Yarra Valley Water’s latest campaign will ask Generation Z Melburnians to be more water conscious as a survey highlighted 33 per cent of this generation spend 10-15 minutes in the shower.
A recent survey commissioned by Melbourne Water corporations, Saving Water in Melbourne (SWiM) said showers made up an average of 31 per cent of a typical household’s water use with under 35-year-olds taking significantly longer showers than older Melburinians. Baby boomers, in comparison, were only showering for 4-5 minutes.
The new, light-hearted, Shower Shorter campaign is encouraging young adults to take shorter showers by cutting out water-wasting behaviours.
The campaign uses fun characters such as the ‘daydreamer’ and ‘performer’ to tap into all the things we love to do in the shower – such as singing, meditating and solving the world’s problems – that can be better done elsewhere.
Yarra Valley Water Managing Director, Pat McCafferty, said being mindful of how we use water can lead to better habits that can protect precious resources and save money.
“Young adults are spending longer in the shower and we know the average household uses over 30 per cent of its water in the bathroom,” Mr McCafferty said.
“With a drying climate and growing population, we need to develop good water use habits and protect water supplies for the future. By cutting back to four minutes, the average household can save 24 litres of water per shower and $200 a year on water and energy bills. Small changes like this are easy to make and collectively have a big impact.”
The survey also found that the younger generations of Melburnians were more likely to underestimate their water usage, at least compared to Baby Boomers. Generation Z were also less likely to place high importance on saving water than the Greatest Generation (those aged 75+).
Melburnians were mixed in terms of whether they limit their showering time, with almost 40 per cent indicating that they do only sometimes, and only 37.6 per cent indicating that they limit shower time ‘always’ or ‘most of the time’
Over the course of a year, the average reduction to four minutes can also save 359kg CO2-e Greenhouse Gas emissions a year, the equivalent of driving from Melbourne to Townsville.
Other general population key findings include:
- Out of the respondents who sing in the shower the most popular song to sing was anything by Adele
- Over 80 per cent of Melburnians are aware that they could do more to save water
- Most Melburnians aren’t aware of how much water they use per day, meaning that they might not be doing enough to save water
- Only 26 per cent of Melburnians felt that other people are doing enough to save water, in contrast to 70 per cent of respondents who felt (or at least somewhat agreed) that they, themselves, are doing enough
- 71.6 per cent of Melburnians shower or bathe at least once per day, and 18.8 per cent shower or bathe every two days, and 9.6 per cent shower every three days or longer
- 58 per cent of Melburnians indicated that they never reuse greywater (e.g., re-using bathroom or laundry water to water plants), which is high considering only 10 per cent indicated they have no plants/lawn
Yarra Valley Water customers can see and hear the campaign until 25 June on digital channels, social media, YouTube, outdoor signage, Spotify and podcasts in English, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Punjabi and Arabic.
