What is H2OScore.com?

Our Story

When books are written about the great transformations of the 21st century, the ideas and innovations that promote sustainability will be at the forefront.  Our greatest challenges lie in managing demand for scarce resources.

When our most vital resource - clean fresh water - is inaccessible to more than ten percent of the world's population, we know that more sustainable solutions are required.

Our goals are both modest and expansive.  We began as a class of students, seeking to make a difference, and inspired by the idea of social entrepreneurship.  We built a website and started to dream.

Now we have become the leading example of a student-led sustainability enterprise in the Midwest, and the first trans-community resource for water sustainability that utilizes actual usage data to empower citizen conservation efforts. 

Where we go from here depends on your support!

Ultimately, we hope to become a national (or perhaps trans-national) resource for water consumption analysis, linking end-users with local businesses, civic associations, city governments, and regional planners to achieve comprehensive water sustainability.

How it works

Our mechanism is simple:  We obtain public data from municipal water utilities, add it to our comprehensive database, and allow the consumer to access their consumption history simply by typing in their address on our website.

Since there are thousands of municipal water utilities across the country, this is a massive undertaking of data collection and aggregation. 

When we finish, our site will be nothing less than transformative.  Instead of blindly paying a utility bill, consumers will have detailed information at their fingertips to make informed choices about their water consumption.  How much to water, what type of aerator to install, even which local businesses make efforts to conserve.  In short, our site promises to transform our culture of water waste into a culture of water awareness.

By contributing to our campaign, you are making it possible for us to add 100 or more cities to our database.  That will be a major step forward for us and a giant leap forward for water sustainability.

The Impact

The typical person uses 100 gallons per day of water on average.  This includes both essential uses like washing dishes and less essential uses like watering the driveway.

If just one million people reduced their water consumption ten percent, that would save 10 million gallons per day.

Imagine if your water utility didn't have to raise rates to pay for a new or expanded water treatment plant.  Or if your sewage treatment plant didn't overflow as much.  Imagine the greenhouse gases reduced because the energy required to treat the water didn't need to be consumed.  Imagine if that aquifer was still there for your grandchildren.

Or imagine that we continue on our current path.  When water becomes scarce, governments enact inefficient restrictions.  They penalize people by raising rates.  Or they sell the water utility to the highest bidder and turn it into a profit center.  We find all of those alternatives distressing.  Rather, we'd like to see people empowered to use water wisely and efficiently and to preserve it for future generations.

What We Need & What You Get

We believe that you should have a say in which cities we expand to cover.  So, we're offering the following proposition: donate the cost of adding a city ($65) and we'll let you pick which one we add.

If you have an aunt in Scottsdale who waters her lawn ALL THE TIME, we'll put in a request there if you donate the money.  Then you can type in her address and see how she compares to YOU (as long as your city is in our database too!).

Based on past experiences in obtaining water usage data from around the Midwest, we calculate the $65 average based on fees and costs that we incur.  That's $40 on average in fees and $25 in labor/overhead costs per city (explained in more detail in the video!).

If we don't reach our goal of $6500, we will add as many cities as we can for that amount.  And if we raise more, we'll just keep adding cities at the same rate.

If $65 is too little or too much for you to donate, we offer several alternatives in the column to the right!

Other Ways You Can Help

Spread the word about H2OScore.com.  Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. Ask your friends in other cities to contribute $65 so their cities can be in our database too!