Trade in your long, hot shower for a navy shower. Turn off the water while you’re soaping up and washing your hair and turn it back on to rinse off. That’s it!

What’s In It For The Planet?

  • A drought is a period of unusually dry weather that persists long enough to cause serious problems like crop damage and water supply shortages.
  • Droughts – short or long – substantially impact a region’s agriculture and ecoystems and can create
    humanitarian crises.
  • The average 3-person household uses 300 gallons of water each day; the average person uses 12 gallons of water a day to take a shower. (Low Impact Living)
  • The world population is projected to increase by 40-50% in the next fifty years; combine those numbers with the rate of industrialization and urbanization and we have a serious water shortage on our hands. (World Water Council)
  • “Water stress” is the term used to describe the imbalance between water use and water resources. High water stress – present in many U.S. states – causes deterioration of fresh water resources. (World Water Council)
  • Toilets, clothes washers, and showers are the largest indoor users of water. (Low Impact Living)
  • According to the Water Education Foundation, it takes 2,464 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef in California. This is the same amount of water you would use if you took a seven-minute shower every day for six entire months. In contrast, only 25 gallons of water are needed to produce one pound of wheat. (Vegetarian Times)

What’s In It For Me?

We know it’s not easy to change a habit, especially when it means giving up your long, leisurely showers. But you may be so hooked on hot showers that you haven’t considered some of the benefits to giving them up.

For one, you’ll definitely see a savings on your water bill. Compare your bill before and after you threw in the towel, and we think you’ll be pleased. And if you convince your family to join the 2-minutes-and-under-club you’ll really see a big financial savings.

And how about the extra time? Now that you’ve committed yourself to short showers, do you have extra time in the morning to linger over tea? Can you sleep ten minutes longer? Walk your kid to school?

We want to hear about it. Share your story with others who are also taking steps to live greener today.

Finding the Sacred in…Taking Navy Showers

There is almost nothing I love better than taking a long, hot shower. I am notorious in my family for 30-minute showers. They warm me up like nothing else on a cold day. Our local water district had been admonishing us for months about saving water since we are in a drought. I also know how precious and scarce water is in many areas of the world.

Something clicked in me when I really stopped to look at the water I was using…I mean to literally look at the water. It’s clean and clear, it tastes pure, and it feels good. It’s a fundamental element – a gift to us – from a very intricate dance in nature that we witness every day (or don’t, if we are in a drought). All of a sudden I was noticing water everywhere: condensation, rain, tears, that precious water running down my sink while I brushed my teeth and took a shower…oh no! The Navy Shower is my Pledge: I have been at it for over 6 months now and am breaking a habit of a lifetime. I am actually now showering less – only every other day unless really needed – because, hey, those showers just aren’t as fun as they were. But I feel very protective of the water that is so easily accessible to me.

I read Little Heathens by Mildred Kalish, a wonderful book about growing up on a farm in Iowa during the Depression. In one chapter she describes how her family washed clothes during winter, using only well water. It took an entire day of work and water was used so very conservatively - it was hard found and hauled up. It reminded me that my mother’s family, who lived on a farm in rural Alabama, lived from a well. This wasn’t ancient history – it was a time when it was difficult to get water. It involved hard work, investment and a sense of value. I feel we have a lot to learn from previous generations about living differently and more conservatively with our natural resources.
- Hilary, Berkeley

Wanna Learn More?

Read about depression-era living in Little Heathens,
by Mildred Kalish

Learn about our limited water resources in the film FLOW

Read Water Wars by Vandana Shiva

Calculate your own water use with the Water Use Calculator

Learn where water comes from and how we can conserve it at the World Water Council

100+ ways to conserve water

Learn more about current droughts at the
U.S. Drought Patrol
River of Words is an organization that connects kids to their watershed through poetry and art

At Blackwater Pond
At Blackwater Pond the tossed waters have settled
after a night of rain.
I dip my cupped hands. I drink
a long time. It tastes
like stone, leaves, fire. It falls cold
into my body, waking the bones. I hear them
deep inside me, whispering
oh what is that beautiful thing
that just happened?

- Mary Oliver

Wanna Do More?

  • Substitute one meat meal each week for a vegetarian meal. Vegetable cultivation requires less water than beef.
  • Turn off the faucet when washing dishes and brushing your teeth.
  • Say goodbye to manicured lawns. Replant your yard with native plants and grasses – they are beautiful, drought-resistant and require much less water than
    non-native plants.
  • Install low-flow, water-efficient showerheads and toilets.
  • Reuse household water for outdoor irrigation.
  • Toss your kitchen scraps into a composting bucket instead of down the garbage disposal. Garbage disposals use two gallons of water per minute, or about 700 gallons per year on average.
  • Water your garden in the cool morning or evening to prevent evaporation.
  • After steaming your vegetables, collect the nutrient-rich water and reuse it to feed your houseplants.

Have some suggestions of your own? Share them on HabitChat.