Haute Talk with SEVAS Water | Turn On the Tap, Turn Down the Waste

How much clean water goes down the drain while you wait for the shower to warm up?

This week on The Lexy Show, Lexy sits down with Elle Turner, co-founder of SEVAS Water, to talk about the simple household habit that inspired a new approach to water conservation. Growing up in drought-prone Australia taught Elle to treat every drop as valuable, but years of carrying awkward buckets from the shower also convinced her there had to be a better way.

Elle shares how SEVAS went from a rough idea to a shower water catcher that can collect up to five liters of clean water before someone steps into the shower. She explains how families can reuse that water for plants, pet bowls, cleaning, laundry, and other everyday tasks, potentially saving thousands of liters over the course of a year. Lexy and Elle also discuss why household water waste is easy to overlook, how drought and water scarcity affect communities differently, and why sustainable habits are more likely to last when they are simple, useful, and easy to fit into daily life.

The conversation also gets honest about creating a sustainable product made from plastic. Elle walks through the company’s manufacturing choices, including recyclable materials, closed-loop water cooling, reusing production offcuts, replaceable parts, biodegradable packaging, and small production runs. She also shares how SEVAS supports clean-water access, mangrove restoration, and renewable-energy projects through every purchase.

Socials

Website: https://sevaswater.com/

Instagram: @sevas_water

If you enjoyed this conversation, be sure to subscribe to The Lexy Show, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who's ready to make more mindful choices for themselves and the planet. For more information visit https://lexysilverstein.com/

Transcript

LEX-Eleanor Turner

[00:00:00] 

Welcome to the Lexi Show Fashion that gives a damn. This week I'm joined by the co-founder of Save Us Water. Please join me sending a warm welcome to l Turner. . so tell us about your background and how Seva Water came to be. What inspired you to move from the idea to the business? Yeah great place to start. So my background is in marketing in fashion and retail, predominantly helping retail and fashion brands grow.

I grew up in Australia. We are pretty dry and humid down here. I grew up as a kid during what we call now the millennial drought. It was pretty massive. It was from 2002 to 2007. During that time my mom allocated me and my siblings a patch of the garden. And we, we had buckets in the shower and you'd get caught if you didn't, top up your grass section every day 'cause it would die.

And that just became a habit that really was ingrained in our family and it stuck as an adult. As we, as I moved around and. [00:01:00] Different parts of Australia and, met my husband and we had our kids. We just always had a bucket in the shower. My little kids would be playing with them as a drum.

I used to spill a bucket everywhere and it used to drive me mad. A couple of years ago, the news came on that we were gonna get another drought and El Nina was back in heading this way. And I thought to myself, oh, the bucket. There's got to be an easier solution, and I wonder how many other people are struggling with the bucket just like I am.

And that's where the idea came from, right? So I googled how to invent something, and the journey started from there. And one of the biggest pain points we wanted to solve was making what was an everyday task for us. To help reduce our water waste at home. More simplified.

I didn't want it to have an ugly bucket in my bathroom. I'm gonna say it, it is a little bit of, I just renovated. It was beautiful. And then there was this big ugly blue bucket in the corner. I watched my mom, who's now 75, still using her bucket to this day. And, carrying [00:02:00] it, it was getting harder and tipping it into the water in cans.

We decided to add a watering can attachment to the, to the design. And that then the product took on a whole new use and meaning. And it was about 12 months of trial testing, design failing, making it seal, getting the slopes designed right. And then when we got our first sample and it was still like, a crazy idea that, to be honest, my husband wasn't that sort of supportive of, we've had lots of, I've had lots of crazy ideas, but when we got the sample.

That took 12 months to find a sustainable manufacturer that was willing to take, this new thing on when we used it for the first couple of times, we were shocked at how much water it saved and in 20 seconds. And I was like, this I think is a thing. If I can just, even if I just use this for our house, this will make water saving a game changer for our family.

And, we decided to, we actually hadn't even placed any orders at that point, but I put [00:03:00] a reel on social media just with the sample color. It was just my husband, my sister. I set up this account and it went viral in three days. We had 8 million views and it was controversial, right? So the aga the comments were half of them were, this is the best thing ever.

And the other half were, this is ridiculous. Just use a bucket. And that kind of debate really came through. And that obviously is what pushed the product. But it was at that point that I knew that there was a conversation being had and my response to the just user bucket was like, yes, just use a bucket.

We love buckets. We have nothing against buckets. Use bucket, like a bucket's great. Use anything that saves water. And that kind of shut 'em down. They're like, oh. So yeah, we at that point decided to do a small production run. We learn about production and logistics and supply chain. And here we are.

So we launched in June last year. We only put a, took a small portion into the US, which sold out within six weeks and we've just [00:04:00] sold out in Australia and we're waiting for our next production to come. So that's how we're here today, six months in and lots of lessons and still learning every day on inventing something.

