Seriously? This thing’s going to save us $8 billion?
Life is easy in the first world. No matter which way you cut it, so long as you have your health, your framework of “problems” are limited to things a majority of the world can never relate to. Here in California, for example, we are in the midst of a years long drought with no definite end in sight. But as a US citizen in Southern California I can attest to the fact that water is always running out of my faucets. Always. So while I’m completely aware of “the drought” it really hasn’t impacted my day-to-day life in the grand scheme of things.
Even our simplest of habits here can have a global impact but sometimes it takes putting things into context to understand that. Water conservation, or lack thereof, is one of those things you’d never imagine has such a far reaching impact on the world. Water conservation technology is estimated to be a $500 million market today with growth expanding into the trillions by 2020. And according to the Environmental Protection Agency the average household leaks 10,000 gallons of water each year. It’s a big enough problem that President Obama has set a goal of reducing the nation’s water losses by 33%, which translates to billions of U.S. dollars. Robbie Hillis, CEO of a company called Ark Labs, realized how simple the source of the problem is when his daughter left a faucet running overnight. In the 14 hours their water was left on more than 3,500 gallons had been lost. He calculated the water loss and realized that a single leaky faucet dripping five times a minute loses 173 gallons in a year while a running toilet can lose more than 1,000 gallons in a single day.
So Hillis created a technology that allows us to manage water losses…from our cell phones. The Ark’s technology is an artificial intelligence that recognizes normal water-use in a home and monitors that home for abnormalities. A leaky faucet or pipe spills water onto the floor and soon enough you have an alert on your computer, tablet, smart phone, you name it. If there is a dramatic surge in water use (we’re talking faulty plumbing, not just a long shower) Ark will just shut off your water remotely. Ark Labs estimates the simple tool and mobile app could save as much as $8 billion in water losses in the United States alone.
