These days, selling bottled water is one tough gig. Consumers are getting the message that purchasing water is a waste of money, generates tons of waste, and that high quality water flows for free out of their faucets. What's a bottler to do to get cool again?
It seems that one bottled water company has a plan: Aquafina Community Action. In an effort to stay current, Aquafina is demonstrating their commitment to "participation in volunteerism." Even keeping a running tally of the charity events they participate in, the tons of waste recycled, and the number of volunteers "hydrated."
For example, at last month's Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful event in Tampa, Florida, Aquafina provided bottled water to, "sustain the eco-volunteers as they work throughout the day's activities." The event involved collecting trash to be recycled - mostly bottles and cans- throughout the county. Volunteers were collecting empty water bottles, while guzzling water from plastic bottles - which then had to be recycled. Its like Phillip Morris sponsoring a cancer fun run and rewarding winners with a pack of Marlboros!
Producing bottles is resource and energy intensive, as is recycling, and the bottles still run the risk of being kicked to the curb to be picked up by next year's volunteers. A smarter way to hydrate participants and drive home the eco message would be to provide water coolers with fresh, delicious tap water and remind each of the volunteers to bring their own bottle. Now there's community action!
Photo Credit: Aquafina Community Action
While I think your commercial intent is good and positive, you are naive about the challenges of events when managing lots of volunteers across numerous work areas. Put simply, staging water coolers with tap water is about as difficult as one can manage, and with heightened concern over hygiene nowadays, our volunteers prefer to use bottled water that is convenient, portable and recyclable. Take it from one who stages a number of volunteer events, there is a role for responsibly-managed bottled water, as well as you own form of delivery.