That is, so amazing and I think, truly even, maybe people are doing this in America and I am just not aware. But I have never put a bucket in my shower when I showered in, in attempt to save water. And now that I'm like thinking about it, I'm like I really should be doing that.

And so I'm like, this is, that's something that I feel like is an easy like implementation that can really. Change and save water and it's like a little thing that you don't even maybe have to spend that much time, obviously putting the bucket in your shower. But it can have a big impact and then you can use that water to water your plate.

Yes. And so on and so forth. Look, I think. I think you don't, so it's obviously catching water while the shower's heating up. And that was a, that's a big thing that people don't quite understand. The comments are like, what about the soap? And I'm like, this is [00:05:00] used before getting in. Before any soaping that would be gross.

I don't wanna catch body runoff. But the idea of the fact that most people don't realize their shower is running, like, how long does your shower take to heat up? Yeah, house takes, 30 seconds. It's pretty fast actually. 'cause our heater is, not far from our main bathroom. But lots of people, their responses are, it takes a couple of minutes so they leave it, they turn on the shower and moist people actually go walk away and do something really quickly.

Like they go to the toilet or they take off their jewelry or they, and then they come back and the shower is warm so that 30 seconds, that minute of just water running down the drain, that's. The point of where you could actually capture some of that water. And if it was easy, which is this, what services mission is reusing that water around the house just becomes such an easy thing to do.

Yeah. If it's not sloshing around in a bucket. So yeah, we certainly, I think my favorite comments on Instagram and social are I saw this the [00:06:00] other day and now I can't unsee my shower just running. Yeah. Before I get in and I'm like, yes. You all of a sudden you're like, huh, that's a whole lot of water.

Yeah, exactly. It's these things that so much of what I feel like is like this, for me, the sustainable journey has been very long and lots of mistakes and along the way, and that's all part of the journey. And I started with like my wardrobe because that was something that I was really passionate about, was fashion and how I can make fashion more sustainable.

But now that I feel like I've gotten to a place where I'm consuming less and I'm very set with my closet, I'm just like trying to become more sustainable in every other facet of my life. And I'm like really rethinking, like literally like everything, I touch everything. I'm like, when I throw it out, I'm like.

Is there really nothing I can do with this before I throw it out? Is throwing it out the last option. And so it's those little things that like we might not even think about and they might be little things, but if everyone starts doing that, like [00:07:00] they add up and I think that's something that again, like super easy to implement.

You, you're doing something anyways when you take those 30 seconds to heat up, your shower might as well. Get some water while you're at it. I think that's so brilliant. I love that idea. I love the clarification too, of it's not while we're showering, 'cause I can definitely hear the haters.

Oh yeah. And people are like, what about, what about my we? And I'm like depends on your aim. Like I'm not, I also think there is an approach to sustainability and there's so much. It is scary. The climate crisis is real. It's scary. It can be overwhelming. And I really wanted to create a brand that, whilst it, I didn't want to be fear-mongering.

I, but it is a real issue. Obviously water scarcity is gonna be one of the biggest climate issues in the future. And, but I did want to take a lighthearted approach to it. Because I think it, I wanted it, I want this. This brand and this mission to be [00:08:00] relatable, attainable, easy, and something that can help people every day.

And also obviously, small habits make big impact. If we all do a little bit and I think that's one of the biggest things, right? You get overwhelmed as to how could something I do actually even make a dent. On the biggest, challenge that our generation and the next generations, are gonna face and you have to really start small and not get overwhelmed at the size and scale of those issues.

No, completely. I think those little things is, 'cause that's like often a question that I'll get asked is like, what did you do to become, or when I became a vegetarian, I'll get a lot of people that ask me like. How did you like start becoming a vegetarian? And I was like, I don't know. Back then I was like five years old.

I can't give you really like much advice on that. I just stopped eating meat. But I can give you advice on how I became like more sustainable. And I think that, again, so much what I was saying where it's like you pick that one thing that you might be interested in and so for me it was fashion and now it's like these other things, but it's like when you do.

A bunch of small things, it feels more obtainable than doing a massive thing that's gonna take like years and years. And yes, of course, like while we can keep, while we should keep striving to do that one massive thing or whatever that goal is and the sustainable, like industry and changing things and whatever.

While we should still aim for that, it's like these little things that we can make just like small changes of it it genuinely, for me at least, makes it feel a lot less daunting where I'm like, okay, at least I'm doing for [00:09:00] sure. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So how much, just how much water can an average household save with regular use?

Yeah, so service catches about up to, we say up to five liters of water every shower. That's gonna be dependent on your shower pressure, the type of hose you have, how old your pipes are, all the things. We save up to about five liters in the first 30 seconds. My parents save up to about four. We've measured that we, there's lots of, lots of tests and studies now that have shown how much we can save over a timed period. Obviously if you use that every day for a year, that's over 1800 liters. If you've got a family of four and my kids use it and it's a good lesson for them around, sustainable practices early on, and they love it.

