Comcast and Major League Baseball: Save Our Water

While California suffers from one of its worst droughts on record, a major telecommunications company is doing what it can to conserve water in the Golden State. Comcast recently announced it has introduced water reduction efforts in California with the goal of reducing water use by 25 percent or 10 million gallons a year. 

Comcast has many offices throughout California and the third largest fleet in the United States. The water reduction initiatives include not washing its fleet of 2,850 trucks and vans. Comcast is drastically cutting back on watering landscaping on its 250 properties throughout the state, and will design new landscaping and development to use drought tolerant plants.

In addition, the company launched an employee awareness campaign to encourage its over 4,000 employees to reduce water use both at work and home. Comcast expects to report on its water reduction progress later this year. 

Comcast is not the first company to implement water reduction measures in California. In February, AT&T California President Ken McNeely asked the company’s 34,000 California employees to reduce their water use at work by 30 percent. Employees were asked to take certain steps to reduce water use, including not washing AT&T’s California fleet of over 15,000 vehicles, cutting irrigation at facility landscaping in half and turning off decorative water features at corporate buildings. 

Save Our Water campaign urges residents to reduce water use by 20 percent

Back in January, California Gov. Jerry Brown issued a state of emergency in the state due to the drought. In the state of emergency, Brown called for all California residents to reduce their water use by 20 percent, and directed state agencies to executive a statewide water conservation campaign, Save Our Water, to educate all Californians about the drought and ways they can save water. 

Major League Baseball teams in California are partnering with Save Our Water to encourage their fans to reduce water use. Players from the San Francisco Giants, Oakland Athletics, San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Angels created public service announcements for the Save Our Water campaign.

The teams also have set up information areas in their stadiums for fans. The Giants put up a tent in Willie Mays Plaza to distribute Save Our Water information for two hours beforea game’s first pitch. The Padres feature the Save Our Water campaign during their Fan Cam and Pad Squad (T-shirt launch) during games. The Angels display the Save Our Water logo and message on their Big A LED sign. The A’s include a “live” reading during a game of the Save Our Water message during the A’s weather report.

A recent report showed that in urban areas, Californians only reduced water use by 7.5 percent in July, compared with last year. However, that is a reduction from 4.4 percent in June and May, when water use actually increased by 1 percent.

This article first appeared in Just Means. Graphic of green tree in the desert by Inga Dudkina via Shutterstock.