Innovation

The innovation in use is the conservation of the most precious natural resource, which is water. Pedal Valves Inc. aims to conserve water from running sinks. This innovation emerged out of Robby Gilbert Jr’s childhood. Robby currently owns Pedal Valves. When he was growing up, his dad, who was the original creator of Pedal Valves, often wondered how much water was wasted while doing the dishes. For instance, while cleaning dirty dishes, people often leave the water running rather than using only the amount of what is needed. Thus, he decided to come up with a solution where he could easily turn the water off and on without wasting so much water; this is how the foot pedals formed. Because of this, Pedal Valves Inc. was created by Robby Gilbert Sr. Now, Pedal Valves has grown into three major divisions, wherein they manufacture the foot pedal, do water conservation work, and water meter work. This innovation relates to their number one mission, which is to reduce water consumption, wastewater production, and hot water energy usage through the installation of their state-of-the-art plumbing products. Pedal Valves have an extreme impact on conserving a natural resource and improving lives around us. Without Pedal Valves, the world would be lacking the water and energy that we have today. They are truly making a difference in the environment.

Inspiration

The water meters are an extension of water conservation efforts by Pedal Valves. The goal is to save water and increase city revenues by more accurately monitoring the amount of water that is used. Pedal Valves replaces older water meters with new technology in order to read the exact amount of water used which generates more revenue for the city. It is also able to detect water leaks that could previously have been undetected until it was too late. It also helps prevent people from tampering with water meters and is able to detect exactly what time and how much water is used by the minute. As a result, cities find themselves saving money, wasting less water, and generating more revenue.

Pedal Valves sends people all over the country such as South Carolina, California, and anywhere in-between. They are willing to contract anywhere in the U.S. in order to help conserve water and bring a city’s revenues up.

Overall impact

Petal Valves’ main focus is water conservation, which is a very big issue in the world today. Saving water is the main focus of a lot of big companies and Petal Valves is using its resources to find new and innovative ways to save businesses money by using less water. Petal Valves goes to businesses and facilities like schools, prisons, hospitals, laboratories and more, to help the companies use less water and save them money. Their engineers will go into the facilities and analyze how much water is being used by the sinks, toilets, showers, as well as every other plumbing fixture in the building. They check how many gallons per flush a toilet will use and if they can make that number lower by getting a newer and more innovative toilet that uses less water. Petal Valves will also calculate how much money the facilities will save and if it is worth the upgrade. They calculate how much each new fixture will cost as well as the costs of the construction teams coming in and doing the installations. They tell the facilities how long it will take them to make the money back they used to get the new fixtures from the money they will save with their new water bill since they will be saving a lot of money and using less water. The companies then decide whether they want to go forward with the upgrade or not. Water-friendly companies like Petal Valves are good for the environment because it diverts less water from nearby rivers, lakes, and streams which helps the ecosystem.

Petal Valves created the foot petals used on sinks in hospitals and other facilities and this is the main tool they use to help companies save money. When Petal Valves goes to the businesses they help out, the employees might take the old toilet out, and put in a new toilet to help the company save money on their water bill. Another innovative way they help the businesses save money is put aerators on faucets. Aerators are used on faucets to reduce the flow of water from 2 gallons a minute to half a gallon a minute. They will also give companies new showerheads because an older showerhead will use a lot more water than a newer more innovative one. Petal Valves will also go out and drill wells for irrigation at parks, high schools, colleges that have football fields or other sporting fields. They do this, so instead of using city water, they can reuse the water from the well. These are just a few of the many ways Petal Valves helps big facilities and businesses save money and at the same time, save the environment. The foot pedals they invented are most frequently used on sinks in commercial kitchens, hospitals, and other heavily used water installations.

Business benefit

Pedal Valves Inc. quickly came to realize that their idea of the foot pedal attached to the sink that stops running water was a very profitable one. The business success that came from the foot pedals eventually brought other business opportunities to the table. They were able to broaden their ideas to the bigger picture, which is water conservation as a whole. After making the decision to grow, they came up with other water conservation ideas and products, eventually leading to them constructing the products themselves. The business has become very successful since its beginnings in both water preservation and from a business point of view.

Social and environmental benefit

The benefits that Pedal Valves Inc. brings to the table from both a societal view and an environmental view are fantastic. In terms of society, they bring change to how much water is used on a daily basis to all clients who are willing to pay to get the improvements made to their facilities. The CEO explained in a phone interview that the main thing they do in their water conservation division is going to the large facilities of their customers, which have included schools, prisons, hospitals, laboratories, and other large facilities, and have engineers evaluate how much water they are using daily in these facilities. They examine every plumbing fixture in the building, calculate how much water is being used by their current situation, and how much water they would save using one of the solutions offered by Pedal Valves Inc. The amount of water saved on a daily basis in these large facilities is substantial. It not only saves these customers a lot of money on their water bills, but it is also making a huge positive impact on the environment at the same time.

Interview

Robby Gilbert Jr., President