They think it's fun. We will save about 7,000 liters over, over a year, which is significant. And I think. What you then realize once you start reusing that water, you realize how much you'll be saving in other areas. And to be honest, I think when we're using it, [00:10:00] we reuse that water on things.

Every morning we fill up our dog bowls, we obviously garden. So I'm a massive gardener. And you talked about interest before. I'm, I love gardening. I've got lots of indoor plants, so they all get topped up every day. And then we use it for bigger tasks, so we use it for. Our laundry for soaking.

We wash the bikes on the weekend. We will wash the car. We will, I will clean a whole lot of other things around the house with that water. I'll obviously use it to mow the floors, so it just becomes something that we, reuse every day. And some days we don't use it, some days it just sits there full because I've gotta rush to work or I've gotta do something, but it's watertight, it's sealed, so it's there.

When we're ready to use it. And I think our customers, the people that you service fall into two camps. They are either. Their livelihood depends on, saving that water. They are living on water tanks, they are watching rain patterns. They [00:11:00] literally get water delivered, once or twice a month, which they pay for quite significantly 'cause they don't have access and that is a part of their everyday living.

So that's the one customer that has always used a bucket and this water is really important to them. The other customer is. I'd say someone like me where we have access to running water all the time, but we knew what drought felt like. You don't need to save water until you do. You realize you do.

We want to live sustainably and we can see that. When we reuse this water, we're bringing down our water bill. It is teaching our kids sustainable practices straight away. It's easy to do and I've gotta be honest it's nicer in our bathroom and it looks nicer. Yeah. And they, they probably wouldn't do it if they had a bucket.

And the other customer, that third group, I would say actually people my age buying it for their parents. So that's been a massive. And I love that because I love that I get that feedback of we bought one from my [00:12:00] mom for Christmas and it's like the best thing ever. It's changed how she gardens, she's a massive gardener or she lives in an apartment now and she doesn't, she fill up the water and can in the kitchen sink.

And so that has been a really nice. Way to see that, we designed it with my parents in mind and they're starting to, other parents are starting to use it as well. But I think back to your question, we save up to about 7,000 liters if it's used by a family of four. That's awesome.

And I think, to the people that are commenting about just use a bucket is also like I, for me, the aesthetic. Does. It does, and I don't. And if that makes us a little bit shallow, I'm alright with it. Sorry. Like I'm not gonna put, and I don't want an ugly blue or black or I don't want an ugly bucket in my bathroom.

Yeah. I love my bathroom. It's beautiful. So I think. Not. And then offshore, we can talk about the safety impacts. We can talk about having toddlers around with a full bucket of water in the bathroom, which is frightening if your baby is [00:13:00] starting to learn to walk. We can talk about space saving.

We can talk about, carrying it and functionality for older people and having handles and all the stuff. But at the end of the day, I also got sick of having an ugly bucket in my bathroom. And I think there are a lot of women out there that are like, yeah, you know what, it looks really nice. Yeah.

No, I. I think it matters. And like you said, might make me a little shallow, but I'm okay with that. I'm alright with it. I'm fine with it. And I think that I don't know, sometimes in my brain when something's more aesthetically pleasing or whatever. It makes me wanna do it more often for some reason.

Sure. And so I'm like, it's honestly encouraging and I think you brought up a really interesting point about how your kids find it fun. And I think that's something, even just implementing this in your household where kids are able to learn that this is just like a way of life and starting sustainability young is so important.

Because I think for me, when I like learned. More about sustainability, [00:14:00] about the industries and brands that I was supporting that were really harming, people, our planet, our animals. I was like shocked and I had to make a bunch of changes in my life. And while I was very happy to make those changes, I think if we, it would be less shocking if we started this education earlier on. And maybe they do that in Australia and they just do, wouldn't, don't do it in America. And I would not be shocked. Sounds like America, but I think that I, that's just like amazing that you kids find it fun and it's something that like is just in your house and.

Yeah. And look, I think this, these, younger generations, they're just gonna be so much more aware. I'm certainly a lot older than you, but, we just, I'm shocked at how much more aware they are. Yeah. It's being taught in schools. It's a problem that their generation is absolutely going to have to face because, my generation's kind of fucked it.

I start the podcast, sorry. Oh, please do. I think, yes, I think there is a lot more education, but it goes back to the principle of if A habit has to be easy to stick. Exercise. Yeah, diet, like saving money, every, if it is easy and [00:15:00] convenient, it will be easier to stick to.

I think that was something I was just drilling into my mind with. Obviously like the new year and resolutions and stuff. And mine was really silly, but it was just about, which I didn't even do today, so obviously it was not sticking to it that well. But tomorrow's a new day was to make my bed every single day.

