Eco Shower

The 2016 Water Research Foundation report on current household water usage in the United States showed that 20% was for daily showers.  The American Hotel & Lodging Association has determined that its 550,000 rooms in the US generate 2.3 10-minute showers per day. Thus, a reduction of 10% of hot water usage in household showers would reduce electrical generation by 142 kilowatt hours per day, with a reduction in hot water usage in showers at hotels of 4.9 kilowatt hours per day. The Eco Shower would have similar impact on water usage, reducing potable water usage by 728 million gallons per day for households and 25 million gallons per day at hotels. CO2 reductions would follow accordingly, with a reduction of 131 million pounds per day for households and 4.5 million pounds for hotels. These savings could be achieved by the individual taking a shower being made aware – and given the tool – to change their habits, both at home and when traveling. The assumptions are determined from the change in use of the amount of hot water in both households and hotels, the subsequent savings in kilowatt hours, and derived from that, the reduction in CO2 emissions. Thus, an annual reduction in hot water of 266 billion gallons in American households would result in a reduction of 52 billion kilowatt hours needed to heat the water, leading to a drop in CO2 emissions of 48 billion pounds. Similarly, a reduction of 9.2 billion gallons of hot water would lead to a drop of 1.8 billion kilowatt hours to heat the water, and thus a reduction of 1.6 billion pounds of CO2 emissions would result. 

The Eco Shower’s purpose is to provide a simple mechanism that will allow the ordinary American to reduce the amounts of heated water used by American households and hotels for their daily shower, thus impacting both the water and energy usage affected in a simple way on a daily basis. By alerting the person taking the shower or the hotel providing the heat and water of the costs in a way that the individual can control, the impact on energy and water usage can generate real savings in both, while also reducing financial costs. We realized that such savings could be obtained by the use of a simple device – a water ring in a shower – controlled by an app easily downloadable and providing reports that could show the user the savings and how they could impact energy and water use immediately. We began the creation of Eco Shower in 2019, and although the pandemic has affected the timeframe somewhat, we have made steady and effective progress in its development. 

From a technology standpoint, it is a complex invention but very user friendly by design. The shower ring fits every shower in every home, condo, apartment or hotel room in the world. 

The ring has to both measure the heat and flow, while also communicating by “beeps” when the water is warm and again when a five-minute shower time is up.  Thus, we had to provide it with the ability to measure heat, measure time, and communications via Bluetooth with our app

We had to develop the app, which tracks shower water usage and savings for each shower in the household each day, week, month, and year to date.

We determined that to ensure that to get people and hotels to use the Eco Shower, we had to design it so that installation is easy and requires no tools. 

Similarly, we had to make installing the app on every smart phone, tablet, or PC was easy universally.

To ensure proper reporting, the ring had to be easily paired to assign a name to the shower (example: master bath for home use or room number for hotels.)

We had to make sure that our app provides easy reporting to the householder and/or the hotel, so that we could tell users “the app does the rest!”

These have all taken place (or in development now) over the past two years.

The innovative aspects of the Eco Shower are its pairing of the desire of ordinary Americans to "do something" real about climate change in a manner that is not just cosmetic but has real, measurable effect. By marrying a daily habit - the shower - to an app that connects the hotel or home to the IT cloud, Eco Shower meets the social and economic conditions of most Americans, including those who travel, be it for pleasure or business. The Eco Shower ring permits the homeowner to be "in charge" of water usage, a growing problem in parts of the United States, and the amount of energy used to sustain even so-called "simple" or "ordinary" habits of cleanliness. The Eco Shower will be easy to install, thus ensuring a wide distribution, and easy to set electronically through an app, which most Americans do everyday in a wide variety of settings. For the hotelier, simple installation coupled with an easy-to-follow payment system for a everyday habit that is growing costlier to meet, makes the Eco Shower a positive step in meeting calls for responses to environmental challenges, especially dealing with carbon reduction and climate change.

Getting a “buy in” from the ordinary individual for environmental is easy to express but difficult to obtain, unless mandates and other restrictive methods are used. We have seen how well these worked during the pandemic, when people’s lives were immediately at stake and not expressed in decade-long payoffs! This project allows everyone to participate, from the youngest to the oldest at home and during travel. Its use by user is simple, the installation for the owner (individual home, apartment house, or hotel chain) is easy, and the results are measurable immediately. There is no waiting for further installation of supply, as is necessary for electric cars, and the action is in the hands of the user everyday and in every location where an Eco Shower is installed. This is the “win-win-win” the environmental movement needs to keep public support for climate change initiatives.

Our company has been engaged in solutions for using water and energy most efficiently in the home for the past decade. Our Screen Magic product uses a biodegradable solution that does not use water to clean window and door screens. Based on this decade-long concern about water usage and energy efficiency, the Eco Shower ring is a natural byproduct. 

