Conferences, Travel and Water – Good Ideas to support Local Communities. Donate water savers for shower heads.
A great idea is coming from Freiburg, the Green (and Blue) City in South West Germany: The city wants to motivate its citizens to save water and energy and is giving away water savers for free in a campaign.
#FrauBlau thinks that could be a good idea for a practical legacy project in a water-stressed destination to support citizens and encourage them to save water.
The water savers are inexpensive and can be distributed across the respective city or municipality in a targeted manner – or of course to the delegates of a congress if the organizers themselves are committed to water protection. Tour operators can also get involved in water-saving along the supply chains of their travellers.
And this is how Freiburg does it: (Info taken from an interview with the head of the Office for Social Affairs, Boris Gourdial, on February 23, conducted by Manuel Fritsch, Badische Zeitung, original in German language:
The interest, especially among households with a small budget, was so high in a first campaign by the city last December, that now in February shower water savers again were specifically distributed in the Office for Social Affairs, the job center and in the district offices in order to reach the citizens in a targeted manner.
“The water savers cost around one euro each. Everyone could probably afford that, but people who receive transfer payments in particular, turn over every euro several times from experience. Or they don’t bother with the topic at all because they think they don’t have enough money for something like that anyway. That’s why it’s very important to motivate people to take an interest in such simple savings. The whole campaign should be an introduction to dealing with the topic and making use of other city services, e.g. the energy saving check. This is also free for transfer recipients. For example, we distribute energy-saving lamps, and, in the best case, the refrigerator is replaced. In 2022, a good 200 such consultations were held, and more than 100 refrigerators were exchanged. For free. The shower water saver is just a small building block in a whole program.”
“With the shower water saver you don’t notice any restriction in comfort and the handling is very simple. You unscrew the shower head and then this little part, the size of a two-cent coin, goes into the opening of the water hose. Then you screw the shower head back on and it’s installed. This can be done in no time at all and does not require any manual skills. The savings effect over the year is then easily in the mid double-digit range.”
———————————————————————-
The Freiburg Convention Bureau shares content about water-related research, organizations, initiatives in their Green (and Blue) City with the meetings’ industry. The goal is to bring water and SDG 6 related action into the awareness of business events’ planners, as an innovative approach for meeting organizers to think in systems and to learn how to connect important sustainable development goals (like SDG for water) with the planning of meetings and events.
The global meetings industry has a strong voice and can use it to close gaps between awareness and action. Impact and purpose can be achieved through events. To directly intervene in the development of an SDG like No 6 through behaviour change, new on-site programs, governance, legacy, and demonstration of change across all sectors, are a practical step into sustainability for any conference. Use “Water” as your anchor to demonstrate engagement.
———————————————–
If you plan a conference and want to discuss water (or other) legacy concepts, contact:
Christina Fritsch, Project Head Freiburg Convention Bureau / MICE / Netzwerk
Tel.: +49 761 3881-15 25 • Mobil: +49 151 22 507 198 • Christina.Fritsch@fwtm.de
https://meeting.freiburg.de/
See you in Freiburg! https://youtu.be/pO7t6P8AQM8
———————————————————————
More Ideas and Inspiration for ESG / CSR applications for Corporate & Association conferences
please follow ecomice on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/ecomice/ or join our FrauBlau group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12736667/
Johanna Fischer, ecomice /FrauBlau SDG 6 showcasing practical measures for climate adaptation in the city of Freiburg
Germany, 30.01.2023
