in “a unique glass carafe”) before jet-setting to locales from the U.S. to Timbuktu.

Some might argue that it’s perhaps just as resource intensive to transform rock-hard icebergs into a drinkable form as tapping more traditional terrestrial sources, but 80 Degrees North claims that since relatively small amounts of icebergs are harvested by hand, the process is actually rather eco-friendly (despite what the assortment of photos capturing crazy-big iceberg harvesting equipment might suggest).

Unfortunately, none of the companies are talking about the environmental scourge of their packaging, or the fact that the line of work they’re in, which requires shipping their heavy final product all over the world, is responsible for adding to the global warming effect. What’s so bad about ice sheets falling off into the ocean when you’re in the bottled iceberg water biz, anyway? Seems like part of the “hard work” is already done for them. Bring on the heat!

Some simple ways to conserve water:

• Low-flow showerheads
• Low-flush/composting toilets
• Aerators on faucets
• Efficient front-loading washing machine
• Natural landscaping
• Rainwater harvesting

If you’ve done all of the above and are looking for additional ways to conserve water, especially in your bathroom, consider a greywater recycling system.

LetsGoGreen.com explains that greywater is any household wastewater with the exception of wastewater from toilets (or washing diapers), which is known as blackwater. Greywater recycling systems collect and filter greywater and reuse it to irrigate landscapes or even to flush toilets.

Greywater Action cites the greywater potential in your home:

• Top-loading clothes washer: 30-50 gallons per load
• Front-loading clothes washer: 10-20 gallons per load (older models use more water than newer models)
• Shower: Depends on shower time and showerhead — a low-flow (2.5 gallon/min) for 10 minutes is 25 gallons.
• Bathtub: 30-40 gallons per bath
• Kitchen sink: 5-15 gallons per person per day
• Bathroom sink: 1-5 gallons per person per day

There are so many different systems for recycling greywater. Greywater Action explains how to install a number of simple household greywater recycling systems, including one that originates in the shower:

Showers usually produce a lot of relatively clean water. To have a simple, effective shower system you will want a gravity-based system, which means you don’t need a pump. Of course, if your yard is located uphill from the house, then you’ll need to have a pumped system.

In a branched drain system, greywater flows through standard (1.5-inch) drainage pipe by gravity, always sloping downward at 2% slope, or quarter-inch drop for every foot traveled horizontally, and the water is divided up into smaller and smaller quantities using a plumbing fitting that splits the flow. The final outlet of each branch flows into a mulched basin, usually to irrigate the root zone of trees or other large perennials. Branched drain systems are time consuming to install, but once finished require very little maintenance and work well for the long term.

Visit Greywater Action to see an example of a branched drain system from a shower.

Recycling your greywater by reusing water from sinks, showers and washing machines to irrigate plants is a great way to conserve water and have a sustainable backyard ecosystem.

If you’ve wondered about the eco-friendliness of this cold-weather pastime, you may be surprised to know that the go-green movement is making its way to skating rinks across the country.

From a skating rink that uses recycled water to those that don’t use water at all, there is definitely an environmental focus in today’s recreational skating world.

Our first stop in the eco-friendly ice skating tour is Houston. Yes, Houston. This south Texas city is the home of the St. Joseph Medical Center’s Ice at Discovery Green. The ice-skating rink uses recycled water from nearby Kinder Lake as well as renewable energy, and even offers eco-friendly treats to its guests. Visitors to the rink can sip on an organic hot cocoa while munching on gourmet popcorn while skating on recycled water turned into ice.

Houston's Ice at Discovery Green uses recycled frozen water in its rink. Photo courtesy of Discovery Green.

On the other side of the eco-ice-skating spectrum is the waterless ice skating rink. The ice obviously isn’t really ice, but is actually plastic. Ice-skating rinks made out of plastic resin panels are popping up around the world, including the U.S., Canada, Japan and Scandinavia. Recently, Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio tried out an iceless rink as part of its holiday festivities.

