Water Initiative Project
2014/2015
OUR OBJECTIVES
1.
More water fountains on campus (that are clean and accessible)
2. Students should be given free or heavily subsidised reusable water
bottles in order to use the fountains
3. The campus shops should only stock water which is ethical and local
4. The café’s across campus should provide free water that people can
help themselves to with biodegradable cups
WHY WE WANT THIS
what benefits will this bring to the students and wider global community?
Students Well Being
• “drinking water improves concentration, clears the mind, and
reduces stress”
Reducing Plastic Use
• 10 million marine mammals and turtles in the north Pacific are
killed every year by plastic in the ocean
• Up to 63.4 billion plastic bottles are dumped into landfills and the
ocean a year
Questioning the ethics of commodification and privatisation of what
should be a share resource
• A report by the Canadian Polaris Institute argued that the big
companies pay next to nothing for water they take from rural
springs or public water systems and then sell a product back to us
that is not as well-regulated as tap water, but is vastly more
expensive
Why is this campaign so important?
UWE claims to be a sustainable university and yet
falls very far behind on a number of issues which
other universities are setting the precedent in.
It is the responsibility of those that use the phrase
to live up to its expectations.
To achieve sustainability there needs to be a
commitment to constant adaptation and change
towards improvement; it requires changing habits
and behaviours and not getting stuck in bad
practice.
Two unsustainable practices we’ve
identified are:
1. the lack of water fountains on campus requires
students to purchase plastic bottled water
2. The selling of certain brands of bottled water which
are shrouded in Ethical issues
DANONE


Encouraging mothers to
use their formula instead
of breastfeeding across
the world but most
notably in the global South
such as Indonesia
They claimed their
campaign was endorsed
by WHO and UNICEF, even
though both organisations
denied this and asked for
their logos to be removed
from all literature
COCA COLA

Extreme over exploitation of
water reserves in India, most
infamously Kerala

Pollution of water tables in India

The company has faced legal
action a number of times by
unionised workers in a number
of developing countries; in 2001
it was sued by union labourers in
Colombia for violence against
the workers

A scandal hit the UK in 2004
when it was found that CocaCola were selling the UK market
water which was sourced from
the tap
Alternatives
Small Bristol based team
of ethical entrepreneurs
•
Funds sustainable clean
water projects in
developing countries
Donates 100% of its net
profit to charity
•
Water from a British source
•
Certified organic source
•
Available in glass bottles
100% recyclable plastic bottles
•
•
Carbon neutral
Drop4drop is a charity founded by
Life Water which strives to give
1000 litres of clean water to
developing countries for every litre
of Life water purchased in Britain
Myths about bottled water
1. Bottled water is better for you
research found that the concentration of certain chemicals, such
as antimony, increase the longer the water sits in the plastic
bottle
2. Bottled water tastes better
“Think Outside the Bottle” Campaign has held countless taste
tests comparing bottled water and tap water and generally the
results favour tap water
3. Bottled water is convenient and cheap to buy
Bottled water costs 240 to over 100,000 times more per gallon
than tap water
How to achieve our objectives
• install a water fountain in all the areas we have identified, most
importantly the study areas
• ensure that all existing and new water fountains are kept clean and are
easy to access
• all ‘hydration stations’ should be made obvious
• in Fresher’s week 2014 include in the Fresher’s pack a voucher which gives
new students the chance to collect a reusable bottle also include a map
showing where all the water bottles are and a small information pack on
the benefits of drinking water, busting the myth that bottled water is
better for you than tap water and the financial incentive of drinking water
from the fountains
• in all café’s across campus there should be a water fountain or the option
of getting free water in biodegradable cups so that if a student or staff
member has forgotten their reusable bottle or does not have one they can
still drink water without buying a bottle
• all shops across campus should only stock local and ethical water brands
such as Frank
• a commitment to installing even more water fountains than the ones
identified if the demand is there
Other universities and institutions that have banned
bottled water
“Freshmen at colleges across the country are being greeted with stainlesssteel bottles in their welcome packs and encouraged to use hydration stations
where free, filtered water is available. Brown, which used to sell about
320,000 bottles of water a year in vending machines and campus stores,
ended sales in dining halls in 2010. Harvard and Dartmouth College are
installing hydration stations in new buildings to reduce trash.”
benefits for the university
- Saving money on recycling collection by
reducing plastic bottles
- Being a part of an internationally recognised
campaign
- Evidence of being a sustainable campus in
making proactive changes
- Keeping students healthy and hydrated