When it comes to implementing an environmentally friendly and efficient lifestyle, it is often times the littlest of tweaks that can make the greatest impact.  Breaking down your daily routine and identifying commonly used appliances and household items, as well as consistent energy and water usage, is the first step.  You might brush your teeth three times a day and make a conscious effort to keep the faucet shut off—say you save one gallon of water each time you brush—that’s three gallons a day, 21 gallons a week, and this impact continues to increase exponentially.  Another household water feature—the toilet—allows those environmentally conscious less control when it comes to water conservation.  One flush is one flush.  But, with recent advances in the toilet industry, a toilet owner’s control over water conservation is taking on a new light.

In the forefront of this movement toward water-friendly toilets is Kohler Co. of southeast Wisconsin.  Priding itself on providing customers with stylish, high-efficiency, water-friendly toilets, Kohler sells a number of toilets with the Energy Policy Act’s Water Sense label.  Features with this label use 20% less water than standard 1.6-gallon toilets, while still meeting strict flushing performance guidelines. 

To put a little perspective on exactly how much water these new high-efficiency toilets are conserving, consider the more recent history of toilet efficiency.  In the 1980s, manufacturers designed new models that needed only 3.5 gallons of water per flush.  In 1994, all toilets manufactured had to meet the Energy Policy Act and use 1.6 gallons of water per flush.  And now in 2008, with these new high-efficiency toilets, one flush uses only 1.3 gallons of water.  One flush may not seem of any significance in your daily routine, but the difference between one flush in 1980 and one flush in 2008 is almost 2 gallons!