Value Your Water Campaign
What is the Value Your Water Campaign project?
It started back in 2006 with a small group of ambitious people in the water conservation and water quality fields. The idea is to raise Coloradoans’ awareness of the importance of water in Colorado. The goal is to lay the foundation for changing the public’s perceptions and attitudes toward water so they use it efficiently, keep it clean, and invest in water supply and infrastructure that support many competing uses. It is intended to be an awareness campaign not an advocacy or positioning effort. The campaign does not advocate particular actions or behavioral changes; rather it seeks to convey that water is important and to connect Coloradans to this precious resource. Word about this project has spread and its goal has sparked interest with diverse groups of stakeholders across Colorado.
Collaboration
The following organizations are helping to guide and develop this project: Aquacraft, Aurora Water, Barr-Milton Watershed Association, City of Boulder, City of Thornton, Colorado Foundation for Water Education, Colorado Springs Utilities, Colorado State University, Colorado River Conservation District, Colorado Water Congress, Colorado Water Conservation Board, Colorado WaterWise, Fort Collins Utilities, Grand Junction, Greeley, Greenway Foundation, Mesa County Water Association, Northern Water, Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation, Platte Canyon Water and Sanitation, Radio Disney, Roaring Fork, SE Colorado Water Conservancy District, and many more.
Participants are welcome! Please contact Alyssa Quinn at alquinn@plattecanyon.org to get involved.
The Colorado Foundation for Water Education took the lead in developing the Colorado Water 2012 campaign (http://water2012.org). Great momentum has been built, and Colorado WaterWise is discussing how the successful Colorado Water 2012 platform can be translated into a Value Your Water Campaign in 2013 and on.
Progress
The stakeholders have invested resources that lay the solid foundation for an effective campaign. The Colorado Water Conservation Board funded the following work by GBSM, a social marketing firm.
Report - Colorado’s Water Future: A Communications Roadmap for Enhancing the Value of Water
Colorado Water Conservation Board hired BBC Research & Consulting to carry out a survey about Coloradans’ attitudes and knowledge about water. The survey will be completed in March 2013.
Colorado WaterWise is spearheading a stakeholders meeting on November 1, 2012 to further refine campaign messaging and to discuss next steps and funding.
The documents and meeting minutes from 2011 and 2012 are posted on: http://www.coloradowaterwise.org/campaign
The Challenge
The challenge is obtaining funding to contract with a social marketing consultant to develop and implement a campaign. The group is looking for project sponsors to fund the development of a campaign in 2012 and early 2013 for launch later in 2013.
Contact
Alyssa Quinn at alquinn@plattecanyon.org
ColoradoWaterWise.org
