Little Green Riding Hood is leading the way towards saving water

WE all know the story of Little Red Riding Hood. But what aboutLittle Green Riding Hood? It's the name of a fun play based on theclassic fairytale that has taught more than 18,000 school childrenin Essex how to use less water.

The production is put on by Essex & Suffolk Water, in partnershipwith production company Fame Factory Spotlight and tells the storyof Little Green Riding Hood, who runs around after the villainous MrWolf as he constantly leaves taps on and wastes water.

Rainbow At the end of the play, the children write down one waythat they save water and they stick it onto a giant rainbow, whileall of their bad habits get washed away.

"The children love the play and it's presented in a fun,educational way that really sinks in with kids," said SarahPinkerton from Essex & Suffolk Water, which is sponsoring theCommunity category at the Essex Business Excellence Awards 2011.

As well as school projects, staff at the water company spent morethan 1,600 hours doing voluntary work last year, which means thefirm is well placed to decide who gets the Community prize in ourawards this year.

Sarah, who is one of the judges, said they were "delighted" to besponsoring this important category again.

"We are really looking forward to seeing the variety of thingsthat are happening to support the local community and we are hopingthat this year we will see even more examples of the different waysbusinesses can put something back into the community," she said.

"Any organisation that does something special to help the localcommunity should enter as winning, or being shortlisted, for thisaward is fantastic recognition of your hard work."

Efficiency The Little Green Riding Hood play is all part of Essex& Suffolk Water's Bad Habits Cost The Earth campaign which iseducating people of all ages about water efficiency.

It aims to get every single household across the two countiessaving at least one litre of water per day.

As part of this campaign, Essex & Suffolk Water is giving awayfree water-saving kits, worth Pounds 20, which include a showeraerator, shower timer, save-a-flush and tap inserts. The kits willsave up to 95 litres of water per day and reduce utility bills by upto Pounds 60 per year.

To request a pack log onto www.eswater.co.uk/usingwaterwisely.aspx or call 0845 604 8071.