'cause I was like, it's not even about making the bed. I don't really care. It's more just like building the habit. And I'm pretty sure if you do, it's like takes. Okay, I looked it up and it says it takes 66 days. I thought it was 30 days to build a habit. But if like you get used to doing something, every single day or often, like it's, I think it's building those habits teaches to then build other habits and more habits and, totally agree.

Yeah. Yeah. So it's like honestly the act of teaching yourself to build a habit so that you can then build better other habits. Habits. Ooh, I love that word. My hose. I hope that makes sense. Okay, so what is the meaning behind the name Eva? Oh, [00:16:00] the sev. So Sev is actually saves backwards. Oh my God.

It is, right? Everyone goes. Ah it's also, yeah, it's also a small coastal town in Russia, which I later found out. But anyway service is, saves backwards. I really wanted a one word. Brand name. It's a new product, right? It's a lips, I don't wanna say invention, but it's a new product, so I wanted it to be called something, I didn't wanna call it the shower water catcher.

I wanted it to be something that the brand was synonymous with the actual product. I don't plan on creating lots of other products. I wanted to design and create something, one thing and do it really well. So I wanted it to become the name of a product like a Dyson. I bought a Dyson.

I bought a service, I bought an esky. They are brand names, but you know that the item and the thing that it's being talked about. So yes, the meaning of it is actually saves backwards. I love that. That's so sweet. That's why little S is backwards. Yeah, that is [00:17:00] like a little, I was like, oh yeah, I know.

So many people do that. How cool. That's awesome. So can you tell us about the partnerships you formed, like the water project, earth Lungs, Kenya and Bergos Wind Project? Yeah, so this was a really important part of building the brand for us. It's something our kids have gotten really involved in and a big part that we show them through research.

We actually found a company called Green Spark. For anyone that has a business or business owners that are listening, you should look into them. They basically create the tech stack that seamlessly integrates into Shopify where they are the interface between different organizations. That you can donate to in the shop, like per order, and it seamlessly fits into Shopify.

So for every unit sold we donate to three of our selected charities and that money immediately goes to them. You can see what we've, what we get for that donation. It's not paid for by the customer on top. It's [00:18:00] built within our margin and within our business. It's about 5% of every sale, and we then have a, an integration on the website where it's an auto live tally, so we can see every day how much we've donated.

And they also have really public ledgers so you can see exactly where this money's going. So we love the transparency, we loved the ease and functionality. And they provide a whole lot of beautiful content and storytelling for us to really see where our money's going and the impact we're making.

So obviously the water project is in Sub-Sahara Africa. It invests in local wells, it builds sand dams and it gets kids back to school. Predominantly, 31% of women, kids are not able to go to school 'cause they're walking for four hours a day to get to the nearest. Nearest dam and nearest water well we've so far donated 6,967 days of clean water, which is amazing when we've only been going since June and we've sold out, been sold out for a while earth Lungs.

Earth lungs is [00:19:00] mangrove reforestation in Kenya. So we really love the idea of planting two trees for every unit sold. Mangroves are such a huge part of protecting communities that are, due to ocean hedging against storm surges. It's also creates new fishing grounds and mangroves have just been wiped in so many parts of Kenya and it provides jobs.

So we loved. Earth Lungs. The boys chose that one. My boys. And then Bergos Wind Farm is in the Philippines, and that helps offset our carbon used during production. And obviously I know you know that might be a good segue into, our sustainable production, but we really, we measure the offset during while the machines are on and we basically offset all of that carbon with Burgos.

Amazing. That is so great. I think that it's just so awesome to see, I think the whole 360 of a, a company that really cares where it's like not only are we doing this because we wanna save water and being sustainable, but then we're also, partnering with amazing [00:20:00] companies to make this, more, just more 360.

It's so cool. Yeah. I didn't, it's a big responsibility, creating a sustainable product and building a sustainable business while then, let's the elephant in the room, our product is plastic. So I certainly didn't wanna, create a pro one problem, that solves another, but we wanted to make sure that the business, actually, you know what, I'm gonna start again with that answer.

For us when we were building a company and building the brand and what it wanted to be, and by us, I mean me and my husband, I've worked for 25 years building other people's businesses and other people's brands and it was so nice to be able to just, clean whiteboard, go, what do we want this to be?

What is really important to us? That we are gonna live and breathe this thing every day for the next. 10, 15 years what do we want it to do? What do we want our kids to be proud of? And that donation piece was a non-negotiable. The dream will be to take the boys over, when they're older and to really get to see some of the impact that we've made.

Yeah. No, that's so incredible. So let's talk about the manufacturing of the product. So I think, yeah, it's made outta plastic. But I think the thing that I always found interesting about plastic is that it was literally made to last a super long time. And so then when we started using it for things like one-off things like water bottles and [00:21:00] stuff, that's where the issue, yeah.

