Municipal Awareness and Action Campaigns for Outdoor Water Use

Hello,

I work for The City of Calgary in our water services department. We are beginning to prepare for our annual outdoor watering campaign and I was interested in hearing about some of the creative things that other municipalities are doing to create action change in their communities. Typically our campaigns consist of media awareness in the form of radio, television and newspaper ads, and community engagement in the form of utility bill inserts, library presentations, one-day rain barrel truckload sale and small door- to-door community pilots. Awareness in Calgary has really grown over the past few years, so this year we would like to focus on changing outdoor watering behaviours and actions. Some of the things that we are interested in are:
- Conservation tools that are easy to use e.g.) Distribution of soil moisture probes that could indicate (color change) when lawns need to be watered.
- Prompts to place over outdoor taps and hoses
- Engaging local University and College Landscape and design students to create water wise yard or rain garden plans.
- Natural Garden Parties (similar to a Tupperware party) that a local gardening expert could attend to distribute outdoor water conservation tips and tools
- Mulch sales - Incentives for alternative ground cover/ reducing lawn size.
I would be very interested to hear the different techniques and approaches taken to achieve behaviour change and ultimately, water savings. Any tips, ideas, success stories (or horror stories), articles or studies would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much and best regards,
Kate Murray, B.Sc.

Public Program Coordinator Water Resources
The City of Calgary |
T 403.268.2881 | F 403.268.5709 |
www.calgary.ca