“On Thanksgiving Day, all over America, families sit down to dinner at the same moment – halftime.” – Anonymous Thanksgiving is really a time to reflect on what we’re grateful for and to hopefully share our gratitude with others. This year in the world of water there are many things I am grateful for and below are my top 10 things around water conservation I give thanks.
- Organizations like Dig Deep, The Tata Center for Technology + Design and Chapin Living Waters. Dig Deep believes every human being has a right to clean water. Water poverty isn’t a problem. It’s an injustice. They are the driving force behind the #4liters challenge. The MIT Tata Center for Technology + Design was founded in 2012. The Center’s research and education mission is to develop solutions to challenges facing resource-constrained communities globally, with an initial focus on India. Center-affiliated Faculty and graduate student Tata Fellows engage in hands-on projects. Chapin Living Waters was founded as a means to express Christian love to needy people in developing countries through small-scale drip irrigation technology. Chapin Living Waters stands ready to assist any group, regardless of race, color, or creed. They offer simple, sustainable technologies for subsistence farming, bringing hope to families and the opportunity to solve their own problems
- Contractors like Nick Martin of Kern Lawn Boarders in Bakersfield, California who understand the value of converting spray irrigation to subsurface drip irrigation for turf. Giving customers who want turf the option of keeping turf and cutting their water use and bill by almost 50%
- Speakers like Charles Fishman who have supreme story telling abilities that make the subject of water and sustainability interesting. Also to the organizations like The Village Garden Club of La Jolla and the Conservation Action Committee for hosting Charles Fishman in San Diego
- Lawn and Landscape for their annual Water Issue and the amazing content they produce month after month. Lawn and Landscape is producing a monthly every contractor should be reading because of the knowledge they will gain.
- Chris Sabbarese from Corona Tools is changing the way the industry is educated. Every week Chris is a host for #Plantchat, #treechat and #landscapechat on twitter. He is literally educating thousands of people every week on complex subjects using a non-traditional ways. He is shaping the future of the industry and is an excellent example of how to use digital media for education
- Chris Heiler founder of Landscape Leadership and Warren Gorowitz, Director of Sustainability for Ewing Irrigation are also helping to shape the industry in non-traditional ways. Chris educates contractors with webcasts, podcasts and on twitter. Landscape Leadership is helping contractors learn how to better market their water management skills and offer many free resources here. If you want to step up your marketing game this is a must see. Warren is making an impact on the entire industry by providing thought leadership for manufactures, distributors and contractors on how to make your business more sustainable. He is truly breaking ground in this area and we all benefit from his work.
- The BlueTech Valley Water Summit. The purpose of the Summit is to provide water constituents within the private, public and academic arenas the opportunity to collectively explore and discuss new innovations, developments and trends relating to current water issues. It is one of the premier conferences to discuss Ag water.
- Apps like Evernote and Buffer that help me stay productive and increase my marketing reach. Evernote is a free app that changed the way I organize my work. I take notes, track tasks, and save things I find online. Evernote syncs everything between my phone and computer automatically. Buffer is a social media tool to schedule content distribution but more importantly it is a source of consistent high qualify digital media education. It is incredible what you can learn from Buffer for free.
- I am thankful for a great editor for this blog, Melody Boates @captureN_h2o and a great boss, Aric Olson @H2oIntel. Melody makes sure everything looks and reads the way it is intended and Aric gives the freedom to write about what is important and trusts quality content will be produced. I am also grateful to the other contributors and to the entire Jain Irrigation team who work so hard to fulfill the mission of leaving this world better than we found it.
- I also want to thank my wife Devonna Hall who patiently teaches me the finer points of horticulture and supplies me with endless ideas for articles and my daughter Lauren Proctor for giving me great digital media advice. Finally, I am thankful for you the readers. You are the ones who make all this possible. Thank you for reading, sharing and commenting on the articles.
If you are thankful for anything in the water world I missed please feel free to share it in the comments below. If you enjoyed this article please consider subscribing or following me on twitter @H2oTrends.