Really started. And so I think, yeah. Sorry. You go. You go. No, you go. Look, I think that's a really, it's a really important topic. We obviously manufacture a plastic container which you know, is inevitable at the moment until better. Innovation and engineering comes with recycled plastics and use of a product like HDPE plastic, which is the best plastic of all the bad plastics.

It can be a hundred percent recycled. The plastic we use is recycled and mulched down. But we have to use it because really there's no other option out there. There are some amazing case studies and innovations happening around, seaweed, around biodegradable plastics. And so we're watching those closely, but at the moment, they can't sustain the heat needed for injection blow molding, which is, how we make the product building a sustainable business and a brand, obviously, that's not a buzzword for us. We had to be sustainable across our entire supply chain, and it took us six [00:22:00] months to find a manufacturer that produced, ethically and sustainably. So what that looks like we obviously use HDP plastic which is a hundred percent recyclable.

We use a closed loop cooling system. That's really important to understand. So obviously as you, put plastic into a machine. You have a mold. You heat up that plastic, you fill the mold up, you blow some air into it and it creates the shape. That plastic is very incredibly hot and then it needs water to cool down.

So the factory and the process that we use is a closed loop cooling system, so no water is wasted in that production that was water is continuously recycled and cooled to make sure that our unit. Is obviously cooling into the shape that we need it to. So that's the first thing. No water's wasted in the production of service.

Otherwise, that would really defeat the point and the purpose. We, any offcut, any offcuts of the plastic that we have to, obviously it. Clams shut. It seals the tank, and then there's a trim of plastic [00:23:00] around it. So that's cut off by hand and mulched down and reused. So there's no excess plastic or wastage from the production.

Every bit of plastic is reused and reused. We obviously measure our carbon while the machines are on, so we know that we're offsetting all of that. We make sure that our packaging is a hundred percent biodegradable. It doesn't look very fancy. But it's thin cardboard with one ink color, right?

We use, poly bags only when we have to. We look at only using sea freight. We look at, we replace all extra parts for free. So we hope that the product will have a lifecycle, forever. If the plug's broken, we have inner cores that we send out. I send out to people if they're getting stuck, we'll replace lids.

We'll replace seals. I've got extra water and can attachments. I've got extra lids. Like I'm a chronic misplacer of things. And so I'm like, I've got you. I've got hundreds of spare. And that's obviously, that's at a cost to us. All of the things I've just listed are at a cost to the [00:24:00] business. It's a choice though, right?

It's a choice to either do things, faster sustainably. Or there's, slower and sustainably or faster and cheaper. Hence why we're currently sold out and we have no stock because we are doing small production runs. We are not going to, order thousands of these things and have them sit for a long time.

And yeah. Hope so. Yeah. There's, it is. It is a battle. And I defend, of course. And rightly people on social media are like, how much, how much water is wasted in the production? And I'm always like, great question. And I tell them all the things I've just taught them about the closed loop system.

And I've actually been over to the manufacturer and I've, and I've taken so many videos and I'm building that storytelling at the moment for that. A hundred percent transparency which, we'll, which we'll hopefully get up online soon. But it, yeah, it's a conscious decision every day to, to make sure that we are doing right by our customers, doing right by the planet and not creating another problem to solve, to solve the problem with water.

Yeah. I [00:25:00] think that's like everything a, upon making this product has been thought out in terms of like sustainability. And I think that's so important because there are so many things that make something sustainable and making sure that all those different facets are at least being looked at.

And again, like what I was saying about like plastic originally was. Made to last a long time, and that's why it's screwing us right now is 'cause we started using it for these plastic water bottles that we throw away after one use, but it lasts for fricking ever. And so it's not necessarily always the enemy, but I think it's how we go about using it.

And so using it like this is. I feel, yeah, I feel like it's very justified. Yeah. And the science is getting there, right? So the innovation is getting there. We can now obviously use H-D-B-H-D-P-E two, which is, using existing recycled plastic to create new plastic. And we're exploring that as an option.

The material itself isn't as strong. We wanna create a product first and foremost. For forever. It's, we want it to have an endless life cycle. But yeah, there's definitely some really exciting things and innovations. And I, stalk on Instagram and I reach out to him. I'm like, could this be used for, injection hot molding, blow molding, and, but we're, we were, we'll keep an eye on that, but at the moment.

And we look, obviously we looked into stainless steel. That gets really heavy actually. The heat [00:26:00] production to cool steel is way worse than plasticy production. So we, we've done all of that research and that's why it took us two years to get here to have a product that we can, produce ethically.

