Beyond Water Conservation: Conscious Living & Working

The historic drought in California is about peeling back layers of the myth our lifestyle security.

Our state has a GDP which overshadows many countries and with it comes big spending and a culture of waste which stems on an over-reliance on recycling. We even think the millions of coffee cups we use at major chains are recyclable: They are not. Similarly, the plastic water bottle we purchase by the flat at wholesale stores requires the removal of the cap and label for processing and only 23% are recycled.

Recycling itself requires energy and water. We use energy to move and treat water as discussed in this article 19%: The Great Water-Power Wake Up Call.
Carrying thermoses into coffee shops, bringing your own tupperware to restaurants, timing your showers, installing a rain barrel or any container to catch the occasional drops from the sky will not solve our problems. Only conscious living and preventing waste at step 1 will matter.

We have to turn our culture of waste into a culture of sharing.

Silicon Valley is enjoying a real estate renaissance with the building and expansion of tech campuses and along with this boom is a new wave of startup space and apartments which must do everything to be energy and water efficient. The Bay Area started a trend which has survived the economic ups and downs: Coworking.

Instead of 5 startups purchasing office furniture, printers, phones and equipment if they all shared a professional, clean and green space it would dramatically reduce the waste.

If you have no budget at all please work out of your local public library and support the backbone of your community. Sunnyvale, Mountain View and Palo Alto all have spectacular libraries with great events. The next step up would be Hacker Dojo which has a scrappy feel perfect for incubating ideas and Sandbox Suites which allows members to walk in and work in 5 Bay Area locations: SOMA, Union Square, South Park, Berkeley and Palo Alto.