These must begin with research. Water usage must be measured "down to the last drop." Enterprise-wide and facility-based water consumption must be accurately gauged using reports, meters and software analysis.
Last winter, my husband Dan and I noticed we were beginning to struggle in our quest for fresh, local food. As a Californian learning to endure my first Boston winter, I wanted more variety in our produce. At the same time Dan, a culinary school student, was learning more and more about the role of things like corn syrup and stabilizers in processed food. Between the two of us, we often ended up wondering what we could do to ensure that what we put into our bodies was healthy, fresh and ultimately unprocessed. So we took up cooking more and expanded our repertoire to include items like homemade bread, chicken stock, ice cream and others. Still, in hindsight we relied more often than we would have liked on cheap meat, poultry and dairy - often because it was what we could afford.
Researcher Alexa Spence has spent years looking at the psychological issues around recent advances in energy technology, from uncovering the value of the 'freeloading' flatmate in reducing domestic consumption to studying how businesses can motivate staff to reduce energy usage.