But yeah it's not easy. It's been so much harder. But that's, that's part of the fun as well. Yeah. It's all part of being a business owner, I feel like. And inventing something, which is actually really hard. Yeah. I wouldn't advise. Yeah. Sometimes I wish I'd just done cent and candles.

Yeah. So why do you think that water waste in the home is like such an overlooked issue? Especially compared to things like plastic or energy use? That's a great question. I feel like with water, it feels abundant until it isn't, and then you know you've got a real problem in your hands. I think water waste is hidden behind walls and in pipes and it just, you can't see it with plastic.

We can see plastic building up. We can see how much there is, in the ocean we can see it. It's tangible water waste. It is something that, you know, it. It runs down the [00:27:00] shower and there's a sort of a baseline education about the water cycle, that it just, it goes down into our pipes and then it comes back again and I get that comment a lot on Instagram.

It's it's not wasted, it's gone down the shower and then it will, come back and the water cycle ideally is, goes from the clouds down onto the land, evaporates goes back up into the clouds. That's the water cycle. But it's actually, so much more complex than that. Our, in Australia, a lot of our water runoff goes into seawater.

We then need desalination plants, which are hugely expensive and taxing on the environment to run. We then need to create dams, which are, just, don't even get me started on the impact of environment that, the bad impact that a dam can cause. And at the end of the day, 90, the global water access to water on Earth, 97% is salt water, 2%.

In the ice caps, and there is 1% of the water in the entire planet that is available for human use. And that's in Rivers, [00:28:00] lakes, and the atmosphere, right? So whilst we all think there's this huge amount of water, there's not, we get access to less than 1% and. Most people have access easily to it in cities.

Rural communities, when they're doing it tough, they know what drought feels like. So they are far more aware of the water waste. But the biggest consumption, the biggest users of cities and towns where they can turn on a tap and there's water. And like I said, it feels abundant until it isn't. And your city's put on water restrictions and then.

And that's when people start to really think, oh, okay. Hang on. When are we allowed to wash our car? When can we flush our toilets? When, and I think that's gets to, when it gets to that point, when the dams are that low, that's hard to come back from. Yeah, completely. I think that.

I like think that this should, there should be like some sort of legislation out there to make this something [00:29:00] that you like have to do when well, water. I think you guys had a legislation around showers, shower taps in houses, but I think that was. Removed. But yes, I agree. That's, we'll cut that out because No, shocker, I'm so surprised that it's no longer a thing.

It's no longer a thing. The shower water bill is no longer a thing, but. Yeah, like there are some countries that are doing it really well. The uk. The uk it actually rains a lot there. But their biggest issues with, they're under huge water scarcity pressure. And it's because the system, the water systems haven't been invested in for 50 odd years.

So water has just gone up by 500% the price and cost of water. So in UK it's actually less about access to water. It's about the cost of water. But for them, they have it mandatory in any new build in the uk they need to use rege, water wells, rated shower hoses, showers and wa, low pressure shower heads, and all those sort of things.

So there are lots of countries that are doing it a lot better than others. Yeah, no, completely. I. If that's even like in the fashion industry, I'll always see [00:30:00] yeah, past in like France and I'm like, it unfortunately it does not surprise me that. America does not have these in the moment in time that we are living in.

But that is why I think, there's a great organization here in Los Angeles called Heal the Bay, where they'll do these beach cleanups that I go to and they'll take the information you like, log okay, I got 20 cigarette butts and 12 plastic, probably a lot more than 12, but whatever, some plastic things, and I got this and I got this, and they'll use that information and it's like literally led to legislation change.

And I'm like, I feel this could re be a thing. Re yeah, let's get back up. And it feels so good and it feels so good when you've contributed to that. So we are now Smart drop certified, which is an Australian governing body here That's. Run by the water conservancy. That will be the next step starting to work.

And they reach out to us, which is amazing. We've not even started that journey yet, but we've got, LGAs, local government authorities that are reaching out saying, Hey, can we get your product? For example, Western Australia, can we get your [00:31:00] product on our smart home reward scheme?

We want one of these in every house in Perth. We are under serious water, restrictions and, so I think there's. There's a lot of really awesome organizations out there already having this conversation. Yeah. I think what services has done is it's made it look good, it's made it simple, it's made it affordable, and it's made it tangible.

So it's, it's not a technical shower head and it's not something your plumber needs to install and every, and again, the haters on the gram or like just, install a. An instant water heater and I'm like that I would love an instant water heater. So I have no cold water, but my house is really old and that's gonna cost me about 20 grand.

Yeah. So I would love, and there are some countries, like Japan is all instant hot water. We will never have a pro customer in Japan. Yeah. But look, in saying that when we look at the sales in the us, and again, we couldn't get many units in, 'cause the tariffs were really kicking off at the time.