Our team has a unique blend of mature and young leadership and skills to manage the creation, production, and sales of Eco Shower. 

We have two people in their 20s heading up important elements of the project – VP of Environmental Analytics and VP of Public Outreach Relations – one of whom is a woman. Our CEO/CFO is a woman and our President is a man who has created and invented products to serve the home and general public for 30 years. We are determined to attract a very wide variety of people who care about the environment and also have skills in all aspects we will require to grow the use of the Eco Shower. Our policy is to be as inclusive as we can while delivering a quality product that will have immediate impact on the environment through individual response to their daily needs.

A Solver award would help us attract assistance in marketing, both domestic and international. Both in the United States and internationally, there is a search for ways to reduce household environmental imprints as well as in commercial locations, such as hotels. Solver has the capacity to raise awareness of the Eco Shower as a solution to both of these areas, while cutting through the PR "noise" that scatters effective means of dealing with climate change and reduces the ability of the consumer to find best solutions. Many other nations are looking for ways to reduce their household environmental imprint in ways that are easy for people to “buy in.” 

Of course, we continue to seek out grants and competition awards from environmentally committed organizations, as well as investors. We are certain that with a Solver environmental prize, we would attract even more attention from a wide range of investors, including those who are already connected to Solver networks. The financial gain from an award is modest, but the upside to having another mean to reach investors would be large, first in the hotel market and then as we would branch out to the household retail market. 

The innovative aspects of the Eco Shower is its pairing of the desire of ordinary people to "do something" real about climate change in a manner that is not just cosmetic but has real, measurable effect. By marrying a daily habit - the shower - to an app that connects the hotel or home to the IT cloud, Eco Shower meets the social and economic conditions of most Americans, including those who travel, be it for pleasure or business. The Eco Shower ring permits the homeowner to be "in charge" of water usage, a growing problem in parts of the United States, and the amount of energy used to sustain even so-called "simple" or "ordinary" habits of cleanliness. The Eco Shower will be easy to install, thus ensuring a wide distribution, and easy to set electronically through an app, which most Americans do everyday in a wide variety of settings. For the hotelier, simple installation coupled with an easy-to-follow payment system for a everyday habit that is growing costlier to meet, makes the Eco Shower a positive step in meeting calls for responses to environmental challenges, especially dealing with carbon reduction and climate change.

The same aspects that appeal to Americans will appeal to a very wide variety of people internationally. Combined with the innovative use of an app with easy installation and maintenance, the Eco Shower will have an impact on the retail market in many countries. For all hotel chains and small, independent hotels, motels, and other kinds of traveler-oriented housing, the opportunities to reduce both water usage and energy costs, and the attendant savings, are attractive.

In our first year, we want to approach the hotel market first with the following proposal: Hardware,   software, training, app installation, field study, and baseline utility cost analysis - all free. Our   monthly charge per room – $20. Each property receives 10% free replacement hardware – example 500 rooms receive 50 free units.  Each additional unit - $30. This would provide us with a base to approach the household retail market, and we still to work out the details.

But this is a project that we believe is both scalable and would have impact because each day most people in the USA spend an average of 10 minutes or more taking a shower. Most people tend to linger longer then needed while taking a nice warm relaxing shower. This device, using a series of beeps, can reduce wasted water after the water’s warm by letting you know it is now warm and ready to get in. The next beep(s) alert to the time spent in the shower.  These simple reminders can reduce the overall shower by an estimated 38%.

Here is the step-by-step program: 1. Device wakes up when you turn the water on- much like when you move your mouse to wake up your computer- then shuts off when you turn the water off. 2. Beeps when the water is warm – saving an estimated 8 gallons in wasted water per shower.   Shower time starts once the water is warm. 3. The shower timer beeps again at the 4-minute mark then a different beep at the 5-minute mark - then quietly beeps at each minute after that.

Most Americans like the idea of conservation for environmental or economic reasons.  This invention makes it easy to do both by merely reminding us it is time to wrap up the shower.

Specific Developmental Goals and Indicators

1. RESEARCH - COMPLETED
2. ARCHITECTURE LAYOUT - COMPLETED
3. CIRCUIT BOARD DESIGN - COMPLETED
4. START INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY - COMPLETED
5. DEVELOPMENT OF APP FOR PHONE, TABLET, PC - IN DEVELOPMENT 
6. DESIGN TEST - TO BE PERFORMED
7. PRE PRODUCTION - TO BE PERFORMED
8. FIELD STUDY OF HOUSEHOLD & HOTEL - TO BE PERFORMED
9. ANALYZE DATA & PREPARE FINAL REPORT - TO BE PERFORMED
FINAL STEP - MASS PRODUCTION GOAL Q4 2022

Our theory of change is based on the desire of the ordinary individual - American and others - to be part of the solution of the climate change crisis, rather than its cause agent. We couple that desire with the facts of heating water and the attendant carbon footprint to as simple a household and individual cleaning task as the daily shower, whether that task is done in the home or on a business trip or vacation.

