Posts Tagged ‘water for people’

Join our, first ever, global design blogger meetup in NYC and London to meet and mingle #globaldesign

We are very proud to announce our first ever, Global Design Blogger Meetup, with two parallel events in New York City and London.

Live Google Hangout video broadcasts will allow participants at the events to connect with their peers and share in giveaways, the global “Water for People” Pinterest challenge, drawings for two spots on BlogTour to London and LA and trends reports, live from the shows.

RSVP today on Twitvite! http://twtvite.com/Designaroundtheworld

New York City Meetup

Where: ICFF, BLANCO booth # 1336

When: May 19, 12 – 1 pm EST

London Meetup

Where: KBB Show, Poggenpohl booth #J50

When: May 19, 5 – 6 pm GMT

Here are the rules for the contests and fundraiser:

1. BLANCO “WATER FOR PEOPLE” PINTEREST CHALLENGE

• Create a Pinterest board with the title “BLANCO -Water for People”
• Pin a minimum of 5 BLANCO products (must include your favorite BLANCO faucet) plus as many images that illustrate the importance and beauty of pure water. This can be images of oceans, lakes, rivers, swimming pools or whatever else inspires you.
• Ask friends and followers to “like” one or more of your images.
• Submit the link to your board no later than 5pm EST on May 15 to blanco@modenus.com
• The board with most “likes” wins an IPad Mini 32G

2. WIN A SPOT ON BLOGTOUR

• Email us why you have the perfect blog to participate in BlogTour to either London or LA, to talktous@modenus.com
• Print your email out and bring it with you to either event at  ICFF NYC or KBB London
• Be sure to leave your Twitter handle and Facebook page link in the comments
• We will consider bloggers who have had an active blog since December 1, 2012 and post a minimum of twice a week, predominantly on the topic of interior design and architecture
• YOU MUST BRING A COPY OF YOUR EMAIL TO THE SHOW AND YOU MUST BE PRESENT TO WIN.

3. BLANCO “WATER FOR PEOPLE” FUNDRAISER

BLANCO will also be running a YouTube video promotion for their new Faucet Innovations Video. For every view until May 30, 2013 (up to 1000) views, BLANCO will donate $1 to “Water for People”. Click here to see video.

Join us on Google+!

The following guest post is from Water for People - an organization that works to establish reliable safe water systems for developing countries.  The first hand volunteer story below highlights the importance of water conservation for everyone.

Don Gregorio Understands the Water Challenges in His Community

As we leave the rural Peruvian town at 6:30am, the only sounds heard are those of motorbikes and trucks accelerating rapidly toward their morning destinations on narrow, paved roads. Pavement covers the road until the edge of town, turning into dirt roads meandering around the jagged foothills of the Peruvian Andes. Climbing higher and higher, the number of mud-brick homes lining the roadside thins out. Water becomes scarcer with each foot gained, with the highland households heavily dependent on mountain springs for their domestic and agricultural water needs.

At 9,000 feet, our van halts in our first community. My monitoring team slowly scans the central square for our guide for the day, Don Gregorio, the mayoral representative in the community of Casman. As an elected official tasked with overseeing the community’s development, Don Gregorio knows the exact location of the water sources and the challenges experienced by his neighbors in accessing potable water.

He warmly greets us on this cold, breezy morning. It’s rare to greet guests from across the world, so Don Gregorio is eager to host us in his home, giving him the opportunity to properly introduce us to the land, the water struggles facing the community, and their efforts to improve access for households and agriculture. After being treated to coffee and snacks, Don Gregorio outlines the route we’re taking and invites a fellow resident to accompany us.

Knowing his guests are not accustomed to higher altitudes, both gentlemen keep slow paces ascending the mountainsides.

Hiking to the first mountain spring is no easy task. Trekking at this altitude is a challenge. Armed with a machete, our guides chop and hack through thick brush grown to deter animals or passers-by from easily accessing the spring. There aren’t many mountain springs near the community Don Gregorio explains, “We must protect and conserve the ones we have so our children can raise their families in this same place.” In total, two springs are used for the town’s day-to-day activities, with one large irrigation canal cutting through the territory. Due to the demand during the dry season and the scarcity of water, the agricultural user water association must ration the water for each community.

Once at the source, the team begins to plug-in GPS coordinates and record information on the spring source so the Water For People – Peru staff can continue monitoring the community’s water system.

Data collection for reporting and monitoring is not easy, but for this team it’s the reward of knowing efforts have made an impact to improve water delivery and its quality that inspires individuals on such an adventure. One volunteer whispers to me “my life will never be the same after this trip.” Indeed, many who have the privilege of experiencing Water For People’s country programs in person rarely leave without being affected in a profound way. For more information, please visit www.waterforpeople.org.

To enter for a chance to win a water saving faucet from BLANCO – visit www.anyluckyday.com/blanco.

In honor of World Water Day (Friday, March 22nd), BLANCO Design Council member Leslie Clagett of KB Culture has provided this interesting guest post. It’s a unique concept for an eco bath faucet by designer, Chanhee Han. (We have to disclose that this is not one of our exceptional BLANCO water saving faucets for the kitchen—it’s just super cool and worth a mention on this important date. According to the EPA, the bathroom is the largest consumer of indoor water. And so it is important to consider ways to save water throughout the home and not just in the kitchen.)

Please take a moment today to consider how you might save water at home. Whether it’s a water conservation faucet from BLANCO or something as simple as fixing a leaky faucet with a new ceramic disk cartridge (see our easy how to video!). We all can do something to help share water on our planet. Read more about water conservation from groups we love such as Water for People or the Thirst Project, take a shorter shower in the morning or think outside the box as Chanhee has with his unique concept below.