But we could see our top selling kind of cities or states were, excuse me, Colorado, [00:32:00] Texas, Arizona, and Florida. Yeah, you can see those guys are under severe water pressure. And you could see that is, that was really clearly. I'm, I, we hopefully will restock in mid Feb for the us with enough volume to start really getting ready for your summer there.

But you can see, it was very clear the cities that, and that was with no social marketing advertising. That was just organic traffic. That was, finding. Wow. Yeah. That's so interesting. That's like literally. And California, I should say Cali ca, Cali was up there. Yeah. It's like a direct evidence that this is, I feel like a helpful product when, I feel like California is like always in a drought.

We are not in, we don. To my knowledge technically have any like water limits that we're not supposed to be doing. But I do think that that's often talked about where it's take cold shower or short showers yeah, when you are brushing your teeth, turn off the water while you're brushing, like all those things.

And I think that's again, just another good practice and another habit that can be billed that, goes a long way even for sure it's small. What are your top rapid fire tips for someone [00:33:00] who's starting their journey to a more sustainable lifestyle? That's a good question. I first thing I want everyone to do listening is go and find a bucket in their house or their apartment.

I'm sure there's a bucket. I'm sure you clean your floors. Get the bucket out and just use it for a couple of days, right? So put the bucket under, and I promise you'll be shocked at how much water you catch in the first, 10, 20 seconds. If I think you'll then also not be surprised that it's quite hard to use if you.

Don't have good aim pouring it into a water and can, but the most important thing, if you need to do anything with that water, is obviously pour it on some plants or pour it down back down the toilet. So that actually helps, that keeps the water going back in. So put it into the toilet, but that would be the first thing I suggest everyone do.

Water saving around the. Taps, turn the taps off while you're brushing your teeth. Don't put the dishwasher on half full. Put it wait, just wait another day. Or just wait till the evening. Even if it stinks. Just close the door. Run dishwashers when they're full. Soak laundry. Don't, don't clean laundry.

Try and avoid half [00:34:00] loads of, washing and hand soak or sink, soak, any of that. Any of those delicates For example, don't use a delicate cycle, just wash it by hand in sink. It'll use like a hundredth of the water. I see you smiling 'cause you're like, yes, that is me turn of flight. I'm a chronic light turner on and offerer in this house for some reason.

There are lights on all the time. Turn them off. If you don't need them on eat what's in season. I'm sure you know a huge about you. Huge more about this being vegetarian, but eat what's in season. It makes a massive difference. Plant drought, hardy natives, so that's a big one. I live in Queensland, Australian natives.

Even at the moment we're in a heat wave. Parts of Victoria are absolutely battling fires and it is heartbreaking what's happening here today. It's gonna be 39 degrees. I don't know what that is in Fahrenheit, but it. It's really hot. Even our natives are starting to struggle, and that's just goes to show that, they were fine a hundred years ago and now they're really starting to struggle with the heat and the lack of water and natural rainfall.

Be [00:35:00] smart with your gardens. So they don't need so much water and in the summer. But yeah, you can look around everywhere and see different opportunities. It's just what you can do frequently and easily and quickly. Yeah, no, completely. Those are great tips.

Again, those like small habits to build. I agree. I am a frequent, like turning off the lights all the time. I. Don't like the overhead lights. I only like, like lamps. And lamps. Oh my gosh. We're the same person. Me too. I'm like a lamp placer. My, my mom is like, there are lamps in every room. I'm like, yes.

'cause it's a nice, natural warm light. Yes. It's like way less overstimulating to me than the big overhead lights. I only have them on right now 'cause it's better lighting for the podcast. Me too. And I, but even with the lamps, like I will wait till the very last second until it's like pitch black in my apartment and then I will turn them on.

Like I do not like the [00:36:00] lights. And so I think that my kids often walk in and they're like, why is it so dark in here? I'm like, fair. You can turn the light on. Yes. Good point. I don't even notice it sometimes though, I was at my parents' place and I was painting this thing and I was just sitting on their balcony and I guess the sun was setting and I didn't even notice and I was just like, my eyes were adjusting as it was getting darker.

Yeah. So I was like painting and I was just getting used to it being darker while I was painting. And then my mom came in and turned on the light and I was like, oh my God. Like I'm painting the dark. But yeah, I think that is. Such a good, easy, again, practice habit. Just like getting these small things in.

I encourage everyone, make your bed every single day for 30 days. You'll get used to it. Then you'll, you won't stop making it. It'll teach you to build a habit and then start these other things. It's super helpful. Thank you so much for coming on. Where can people find you guys social media? Yeah, so we are sev Water on Instagram.

That's probably the main channel. I am on TikTok, but I find it a brutal place to be. It is wild what people can do and say and [00:37:00] comment on TikTok, but I don't shy away from it, but it's just not my native app. I'm old. We love, I'm, we love Instagram and Facebook. But, so yeah, TikTok, obviously Instagram and service water.com is where our website is.

