In an effort to bring attention to global water scarcity, this summer, IBM rebranded The Weather Channel as The Water Channel. They approached us to develop a campaign that amplified this message and helped individuals visualize the true water cost of their everyday items.

What do The Weather Channel, 13,000 pounds of ice, and a latte have in common? Answer: A #KnowTheCost installation in Atlanta’s Piedmont Park designed to show the water cost of everyday items we use. A quantity of water most people cannot fully comprehend; hence, all that ice.

We approached this campaign with both a physical and digital answer; developing an installation to visualize the cost of everyday products in water, in addition to a digital Chrome plugin that allowed shoppers to view the water cost of their online purchases. The aim - to help people make more sustainable and ethical purchasing decision

The exhibit was part of a larger effort by IBM and The Weather Company, which is owned by IBM. It supported and amplified Forecast Change, an initiative launched by The Weather Channel on World Environment Day. For three days, starting on June 5th, The Weather Channel changed its name to The Water Channel to bring attention to global water scarcity.

Throughout the year, every time you check the weather on The Weather Channel app, you unlock clean water for communities in need. This is essential as only one percent of our planet’s water is available fresh water.

By understanding that everything we produce, buy, sell and eat takes fresh water to make, it hopefully will help us see those jeans, toys and even that daily latte in a more socially conscious way that results in positive change.

Across three days in Atlanta’s Piedmont Park, three everyday items stood encased in blocks of ice symbolizing the volume of water it took to manufacture each of them. As the ice melted, it was channeled through a filtration system to create drinking water for the local community.

In total, 43.5 three-hundred-pound blocks of ice were used to give visual context to water usage and, more importantly, water scarcity.

How could we extend this message beyond the people of Atlanta to a wider audience? We needed to take this digital, and develop something accessible by the masses on your phone or computer.

We built a Chrome browser extension that tells you the water cost of some popular items purchased via Amazon. It contextualizes the true cost of buying new goods and displays facts about water scarcity for you to consider. It can be downloaded at thewaterchannel.org