Water Reduction Initiative

During the winter of 2007, Drexel embarked on reducing water consumption by installing restricted-flow shower heads and aerators in all facilities across campus, which immediately starting showing significant reductions in water consumption. These highly effective water conservation efforts demonstrated two simple and fairly inexpensive steps that can be taken to save water.

Drexel has taken additional measures to reduce water consumption, which include the campus-wide installation of a Rain Bird irrigation system which measures the moisture in the soil to activate zoned sprinklers without the use of automatic timers; and the treatment and reuse of rainwater for flushing toilets in the new Recreation Center.

To date, the University’s efforts have demonstrated 42% July 2009 vs. July 2007 reduction in water use.

Drexel University Water Consumption

	ccf FY08	ccf FY09	ccf FY10	% change to FY08	% change to FY09
July	20,393	14,294	12,040	-41%	-16%
August	16,040	16,396	14,599	-9%	-11%
September	13,856	13,335	11,648	-16%	-13%
October	15,363	15,461	13,417	-13%	-13%
November	18,617	19,096	11,500	-38%	-36%
December	13,873	9,849	13,291	-4%	35%
January	11,559	12,410	7,327	-37%	-41%
February	14,405	13,448		n/a	n/a
March	13,071	9,534		n/a	n/a
April	10,962	9,740		n/a	n/a
May	16,166	22,125		n/a	n/a
June	18,409	13,796		n/a	n/a
YTD	182,714	168,484	83,822
Variance		14,230
Percentage		7.8%
Average	15,226	14,040	11,975

Drexel's campus-wide adoption of Green initiatives has brought increasing awareness to the benefits of water reduction. To show how water touches on every aspect of human life and culture, Drexel has also hosted a screening of the film "One Water".