If you are in the US we will be restocked by hopefully mid Feb. Perfect. For the US and then Europe and the uk, we're looking at towards the end of March. But again, just logistics, finding sustainable three pls like logistics companies and reducing our shipping. All the things. So that's why it's taking so long.

Got it. Thank you so much. Everyone. Keep a lookout for. The restock or go follow them on Instagram. And thank you so much for My pleasure. It was so nice chatting to you and I love what you're doing and I love your podcast. I've, I'm a massive fan. I've listened to every episode. Oh yeah, no, I have, I was like, oh bit of a fan girl moment when I got to jump on this morning.

So no, thank you. Oh my gosh, I am so honored. Thank you so much. This has been amazing. I would love to. I was going to have Abby email you, but I was like on, usually before the podcast will come up, like the week of the podcast, I'll post like a kind of like a promotion video to get the hype around it.

And I was like, maybe we could. Work together and I could do a video about the product, but we can talk more on email about it. I would love that. And I need to send you one. I actually realized that we haven't shown you what it is. I've seen it on Instagram, but I'm happy to see it on Zoom. It's so cool.

This is the water and can attachment that looked slightly phallic when we designed it and I was like, but it, I know my husband was like, huh, I design to store and sit under here for packaging. So fricking cool because I didn't wanna create another box. So that is our water and can attachment that sits like this on the lid and yeah, I'm so in 30 seconds.

Nice, ugly. That's fricking cool. My ugly a long time to heat up, so I'm gonna, this is like so helpful. Like that. The genius. I'm obsessed. Amazing. Look, yeah, definitely for, so yes, I will, we will definitely send you one as soon as I get stuck. And I'll send some videos, just even some raw content from the photo shoot.

If you want to add that in. You can. Perfect. Cut reel so people can see it. I think that's probably the hardest thing about the product at the moment because it is an completely new innovation. People don't understand it until they see it being used, yeah. My elevator pitch is pretty terrible.

It's it's a thin. Tank that sits at the bottom of the shower that has a plug and you push your foot down and they're like, what? I'm like, don't worry. So I think when people see it, I finally, I just pull out Instagram, I'm like, it's this. And they're like, whoa. Okay, now we get it. So yeah, I will give you that content so you can edit that out.

That's perfect. I would absolutely love that. I'm, I think my audience is gonna eat this up and I'm, I sent it a link to my brother and my mom because. They both are, love their plants. And I was like, you guys are gonna love this. And I just, I made my brother get the composter the other day 'cause he is very big into his plants.

And I was like, this is gonna be his new obsession. So I'm excited. Tell you what, create a product. My advice for anyone wanting to build a sustainable brand or any kind of business, create a product that attracts really good humans as customers. Yeah, gardeners are just like the most lovely people.

They're the best. Like e early on we had a couple of issues with the seals, not, being watertight. And my husband used to laugh that I would become friends with these like people. Yeah. Like we would start talking about plants. He is you are turning, these problem customers into, and I'm like, yeah, because they're planting their brom yards and we talk about, garden stuff.

But yes, they are, gardeners are just great humans. I love it. I, he, my brother has like a plant addiction now, but he came to California because I'm like very, I'm a very overbearing plant mother. I like fear that I think that they don't have enough water, and then I overwater them on accident. Yeah.

And so he was like, no, Lexi, I'm. Text you when you need to water your plant. And he bought me a plant. And so now, it's been alive for two months now. I was gonna say, I love that micro. I, I love that micromanagement. I feel like sometimes need it. I also think it's about, researching water plant, plants can have lots of love and overwatering.

But yeah, no, I, yeah plan to. They're awesome. They're, but you can see, and you can see how, what happens when they don't get enough water and you can see that, but then it is so satisfying when you Yeah. Give a drink to a neglected plant and how resilient, they just bounce back the next day.

They're like, they're back now. I'll watch those videos on like TikTok, where they'll put a plant in a thing of water. A bit of water. Yeah. And you can, and then they'll like time lapse it and you can literally see the plant come back to life. And I'm like, I'm obsessed with those videos. Me too. So satisfying.

So hopefully this plant will stay alive and I'm gonna use my, I would love to check in six months. Let's do a plant check. Yes. We'll actually go in. Yeah. 2026 resolution. Add that. Thank you. Bed. Don't over water your plan. Perfect. That's, I'm adding it to the list. Yes. Okay, great. Thank you so much.

So great to meet you. Good job weekend and we'll have a great weekend. We'll be in touch weekend. Weekend. Yeah. Great. Awesome. This was fun. Yes, it was. Bye. Have a great rest of your day. Bye. While you're at it, you can follow me on my social as my Instagram, TikTok and YouTuber. All my name at Lexi Silverstein.

That's LEXY silver like the color, S-T-E-I-N. And remember to live a good life and look fucking good doing it.