These new ice-skating rinks have a few eco-benefits, including the fact that they are completely waterless, require less energy because the “ice” doesn’t need to be cooled and they can be reused season after season.

Depending on the manufacturer of the synthetic ice rink, the product may be able to be completely recycled once it reaches its end of life. An ice-skating rink that doesn’t use water to make the ice, a rink that uses less energy than its traditional counterparts and all of this with the ability to fully recycle the product: That’s my definition of eco-friendly ice skating.

An overabundance of snow results in days off from school (and maybe even work) and the chance to build snowmen, ski and sled ride to your heart’s content. The snowflakes create a winter wonderland for adventurous outdoor lovers.

In addition to providing a base for winter sports, snow is simply chilled water, which can be collected and used as greywater. So, even if you’re not going to frolic in the white stuff, you can at least collect it and save it for a sunny day.

Rain barrels are made for collecting rainwater, but during the wintertime, it’s often too cold to precipitate. One novel idea is to reuse the rain barrels as snow barrels. By shoveling fresh snow from the driveway into the rain barrel, you can have extra water on hand.

Some people prefer to collect snow in rinsed-out milk jugs, which is convenient when you need smaller portions. There are endless ways to collect and store the snow, but it’s more important that you find ways to reuse it.

After the snow has melted and the water has warmed to room temperature, you can use the liquid in many different ways. An easy mode for reuse is to hydrate indoor and outdoor plants with it. Snow has been considered the “poor man’s fertilizer,” so in its warmer liquid form, it can help your ornamentals and vegetable plants grow in the spring and summer.

You can also keep melted snow handy for rinsing out recyclables. Or, use it to rinse off your car before a wash.

Some other ideas include using it for toilet flushing, squelching patio fires and recharging water in backyard ponds or lagoons.

From muddy shoes to sandy beach chairs, you can preserve your well or city water and rely on your melted snow preserves. Now you have a reason to cheer when the snow starts to stick!

Water plays a significant role in producing paper; according to WaterFootprint.org, 10 liters of water is needed to create one A4-sheet of paper. When it comes to creating magazines, journals and newspapers, there is a laundry list of resources needed and an even longer list of environmental damages.

What on earth could paper mills need water for? Well, you have to start from the beginning, because water is needed throughout the entire paper production cycle — from harvesting the trees for wood and processing the pulp into paper, water is an important element.

WaterFootprint.org created a report on the water required for paper production, and in order to print hard copies of the 33-page document, 200 liters of water were used. Consuming freshwater for paper products happens all over the world, and paper mills have an unquenchable thirst.

Take one Wisconsin paper mill, for instance. Every year, 547.5 million gallons of water was fed into water-cooled air compressors. Now this paper mill has 547.5 million gallons of water savings per year since switching to air-cooled rotary screw compressors.

Israel’s Mondi hadera Paper has a goal to create a closed water cycle and reduce liquid discharges to zero. This paper mill’s water consumption in 2009 was 2.1 cubic millimeters and a wastewater flow of 1.6 cubic millimeters, and as a result, they produced 330,000 tons of white, brown and tissue paper. In an effort to reduce its consumption, a pilot softening plant has been installed so that water can be purified and reused.

Since 1994, paper makers have reduced their yearly water consumption by more than 14%. This decrease has come about because of improved wastewater treatment installations that remove effluents such as solids, nutrients and organic substances, which enable the water to be recycled and reused. Even so, the paper production process is still sucking the earth dry.

Water is a precious resource that is required for the survival of all living things, so it’s imperative that paper mills take action and try to reduce their consumption of water as much as possible. Now that you know the water facts, think before you print.

The good

As mentioned above, water issues are more pronounced in regions of the globe that are less developed than the leading powers of Europe, Asia and the United States. Here more than anywhere else, sustainability is taking root more so out of necessity than luxury. Water conservation is key to future sustenance and one school in rural India is tackling the issue head-on while making it educational to boot.

