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GREEN SCENE Ebbing the Flow Foster a culture of conscious water conservation at your day spa—and watch your bottom line run deeper. By Klaus Reichardt ine. From the moment your guests enter, water is typically central to their spa experience. After all, the word "spa" originated as an acronym for salus per agua— "health by water" in Latin. Most day spas serve guests water and tea. And then of course, there are the pools and steam rooms, not to mention Vichy showers, soaks, nail services, scrubs—the water applications at most spas are endless. But while many of us take access to H20 for granted in the United States—due largely to the fact that it's so inexpensive here—water is becoming increasingly scarce in many parts of the world and, in the not-toodistant future, is expected to become far more costly. The May 2012 documentary, Last Call at the Oasis, recently explored this eventuality. The film observes how many countries of the world, including our own, are nonchalantly using mass quantities of water, and offers this haunting prediction: "[Just] like an overdrawn bank account approaching zero, we will soon see the consequences… of this behavior." Spa owners and managers would be wise to heed this heads-up. It's now "go time" for uncovering solutions to provide guests with the benefits of water in ways that use this precious resource more responsibly and efficiently. To start, business owners need to foster working environments that prioritize water conserva- 88 DAYSPA | JANUARY 2013 tion. By doing so, your team, vendors and even clients will become more H20-conscious. "You must first engage your staff in forming a strong, sustainable intention for your organization," explains Michael Stusser, owner of Osmosis Day Spa Sanctuary in Freestone, California, and founder of the Green Spa Network (greenspanetwork.org). "Create an environmental policy statement and post it to your website. Ours discusses every step we've taken to conserve, why we're doing so and how we'll continue to address each area of concern." A TOP-DOWN APPROACH Publicizing your mission is a great first step, but creating or modifying any aspect of corporate culture— whether it concerns water, a company's ideals or anything else—is no simple task. Most often, this culture evolves over time as an organization gains a clearer understanding of its values, brand message and target clientele. And even then, a corporate culture is not so tangible—it may be discussed in a company manual, but the real culture of an organization is often hidden somewhere between those written lines, and typically comes to light only over time. In any case, creating a definitive and effective culture of water conservation starts at the top. Meaning, your spa's owners and managers must make the © ISTOCKPHOTO.COM An utterly "dry" day spa is pretty difficult to imag-