By Nayelli Gonzalez / Source: TriplePundit

Ask anyone who has children or has spent time around young ones, and they’ll tell you that kids love to remember random facts. That’s why it’s perfect that Levis Strauss & Co. has partnered with Project WET Foundation to develop custom water education curriculum and train Levi’s employees to teach young students about water conservation – a pilot program which employee volunteers kicked off last week as part of the company’s Community Day.

Called “water ambassadors,” Levi’s employees from San Francisco, Shanghai and Singapore were trained by Project WET to go into classrooms and teach students around the world about their water footprints, all while promoting water literacy and awareness.

Through a series of interactive lessons, students learned facts – such as the number of liters used to grow cotton (2,565 liters), the percentage of Earth’s surface covered by water (71 percent) and the amount of water on the planet that is actually potable fresh water (0.003 percent) – and were given handouts to learn more about the lifecycle of a jean and how to conserve water at home.

“As a company, water is a big priority for us,” said Michael Kobori, VP of sustainability at Levi Strauss & Co. “Bringing water conservation and sustainability into the classroom is a natural extension of our company’s focus on water. This [program] gets young people to be more aware of water issues and is also a way to activate our employee base.”
The LS&Co. Water Ambassador program – a stellar model for the intersection between sustainability, employee engagement and consumer education – is just the latest example of the company’s proactive approach to promoting water conservation.

The LS&Co. Water Ambassador program – a stellar model for the intersection between sustainability, employee engagement and consumer education – is just the latest example of the company’s proactive approach to promoting water conservation.

Teaching water stewardship

The company’s water education efforts go far beyond the classroom. In 2011, Levi’s launched its WaterTriplePundit