At schools in Madhya Pradesh, a central state of India, the Greywater Reuse in Rural Schools: Wise Water Management Guidance Manual has taken hold as a template for conserving water and reusing when possible. According to a WASH Resources article, “The manual demonstrates methodology proposed by WHO [World Health Organization] to derive the health based targets and water safety plan for safe (re)use of greywater.” Further, the article really hits home declaring the following:

At the present time one third of the world’s population lives in water scarce areas. By the year 2050 it is estimated that the proportion of people living in moderate water stress conditions will increase to two thirds and a half of the population will be living under severe water stress conditions.

As minds change and people stop taking water usage for granted, which seems to be mostly all of us developed nation citizens, our future will look a little brighter as we will have developed habits and technology that reduce, reuse, recycle and conserve the world’s greatest substance.

The bad

When searching for good reasons to start becoming frugal with water, look no further than the homepage of the World Water Council (WWC). The WWC informs us that the irresponsible usage of water can easily lead to agricultural and environmental crises, that will no doubt result in catastrophe for thousands of people, if not more.

Citing phenomena such as increasing human population, changes in lifestyle, agricultural expansions and industrial processes, the WWC indicates how rapidly the available water for human purposes is vanishing. As a related effect, the WWC advocates that this same rapid increase in water usage for human purposes is negatively affecting large aquatic ecosystems and their dependent species. Properly using (or not using) water in today’s world is more urgent than ever. With green-thinking technology and powerful advocates for proper mindsets, water consumption should be increasingly efficient (unless, of course, it’s not).

The ugly

The old saying goes, “the path to hell is paved with good intentions.” It seems that intentions centered on goodwill and eco-friendliness can sometimes go wrong. One example is the archaic and infuriating legislation than prohibits water conservation and reuse.

A National Geographic article informs readers that laws in New Orleans prohibit the new age, forward-thinking and future-crisis-averting homes crafted under the Make It Right foundation and Global Green communities.

Both organizations made a heroic push to both get people back in homes after the tragic events of Hurricane Katrina, as well as showcase the best and brightest designs for sustainable living.

The article explains:

Several homes in the two most advanced green communities have 1,000-gallon underground cisterns to collect New Orleans’ copious rainwater. The plan was to use solar energy to pump water from the cisterns into a separate plumbing system that would be used to flush toilets. But the state of Louisiana has outlawed such cistern and non-potable water use for nearly a century, and has not changed its stance, citing public health concerns.

However, like many other areas of the globe, attitudes toward sustainable projects and products are changing for the better. The end of the article offers some hope when quoting Matt Petersen, CEO of Global Green, indicating that cities and states are slowly starting to embrace water reuse and rainwater systems.

Perhaps one day water usage won’t be an issue. Maybe the miraculous combination of advanced technology, common sense, goodwill toward people and the planet and self-restraint will solve the increasingly pertinent issue of water consumption. But until then, try and the partake in the little acts of reducing, reusing and recycling water (and other resources) whenever possible.

Raising a glass to the end of the work week with a tall, cool, frosty H₂O doesn’t quite generate the same celebratory vibe as knocking back a couple of glasses of wine or beer. Until someone figures out how to duplicate that old familiar buzz using hydrogen and oxygen molecules, alcohol will likely remain the winner of the beverage popularity game. Still, certain social situations dictate conducting oneself with an absolutely lucid mind and demeanor, so fortunately, caffeine and sugar-enhanced liquids are also on the scene to pick up the slack.

Whatever your personal liquid vice, all of it requires plain old water to come to fruition. The exact volume necessary to manufacture today’s most popular drinks, however, varies quite significantly depending on the type. It’s not as simple as using several hundred gallons of water during the beer brewing process or diligently hydrating grape vines in the field. If you consider the entire scope of production — farming the raw materials necessary to flavor our beverages, converting them into liquid form, packaging the final product and shipping it to global destinations — liquid refreshment in countless incarnations ends up generating a sizable eco-footprint.

