From Tampa to Sarasota, businesses find ways to conserve water

SARASOTA, Fla. - Not everyone sees sunshine on a rainy day, but a Whole Foods market in Sarasota does.

"Florida is very concerned about water use and trying to conserve water," said John Bauer of Wahaso, a water harvesting solutions company. 

Wahaso installed a large silver cylinder on one side of the Whole Foods building.

"It's designed to basically to look attractive and also be very functional in storing rainwater for us from the rooftop," explained Bauer.

The rooftop rainwater goes through a filtering system before it's used for irrigation of the property.

"We still want to make sure that the water quality is safe so that if someone breathes in the mist or they touch the water that it wouldn't harm them," said Bauer.

It's also capturing condensation from the cooling system. In Tampa, The Patel Center For Global Solutions on the University of South Florida's Tampa campus is also harvesting rainwater to flush toilets. But you won't find their tank above ground.

"We have a 30,000-gallon tank. It's fiberglass. It's located beneath the earth and it captures rainwater from the roof and it also captures condensate from our mechanical units," explained Suchi Daniels of USF's facilities management.

It's a mission to think locally while acting globally. 

"The university has an impact on all of the surrounding areas and we need to conserve because we're not the only entity in this area of Temple Terrace," said Daniels. "It sets an example for kind of the growing vision of the world and the fact the resource of water is valuable."