This faucet, a concept by Chanhee Han, addresses water-wasting in an intuitive and aesthetic manner. Based on the observation that people leave the tap on while soaping up their hands—sending liters of clean water down the drain—he devised the Seesaw to automatically separate the lathering and washing actions by virtue of its back-and-forth design. Pressing the left side of the faucet starts the flow of water; pressing the right side dispenses soap—it’s one or the other. Cleanliness and conservation can coexist.

A unique concept for the bathroom helps to save water.

BLANCO water saving kitchen faucets help save water beautifully.

BLANCO wins a Silver 2012 Event Technology Award (ETA) in the Best Use of Technology To Build Event Attendance category. BLANCO along with Modenus, held a packed Champagne and Cupcakes Tweet-A-Thon event during the 2012 International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) to raise money for Water For People, a charitable organization that ensures sustainable safe and clean drinking water for people around the world. Hundreds of tweets from designers, editors, writers and invited guests, reached almost a million people during the event, which lasted for a few hours. BLANCO leveraged the event to launch their CERANA™ Fireclay Apron Front Sink, CRYSTALLINE™ Hideaway Sink and a new collection of water saving faucets during the show.

The ETA’s goal is to choose the best use of event technology which heightens brand experiences, develops strong outreach and communication while creating an open dialogue between product brand promotion and target audiences during trade shows or events.

“This is exciting for BLANCO and for all of our Twitter followers,” states Tim Maicher, Director of Marketing for BLANCO. “BLANCO has fully embraced social media in all aspects and it is indeed an honor to be recognized for our efforts with this prestigious award while giving us a chance to help raise much needed funds for Water For People.”

To learn more, follow BLANCO @blancoamerica on Twitter.

What can you accomplish in four hours? In four hours, I’ll have completed my morning workout, driven to the office, attended several meetings, sent many emails, called my Mom, and most likely eaten another breakfast.

Lots of women and girls in the developing world spend four hours a day collecting water. That’s time away from school, family, work and play.

That’s why this year, Water For People has set out to change the way millions of women and girls spend their time.

Please join us by donating to the Time Well Spent $2 Million Challenge.

If you do, you’ll be helping children like Josephine, a 10-year-old girl living in the district of Rulindo, Rwanda. Until recently, she made a two-hour trek down and then up a steep mountainside to fetch water twice a day. When fistfights started breaking out at the heavily trafficked spring, her mother joined her for protection. For Josephine, this is four hours EVERY DAY that she could have been in school, studying, or playing and just being a kid. For Mom, it’s 28 hours a week that she spends away from her family and home.

But there’s a solution: Through the support of Water For People, Josephine and her mother have regained four hours of their days because, as of June 2012, there’s a tap just steps from their home.

Will you join us in supporting Water For People by donating now to make girls like Josephine’s TIME WELL SPENT?

We need your help today. I hope you can join us in the adventure toward Everyone, Forever in the places where we work. It’s ambitious and we can’t do it with you.

Thank you,

Emma Pfister

Water for People

BLANCO + Modenus recently held a Tweet Up event at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in New York City to promote water conservation – in particular to raise money through tweets for Water for People. Water for People is a charitable organization that ensures sustainable clean/safe drinking water for all people. Hundreds of tweets raised funds and reached almost one million people during the Champagne and Cupcakes themed event. Modenus also drew names to select one blogger to attend their popular BlogTour in London this fall. BLANCO celebrated the launch of three new collections including the CERANA™ Fireclay Apron Front Sink, CRYSTALLINE™ Hideaway Sink and a new collection of water saving faucets. Watch the video to catch all the action at http://youtu.be/1e9B6-RWI0c

Click on images below to watch the video!!

iPads, champagne and cupcakes!

Bloggers tweeted to raise money for Water for People!

By Emma C. Pfister, Water For People

On Earth Day most of the water conservation talk is around turning off the faucet when you brush your teeth, taking shorter showers, making sure your sprinklers are actually aiming for your lawn. These are great “to-dos” and we all need to-do them. But what if you had no faucet and the nearest water source was down a ravine one kilometer away? What if the only shower you had was a nearby pond where cattle also bathed? Would your to-do list be different? For 783 million people in the world their “to-do” list is actually a “have-to-do” list.

When water is scarce you learn how to use every ounce of it as many times as possible. Re-utilizing hand washing water to water plants, planting trees around a water source to prevent erosion and dumping grey water into a soak pit instead of tossing it down the river are all methods of conservation used in the communities where Water For People works to promote the sustainability of the local watershed.

All of these little practices roll-up into one really big practice – Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM). In a nutshell IWRM is the Big Picture from national policy to simple behavior changes on a daily basis with shorter showers, re-using dishwater to water plants, not dumping your Canola oil down the sink and the simple action of planting trees,  all roll -up to make positive changes in our local watersheds. It is one less pollutant being thrown into the water and a few more gallons of water for the next person. All of this is us – developing and developed world – taking an active role to guarantee the future of water for everyone, forever.

Water For People helps make every day Earth Day in the communities where we work. To learn more about our sustainable water and sanitation programming for Everyone, Forever, please visit us at www.waterforpeople.org/everyone.

ABOUT WATER FOR PEOPLE
Water For People is an innovative and impactful next-generation international nonprofit that believes investments made in water and sanitation services must lead to lasting and transformative change. The organization is dedicated to helping people in developing countries gain access to safe drinking water, improved sanitation, and hygiene education. Water For People’s entrepreneurial approach establishes partnerships between government agencies, nongovernment organizations, and private enterprise to create self-managed water and sanitation services that reach everyone and also last forever. Learn more at www.waterforpeople.org or join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

Leave a comment with your own earth-friendly tip for a chance to win a BLANCO SOLON Compost System. One winner will be drawn on Earth Day – 4/22/12.