If you’re eager to streamline your personal water consumption, you might want to take a cold, hard look at the beverages crammed in your refrigerator. Unless you’re guzzling straight from the stream or whipping up your own DIY recipes, chances are pretty good that you’re slurping something with a hefty energy and water footprint.

Milk

One thousand liters of water is typically used to produce 1 liter of milk — meaning that a 200-milliliter glass has a 200-liter water footprint — so this is one instance in which you can easily justify knocking back a beer in honor of Mother Nature instead!

Orange juice

The same 45 gallons of water that are typically used to refine one full gallon of crude oil are also necessary to produce just one measly glass of orange juice, yielding a 170-liter water footprint per typical 200-milliliter portion. Ninety-nine percent of the water footprint associated with Coca-Cola’s two main orange juice brands, Simply Orange Florida and Minute Maid Original, is due to the hydration requirements of plantations.

Apple juice

Approximately 50.19 gallons of water go into one 200-milliliter glass of apple juice at a water footprint of around 190 liters per 200-milliliter portion.

Soda

One hundred thirty-two gallons of water are used to produce one 2-liter bottle of soda, a figure that includes the hydration necessary to cultivate notoriously thirsty raw sugarcane and sugar beet crops. Coca-Cola wants consumers to know, however, that if you focus specifically on how much water they use in the factory, they’ve streamlined it to slightly more than 1 gallon for each 2-liter container it produces (which is a 3.5% reduction compared to two years ago).

Bottled water

Transforming PET plastic pellets into single-use bottles, filling each molded container with treated water and capping/shipping the final product around the world requires 2,000 times more energy to produce than tap water (the equivalent of approximately 50 billion barrels of oil annually). To comprehend the scale a bit better, 24 gallons of water is typically used to make just 1 pound of plastic and 1 liter of bottled water requires the equivalent of 3 liters of H₂O during its production cycle!

Coffee

It takes roughly 35 gallons of water to ultimately produce one stinkin’ cup of coffee, a number that lends credence to the finding that the water footprint of coffee is “more than three times that of beer.” Perhaps this figure will boggle your mind even further: To yield 1 pound of roasted coffee beans, 2,522 gallons of water is necessary (or one drop of coffee uses 1,100+ drops of water).

Beer

The large majority of the water utilized in the beer industry is channeled toward the cultivation of agricultural resources such corn, hops and barley, sometimes as much as 95% (as is the case with SABMiller, the manufacturer of such popular brands as Miller Lite, Pilsner Urquell and Peroni). The beer maker recently determined that each liter of brew that it produces is responsible for consuming 41 gallons (155 liters) of H₂O.

Wine

Boasting a water footprint three times higher than beer, each 750-mL bottle of wine requires 720 liters of water (one full liter of wine = 960 liters of water), which means that one single 125-mL glass of wine has a water footprint of 120 liters. From the chemical fertilizers and pesticides that help grapevines flourish to the choice of packaging (glass, box, Tetra Pak or plastic), the weight of the cargo and the actual shipment mode (land, air or sea), this heart-healthy beverage sadly leaves Mother Nature doubled over in eco-pain.

For more information on water issues, visit the Blog Action Day website.

All over the world, communities are struggling to make their local water supplies meet the increasing demand of people, agriculture and industry. Meanwhile, thousands of gallons of perfectly good water falls from the sky as rain every day, only to flow down gutters and sewers where it is wasted.

Harvesting rain water is as easy as putting a bucket in your yard when it rains, but filtering it and storing it for use in your home and garden is a little bit more complicated. The Rainwater Pillow represents an innovative approach to collecting, cleaning and storing rainwater that’s easy to set up and versatile enough to help you conserve water both inside and outside your home.

