Imagine a button in your shower that would allow you to save water and energy without you noticing a single difference to your showering experience.

Would you press that button?

It’s a question all users of the Everstream, an upcoming water-recycling shower from LIXIL brand GROHE, will have to ask themselves.

Making the user have to decide to activate the water recycling mode rather than just reducing flows as standard – although the shower does have other automatic water-saving technologies in place – is a conscious design choice. It requires increased awareness of the need to act more sustainably and helps people understand how behavioral change will play a key role in solving the world’s water challenges.

Unsustainable water use is contributing to water shortages across the globe. Almost one in three Europeans is affected by water stress in an average year¹, and 90% of children in the Middle East and North Africa live in areas of high water stress.²

“We owe it to our children and grandchildren to change the way we think about water, and how we use it and take care of it,” says Jonas Brennwald, Leader, LIXIL EMENA, who describes sustainability as part of LIXIL’s DNA. “There is no reason not to act. We have an obligation to make a difference for future generations.”

The Everstream shower helps consumers make that difference.

Changing Consumer Habits

In Europe, bathrooms account for around two-thirds of household water use³, notes LIXIL’s Duarte Salvador, Leader of Design Creative Direction, EMENA, and it’s a fact that is guiding the direction of his work. “Innovative technologies like Everstream consume just a quarter of the water compared with a traditional shower system,” he says.

The energy crisis and its effects on water heating bills have already led some people to change their showering habits. A survey commissioned by LIXIL’s GROHE brand finds that people in the Netherlands, Germany, and Spain are increasingly opting for shorter, colder showers. But there remain a lot of people – particularly in the US and UK – who are not looking for ways to cut their water or energy use in the bathroom.

One of the best ways to change consumer behavior is to make it easy for that change to happen.⁴ Creating a shower that provides all the comfort of a regular showering experience but is more sustainable at the same time is a way to do that.

“This is where our responsibility as a manufacturer comes into play,” says Brennwald. “Who are we to tell consumers what they should or shouldn’t do? Who are we to tell you to have a colder and shorter shower? It is on us to develop the technologies that will make change happen. We need to enable every single consumer to be more sustainable.”

Protecting Water through Technological Advances

Different regions are facing different kinds of water problems. As well as more and more countries all over the world facing droughts⁷, over half of the global population lacks safely managed sanitation services⁸, and 44% of worldwide household wastewater is not safely treated, which can lead to outbreaks of disease.⁹

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6 underlines the importance of access to water, sanitation, and hygiene for all, and the protection of water resources. This is a basic human right, and LIXIL aims to play a part in helping achieve this by making more sustainable homes a reality for everyone, everywhere.

As well as creating a range of products that enable people across different countries and cultures to use water in more sustainable, smarter, and safer ways, LIXIL has also put in place actions to improve its own water efficiency, recycle water and manage wastewater at its factories.

A New Sustainability Benchmark

There is no single solution to the world’s growing water scarcity problem. It is a global issue, affecting everyone, and we all need to pull together to improve the situation.

The Everstream water-recycling shower is one way LIXIL aims to contribute to the solution. It is a step change in innovation that creates a new pathway to sustainability.

“Our technology will change the way we use water without compromising our comfort,” says Brennwald. “It means everyone can reduce their resource use, even those who are not ready to change their behavior.”