In Brazil, service rewards consumers for using less water

Water conservation and management is becoming increasingly imperative around the world, and we’ve already seen numerous initiatives trying to address the issue. Recently, however, we came across Banco Cyan — a novel approach in Brazil modeled after a bank account, which monitors consumers’ water usage and rewards them when they manage to cut back. The result of a partnership between beverage brand AmBev and Sabesp, a Brazilian state-owned water utility, Banco Cyan offers consumers in the state of São Paulo some extra motivation to save water. When a consumer opens an account with the service, it begins by researching their usage history with the water utility and then determines an average consumption level. Over the ensuing months, consumers can then earn points by not using more than their average consumption level. If they can use less than that average, however, they can earn even more points. Consumers are also awarded stars representing the number of points they’ve earned, thereby increasing their eco-creds on the site. The points accumulated by users of Banco Cyan can in turn be redeemed for discounts at numerous participating partners including Submarino, Americanas.com and Blockbuster. A spoonful of sugar can help any medicine go down, and sustainability efforts are no exception. A model to apply to limited resources in other parts of the world? (Related: In India, mobile water tracking system updates local residents — Free water-saving tool with toilet paper purchase — Indian farmers control water pumps by mobile phone.) Spotted by: Marco Pellegatti