Image courtesy of RainwaterPillow.com

Unlike bulky barrels, the Rainwater Pillow is made from a highly durable woven polyester scrim often used by the military, and meets Potable NSF 61 and FDA guidelines, which means no VOCs or off-gassing. The flexible design makes it easy to tuck the pillow away in space that would otherwise be wasted, such as a crawlspace, greenhouse, under-deck area or under your porch.

The Rainwater Pillow comes as a kit that includes the pillow, filter, pump and remote control, and is specially designed to capture sudden downpours. When rain flows down your roof and into your gutters, it is then channeled through an outdoor filter and into the pillow. When you want to use the water, all you have to do is connect a hose to the system and activate the pump using the remote control. The system’s 25-psi water pump will then provide you with 10 to 12 gallons of conserved rainwater water per minute!

Learn more at RainWaterPillow.com. For more information on water issues, visit the Blog Action Day website.

The idea of collecting greywater from common household activities such as bathing and washing dishes might seem overwhelming, but it’s not any more difficult than accumulating rainwater in barrels. Once you have the collection system set up, saving greywater will become just another part of your eco-friendly routine along with your recycling and composting habits.

Did you know that for every two minutes that you run water, an estimated 5 gallons goes down the drain? When you think about all the times you use water in one day, this number adds up quickly. To increase your water conservation efforts, below are simple ways to collect greywater in your home.

• Store a bucket in or outside of your shower. While the water is warming up, you can use the bucket to catch the clean water. You can also keep the pail in the shower while you bathe.
• Wash your hands and rinse fruits and vegetables over a bowl. Or, better yet, fill a bowl of water first and then do your rinsing and washing so you don’t have to run the spigot.
• Pour unused drinking water into a bucket instead of sending it down the drain. Or, reuse the water right away by hydrating your indoor or outdoor potted plants.
• Divert rinse water from your washing machine into your garden. This can be accomplished by using a T-valve and additional piping to your back yard. However, you have to be more cautious of the types of detergents you purchase. Many detergents contain salts and other toxins that will deteriorate the quality of the soil and potentially kill plants.

Taking the time to collect greywater can save you money on utility bills, and it reduces the amount of wastewater your household creates. However, with greywater collection, there are some safety concerns to be aware of. For example, you don’t want to use greywater on edible plants or reuse water that has been contaminated with fecal matter, bacteria or chemicals. But, by watching the products you use in your home (e.g., detergents and cleaning products), you will be able to reuse more greywater and conserve a precious resource.

For more information on water issues, visit the Blog Action Day website.

We all know how important water is to our very existence. But did you know that unsafe drinking water and lack of sanitation causes 42,000 deaths each week? That’s more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. And, also according to Change.org, more people have access to a cell phone than to a toilet. Try to wrap your mind around that. Today, 2.5 billion people lack access to toilets. This means that sewage spills into rivers and streams, contaminating drinking water and causing disease.

These statistics coupled with knowing how precious our water supply is keeps me constantly trying to improve upon the ways my family uses and reuses water. Here are some tried-and-true family-friendly water conservation tips (translation: these are so easy, anyone can do them):

• Turn off the water when you are brushing your teeth or shaving.
• Reuse the water left from cleaning your fish tank to water your houseplants. Fish poop is apparently a great fertilizer.
• Compost your vegetable food waste instead of running your garbage disposal and save gallons of water each time.
• Run your clothes washer and dishwasher only when they are full. You can save up to 1,000 gallons a month.
• Shorten your shower by a minute or two and you’ll save up to 150 gallons per month.
• Reuse the water left over from cooked or steamed foods to start a soup base.

We recently moved into a new home and haven’t yet installed a rain barrel for recycling our rainwater. Instead, every time it rains, we run our buckets outside to catch rain. We then use the water for our trees, scrubs, flowers, gardens and anything else we can find.

It may take a little extra thought, but conserving one of most precious resources is worth the effort. The next time you are about to get rid of some water, first ask yourself if you could reuse it.

