Every Drop Counts

Water conservation is a priority for everyone. Did you know that only 1% of water on the Earth is available for consumption? Or that humans can only live 3-7 days without water?

Safe drinking water, healthy and intact natural ecosystems, and a stable food supply are a few things at stake as our water supply is put under greater and greater stress. You may not see the direct impact that water has on our daily lives, but there are many good reasons why conserving water should be a priority for us all.

Benefits of conserving water include:

• Reduced demand on drinking water supplies. Much of our drinking water comes from groundwater and aquifers. These replenish very slowly and the faster we use the water from them, the more lake levels could drop, spring flow could slow or stop and wetlands could recede. Water availability is expected to decrease in many regions, yet global agricultural water consumption alone is estimated to increase up to 19% by 2050.

• Protected eco systems. A water-related habitat is critical for the survival of many species, including those that are endangered. Did you know that nitrate from agriculture is the most common chemical contaminant in the world’s groundwater aquifers?

• Reduced energy consumption. In order to pump water from a central facility into your home or a business, energy is required to run the equipment. Studies have shown that in California alone, 6.5% of all energy consumed goes towards moving water from one place to another.

What’s Lush doing about it?

In our manufacturing facilities and our stores, we identify and implement best practices when it comes to water efficiency and protecting our waterways, including:

• Installing low-flow fixtures and closed-loop water systems

• Creating naked products such as naked shampoo bars, which save more than 450,000 liters or 118,800 gallons per year in water (as compared to making bottled liquids)

• We use mineral-based pigments, seaweed-based glitter and starch-based lusters to avoid adding micro-plastics to our rivers, lakes and oceans

• An annual water competition in our manufacturing facilities encourages reduced water consumption not just at work, but at home too

• Through our Sustainable Lush Fund we aim to develop and source ingredients from sustainable agriculture projects that are working on ways to conserve water

• In 2013, we campaigned for sustainable water use with Take Back the Tap to raise awareness among our staff and customers. Did you know that for every liter of bottled water, three liters are wasted during the production process?

• We use recycled materials for all of our paper purchases. Over 435,000 gallons of water were saved in the past three years by purchasing recycled paper for our shops—it requires much less water in the manufacturing process than virgin paper.

Water conservation should be everyone’s priority and we’re doing what we can to educate and ensure we’re using water respectfully and responsibly.