While most residents of the state of California are now required to scale back water consumption by 25 percent, in Beverly Hills the reduction is 35 percent. This is because the city as well as its residents have historically used more water than other communities in the state, mostly for lavish landscaping.
 
In a rush to find ways to reduce consumption, the city is now paying any business that purchases and installs a waterless urinal $500. This is up from the $200 the city was paying before the state's water restrictions went into effect.
 
In most cases, the $500 will cover not only the cost of the new no-water urinal but also much if not all of the installation charges, which typically are less than the installation of a water-using urinal.
 
"One reason they are doing this is because waterless urinals offer immediate water consumption relief," says Klaus Reichardt, CEO and founder of Waterless Co., Inc. "One water-using urinal uses about 100 gallons of water per day in [for instance] a typical office building. If a facility has three of these urinals, that's 300 gallons of water each and every day that can be saved."
 
Reichardt also believes that rebate programs such as this will spread to other parts of California as well as to many Western states due to the ongoing drought in about half the country.
 
In Beverly Hills, already some high-end hotels have installed waterless urinals. Often these were installed before the drought to help offset the amount of water the hotel used for landscaping or guest use. Also, as with many hotels around the world, the city's hotels have been actively working to become more sustainable in recent years without impacting guest satisfaction.
 
"That [guest satisfaction] is another reason for the installation of no-water urinals," says Reichardt. "Scaling way back on the amount of water released in faucets and showers may cause guests to complain. With a no-water urinal this is not an issue."
 
More information on the Beverly Hills waterless program may be found here.