The facts are daunting: the 2016 Water Research Foundation report on current household water usage in the United States showed that 20% was used for daily showers.  Couple that with the determination by the American Hotel & Lodging Association that its 550,000 rooms in the US generate 2.3 10-minute showers per day. If the ordinary American could be given an opportunity in impacting these numbers, their own sense of affecting climate change would be positively increased, and their understanding of how they can make a difference would have an impact on furthering other climate change goals. 

Recognizing that a reduction of 10% of hot water usage in household showers would reduce electrical generation by 142 kilowatt hours per day, with an attendant reduction in hot water usage in showers at hotels of 4.9 kilowatt hours per day would be a powerful proof of a "Theory of Change." The Eco Shower would have similar impact on water usage, reducing potable water usage by 728 million gallons per day for households and 25 million gallons per day at hotels. CO2 reductions would follow accordingly, with a reduction of 131 million pounds per day for households and 4.5 million pounds for hotels. These savings could be achieved by the individual taking a shower being made aware – and given the tool – to change their habits, both at home and when traveling. The assumptions are determined from the change in use of the amount of hot water in both households and hotels, the subsequent savings in kilowatt hours, and derived from that, the reduction in CO2 emissions. Thus, an annual reduction in hot water of 266 billion gallons in American households would result in a reduction of 52 billion kilowatt hours needed to heat the water, leading to a drop in CO2 emissions of 48 billion pounds. Similarly, a reduction of 9.2 billion gallons of hot water would lead to a drop of 1.8 billion kilowatt hours to heat the water, and thus a reduction of 1.6 billion pounds of CO2 emissions would result. Since one pound equals .000454 metric ton, approximately 49.6 billion pounds of CO2 emissions reduction would equal approximately in 1.06 metric tons.

There are two core technologies that are at the heart of Eco Shower, the ring that serves as a reporting device on the temperature of the water and the time used in taking a shower, and the app that checks on water usage, time used, and when a cutoff to reduce the energy and water use. The app is coupled with the IT Cloud where it resides and is thus available around the world, 24 hours a day. 

The time to learn how to program the app is negligible and the ring is prepared to receive information from the Cloud as well as dispense it to the consumer and the IT Cloud for further instructions. 

 We are determined to attract a very wide variety of people who care about the environment and also have skills in all aspects we will require to grow the use of the Eco Shower. Our policy is to be as inclusive as we can while delivering a quality product that will have immediate impact on the environment through individual response to their daily needs.

CEO/CFO

Lisa Meester  will plan, direct, coordinate, and oversee operations activities in the organization, ensuring the development and implementation of efficient operations, team management and cost-effective systems to meet the current and future needs of the organization.  Lisa offers great strength in creating and managing organizational flow including short term and long-term goals for growth and market impact. Lisa works closely with department heads and management to direct daily business operations for optimal company growth.

President - Design & Manufacturing

Tim Meester is a successful inventor that has brought countless products and technologies to market.  Tim has 35 years of business experience.  His career as a business owner started with software and internet technologies in the 1990s. Tim has refined his skills for managing a company's overall operations including team building, delegating and directing agendas, managing company organizational structure, strategy, and communicating.  For over the 35 years, Tim has gained fluent knowledge of patents, FDA approval process, marketing.  Recent businesses are currently focused on environmental products that conserve our world’s most precious resource, water while reducing Co2.  The most recent inventions are environmentally friendly cleaning products, including Screen Magic window screen cleaner.  Screen Magic is available internationally in retail outlets such as Lowes, Home Depot, and Ace hardware.

VP of USA Commercial Sales

Terry Meester

Terry is responsible for growing sales with large multichain hotels and resorts throughout the United States. Developed new business thru multi-chain hotel memberships and other software subscriptions specific to the hotel industry.  Conducted operational surveys of each hotel/resort’s needs and requirements. Provided technical presentations on hardware and software demonstrating to managers, and IT staff training how to run their business more efficiently through the use of various technologies both at a local level or through enterprise solutions.  Provided weekly forecast, savings and managed pipeline with upper management during weekly sales meetings.  Submitted contracts with payment and helped coordinate installation with various project managers.  Performed data cable wiring walk through’s with cabling and electrical companies prior to installation of POS System.  Provided Enterprise above store presentations for single to multi store chains on how our Hosted Solutions products, such as Insight above hotel reporting.

