Comments on: Timberland’s Jeff Swartz: bottled water woes…

By: Lewis Fix

Lewis Fix — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:58:37 +0000

Initiating this change always reveals some previously unknown variables, or unintended consequences. I agree that taking the small steps is important, even if it appears insignificant, because of the effect it has on employees, and their willingness to engage.

I’m already looking forward to the next item on your to-do list, removing all paper products from the company cafeteria. As a 14 year veteran of the fine paper industry (not too much of our stuff is in cafeteria’s except for menus – so I’m not THAT biased), I’ll be interested to observe the science vs. conventional wisdom battle in your mandate. I’ll give one bit of advice – please avoid using outcomes like “We saved X many trees by switching to a non forest fiber product.” This is one of the most overused environmental “savings” that is calculated. Not to mention it isn’t true.

You’re smart to know that “this could get ugly” – because you haven’t even started the mandate and I’m already challenging the outcome. I need to get a life…

Lewis Fix
VP Brand Management and Sustainable Product Development
Domtar Corp

By: Dana

Dana — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:08:32 +0000

If you want to know how important something is – “Try changing it”.

To reduce paper waste in our cafe we changed over to washable dishes, cups and silverware (yes we had to hire a dishwasher) and we also setup composting where all paper napkins, food waste, and certain food packaging can be composted.

By: Mary Vincent

Mary Vincent — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 21:24:31 +0000

Thanks for the article!
Here’s an article I wrote last week interviewing Stephanie Soechtig: ‘Tapped’ Documentary Director (features the bottled water industry)
http://www.gratitudegourmet.com/1/post/2009/08/interview-with-stephanie-soechtig-tapped-director.html

Thanks,

By: Steve Brown

Steve Brown — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 12:36:50 +0000

Why do you not eliminate all beverages?
“Switching from other beverages to bottled water would yield much more environmental profit than switching from bottled water to tap water”
More importantly, all other beverages use vast amounts of water and energy to produce, while water – even bottled water – does not. It takes water to grow crops, and it takes energy to fertilize, harvest and transport them.
It takes 35 litres of water to produce one cup of tea, and 140 litres of water to produce one cup of coffee. When you add sugar in your coffee or tea, it gets even worse: every teaspoonful of sugar requires 50 cups of water to grow.
A glass of beer takes 75 litres of water to produce, while just one glass of wine asks 120 litres of water. One glass of fruit juice or milk requires 170 to 200 litres of water. A glass of brandy asks 2,400 litres of water.
Producing one litre of bottled water simply requires a litre of water, and no energy. Yes, producing and distributing the water bottles does use water and energy, but the same goes for other beverages.
This means that bottled water is a more ecological choice than all other bottled options: beer, wine, milk, fruit juice or soft drinks. Most likely, drinking bottled water is an even better choice than drinking coffee or tea made with tap water – coffee and tea might weigh less than water, but they are transported over much larger distances.
The only undisputable better choice than bottled water is tap water. Forcing bottled water drinkers to drink tap water would help the environment – but switching from other beverages (none of them essential to human health) to bottled water would yield much more environmental profit.”It is unfair to solely blame water even though it also happens to be distributed via pipes”
Environmental groups always have something to say about the huge (and growing) amounts of bottled water that are being sold, and the huge amount of energy that is needed to transport them. These figures might be accurate, but bottled water holds only a small share of the market for bottled drinks.
The energy needed to transport soft drinks and beer is far more impressive. The main problem here is not bottled water. The main problem is that most people don’t drink water, but prefer soft drinks, fruit juice, coffee, beer or energy drinks instead.
This message, however, is not so popular because most of us like to discuss the environmental problems of this planet over a couple of beers, or wines, or coffees.
Don’t get me wrong. This is not a plea for everyone to start drinking bottled water instead of tap water. Drinking tap water should be encouraged. But people who prefer to drink bottled water should not be treated as pariahs, because they are making a much more ecological choice than those of us who choose to consume other beverages.