Office of Sustainability Teams Up with Stanford Athletics to Promote Water Conservation

Students, staff, and faculty were asked to support Stanford’s water conservation efforts by pledging to take the Shorter Shower Challenge during April. To encourage shower times of five minutes or less, hundreds of shower timers were placed in freshman bathrooms and distributed at tabling events throughout the campaign.

The Office of Sustainability also partnered with Stanford Athletics to encourage water conservation in the campus’s recreation centers. Shower timers, waterproof information cards, and large campaign posters were placed in all locker rooms with showers. Recreation center users also learned facts about conservation through digital signage on all Cardinal Recreation TVs, touch screen displays, and cardio equipment monitors.

Through infrastructure and controls upgrades, as well as behavioral programs like the Take the Shorter Shower Challenge, Stanford was able to reduce its potable water consumption in 2015 by 21% from 2014 levels.