VP of USA Retail Sales

Tom Colarusso

Tom Colarusso has 30 years of experience in Merchandising, Marketing and Sales.  Tom began his career with Costco in Merchandising (5 years), before joining Maintenance Warehouse a national Electrical/Plumbing/Hardware Distributor that became HD Supply – The Professional division of The Home Depot.  Over the next 6 years, Tom was fully immersed in Home Depot’s In-Store and Pro merchandising and marketing teams, negotiating and implementing national programs with many of the largest manufacturers in the U.S.  In 2006, Tom started his own Marketing & Sales Agency representing manufacturers selling into the Home Improvement, Office, and Janitorial channels.  Known for structuring creative deals with the largest retail and distribution companies in both the US and Canada, including The Home Depot, Lowes, Costco, Walmart, Sam’s Club, Ace Hardware, Office Depot, Essendant, Grainger, HD Supply, MSC, and Fastenal.  With a more recent focus on the Dot Com channel, Tom has created and executed deals with Supplies Network, one of the larger national Dot Com distributors that provides distribution, on-line content and analytics to support amazon.com, target.com, walmart.com, homedepot.com, and most of the largest national online sellers.

VP of Environmental Impact Assessment & Historical Human Behavior

Laure Cononley

Associate Degree in Radiological Science, currently working towards BS in Anthropology, with a focus on Geoarchaeology as ASU.  Laure is a Member of the North Texas Archaeological Society where she serves on the Executive Committee for the board and is a member of the Texas Archaeological Society, where she is serving on the Archives Committee.

VP of Public Environmental Outreach Relations

 Kayla Clevenger

A graduate of the University of Arizona’s BSN program and has worked diligently since graduation in 2017 in our hospital healthcare system. Her career path has given her the opportunity to work hands on in the public sector and learn to master the art of communication and the importance of following scientific protocol. Her navigation through the recent pandemic in the healthcare field has provided her with the skills to multitask and impact opinions. We will rely on her skills to market to a younger generation.

VP of Environmental Analytics

Tyler Meester

Specializes in environmental data analytics.  Tyler is an environmental biologist with strong skills in environmental field analytics.  Tyler Meester will design, implement, and maintain data collection and data analytics relevant to the product. Tyler has extensive experience as an environmental consultant as well as having experience in Computer Science and Data Science, two skill sets that will be exceptionally important in developing and implementing the product.

VP of Public Relations

Rick Richardson

Rick he has gained in-depth experience in virtually every aspect of creative design, development, and execution. Rick has successfully managed hundreds of design and marketing projects, helping companies across a wide range of industries.  For 11 years Rick has also worked for TLR Group LLC.  Rick was the creator of all TLR Group’s branding and corporate identity including Screen Magic, Silk Plant Magic, Wicker Magic sold in most major retail outlets like Lowes Home Depot, and Ace.

VP of Government and International Relations

Larry Latham

Mr. Larry Latham has been a leader and visionary changing the business paradigm in multiple business spaces. He is known for focusing, structuring, developing, and building out companies that have gone on to dominate specific markets in both the national and international arenas. He secured, developed, and managed dozens of large multi-billion dollar companies, contracts, and portfolios from Banks, Multi-National Corporations and Government agencies. These included; the Department of Defense, Federal Communication Commission, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Veterans Administration, U.S.  Customs, U.S Treasury, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac, Bank of America, Chase Manhattan, UBS, Citibank, Barclays, Credit Suisse, and the Treasury of Mexico.

Latham was awarded exclusive prime contracts for the above-referenced entities and much other Government, Financial, and Banking Institutions, both home-based and abroad. Many of the national and international contracts awarded to The Latham Companies were exclusive only to his company and resulted in the sale of over one hundred and fifty thousand (150,000) commercial and residential properties and tens of billions of dollars in non-real estate assets. 

We use a standard business model for retail distribution of our products and anticipate doing the same in the retail distribution of Eco Shower.

Our partnerships with Loews, Amazon, US Ace, and others has proven
useful to both ourselves and our partners, with steady sales of our products in 28 countries. 

For the hotel distribution end of our Eco Shower operations, we want to offer hotel chains a low-cost buy-in that they will feel provides them with the product and the necessary training, using room fees as an income generator for Eco Shower. Our initial model would operate along these lines: 

In our first year, we want to approach the hotel market first with the following proposal: Hardware - software, training, app installation, field study, and baseline utility cost analysis - all free. Our   monthly charge per room – $20. Each property receives 10% free replacement hardware – example 500 rooms receive 50 free units.  Each additional unit - $30. This would provide us with a base to approach the household retail market, and we still to work out the details. 

Since we are not a not-for-profit, blended financial models are not necessary or desirable. As a for-profit, we intend to use a combination of various components to fund our work. First, initial capitalization assisted by grants and competition prizes. Second, selling products and services, coupled with some continuing grants and further investment capital.

Initial funding has been provided by profits from other products and personal sources, coupled with some private investments from long-time associates and capital investors. We are just beginning to seek grants and other opportunities.