Kenmare House (where the Environmental Office and other Estate Management units are housed) like almost every building at the University - has a water meter, making it easy and possible to track monthly consumption and cost. Kenmare is quite small and water costs are rather low, so water savings from water reduction efforts are small.
Nevertheless, the toilets appear to be quite old and flush violently for what is probably 30-40 seconds if not a minute. This leads me to believe they are probably using at least 13 liters (or roughly 2.86 gallons which actually doesn't sound as impressive as how long and loudly it flushes) per flush.
Estate Management has a program for employees to make suggestions for improvements, called "Staff Suggestion Scheme." The other day Martin showed me a suggestion made by the building's maintenance lead to eliminate plastic cups from the building (except for guests) by supplying everyone with a reusable water bottle like a Sigg. Anyhow, Martin suggested I write up something to reduce flush rates in the male and female restrooms and so as a very small and last mini-mini project, I've written a "staff suggestion." Perhaps, at a minimum, water hippos which are provided free from the local water agency will be put in to displace some of the water in the tank.
An additional conclusion is that it'd be great for UC Berkeley to have a water meter on each building and to be able to get data off the meters online, which is something that we are working toward after the Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Sustainability's water study and reduction recommendations report.
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