Can you shower in 1 minute?

This was the challenge that Chadstone resident, Vikki Mount set herself, when she received her water usage bill in January and was not happy with the amount of water she was using in managing her home.  Vikki made some calculations, set herself a target and commenced changing the way she used household water, in particular the time she took to have her daily shower. 

At around the same time, Vikki decided to undertake a course with Landmark Education and part of the course requirement was to undertake a voluntary community project.  Vikki saw this as an opportunity to use the information she had gathered in her challenge to reduce the water usage in her daily routine to developing a water saving strategy to share with the wider community in particular, school aged children.

Australia is in the midst of an historic 6 year drought

The result of that project is the ‘One Minute Shower’ Website which has been designed to alert the public to how much water they are using during their daily shower routine. 

Designed as an interactive website, the One Minute Shower Website enables adults and children alike the opportunity to fill in a survey submitting their current showering habits. 

They are then asked to commit to cutting down that time, therefore saving water.  

Despite the name of this website, participants are not expected to cut their shower times down to one minute – this is just considered the ultimate.  If they have a high flow showerhead installed, they are also given the opportunity to commit to changing it over to a low flow.  Doing the latter alone guarantees about 50% water savings even if the showering times remain the same.

The benefits of the website are:  To encourage participants to commit to a water conservation effort. 

To makes people think about how much time they are actually spending in the shower.  Upon completion of the survey, the website calculates how much water per day each participant can personally save with their commitment. When participants commit to this saving, they can see their savings being added to Australia’s Daily Water Saving Tally – seen top right corner of the website..
 It’s fun to do, making water conservation more like a game.

  All generations who shower are invited to participate. It is an excellent water conservation education tool for adults and children alike.Instructions for Teachers are included in the website as well as a homework sheet for children.  Families are encouraged to take up the challenge as a family project.  For more information on the website, please visit www.oneminuteshower.com.au