For more information on water issues, visit the Blog Action Day website.

I live in the Phoenix metropolitan area, smack dab in the center of the Sonoran Desert. When this year’s Blog Action Day topic list went out for voting, I immediately voted for water and sure enough, I wasn’t alone. Now that Blog Action Day is upon us, I want to encourage my fellow desert dwellers to reduce their water usage.

Phoenix's lush landscaping isn't without the cost of severe water usage.

How to reduce your water usage

• Low-flow plumbing — Switch your showerhead out to a new one with a 1.5-GPM flow rate. This is a quick and easy fix, and if I can do it myself, you can as well.
• Limit showers — Switching from a 10-minute shower to a five-minute shower could save you 7.5 gallons of water for each shower you take. This reduces your water usage by 225 gallons per month and 2,700 gallons annually if you take one shower per day.
• Xeriscaping — If you have a lawn, ditch it. Speaking from experience here, lawns are water hogs. We don’t live in an area that gets enough water to keep a lawn alive, so forgo this landscaping upgrade. Our front yard is filled with beautiful granite rocks now.
• Combine laundry loads — If you have kids, wash their lights with your lights and their darks with yours. Although you have the extra step of sorting the laundry afterward, you do save a washer full of water with each combined load.
• Running water — When you’re washing dishes by hand or brushing your teeth, don’t leave the water running. This simple step could save you gallons of water per day.
• Fruits and vegetables — Rinse your fruits and vegetables in a pan of water. Simply fill a pan with water, which prevents any water from going down the drain, and once you’re done you can water your houseplants with this water.

There are many more ways to reduce your water usage, and these are just a few ideas. What are your favorite ways to conserve water?

Why reduce your water usage

Now that you know how you can quickly change your water usage (with the exception of pulling out your lawn), you might need some motivation, and this is where the “why” comes into play.

Although the Phoenix metro area is not currently in a drought, the majority of Arizona is either abnormally dry or in a moderate drought, with a small pocket of the state in a severe drought. The Colorado River runs right through the driest parts of my state. The majority of Colorado is also experiencing drought or near-drought conditions. Guess where the Colorado River originates? That’s right, Colorado.

According to the Central Arizona Project, 32% of the state’s water comes from the Colorado River. Arizona’s growing population, the ongoing dry conditions in the region, and the possible reallocation of Colorado River resources could lead to supply concerns.

Water is a finite resource. While people in developing countries have problems accessing clean water, those of us living in an arid climate may be taking our instant water access for granted. So, I encourage all desert dwellers to reduce their water usage now, before it becomes an even bigger concern in the future.

For more information on water issues, visit the Blog Action Day website.

To accomplish that last goal, the Take Back the Tap people might need to do a little more outreach (the wait staff at participating restaurants probably needs to be aware of the campaign to educate customers about it), but otherwise it’s a very cool effort. We’ve been hearing for years about the environmental toll bottled water has on the planet. The Take Back the Tap website drives that point home, noting that 86% of our country’s empty plastic water bottles, or 2 million tons of PET plastic annually, end up in the garbage instead of being recycled, while plastic bottle production requires about 17.6 million barrels of oil each year in the U.S. alone. Given what’s going on in the Gulf of Mexico right now, I think I speak for everyone in this country when I say, ew.

If you still need convincing, the website also mentions that 40% of bottled water out there is nothing but reprocessed tap water, plus bottled water can actually be bad for your health — dangerous chemicals can leach into the water, and as many as a quarter of bottled water brands have tested positive for bacteria or chemical contamination.

An impressive roster of restaurants in California, Colorado, DC, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington and Wisconsin have taken the Take Back the Tap pledge; visit the campaign’s website to find out if there are any near you. The project also is expanding to college campuses across the country. You can even make an individual pledge to stop drinking bottled water and join the Take Back the Tap movement. You already know it’s the right thing to do, so why not put it in writing?