Earth Water Inc

Water for Water: Using profits from sales of bottled water to those who can afford it to deliver clean water to those who are in desperate need for it

Tuesday 20 January 2009

6 inspired

Earth Water was founded by Kori Chilibeck, a student of political science at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, in 2004. The revenue of Earth Water comes from sales of bottled water in Canada, USA, Europe and Asia (Japan) and after paying competitive salaries to its employees it gives out all net income to UNHCR (United Nations Refugee Agency) which carries out campaigns to provide drinking water to those who do not have an access to such a vital resource. In the second year of its operations Earth Water had gross profit of $ 400 000 and net income sent to UN program amounted to $25 000 . One can say it is not a sound or significant funds. However, the fact that Earth Water is a very young company, it was able to break even and deliver profits in the first year of operations and is currently growing 350 per cent each month is a sound achievement, especially, in such an established industry as bottle water.

The core strategy of success of Earth Water is to produce the product locally: Canadian Earth Water comes from springs in Canada; it is bottled in Canada into the bottles that are also produced locally .
Earth Water is currently the only Fast-Moving-Consumer-Goods company allowed to use UNHCR logo on its products and it is donating 15 – 19 cents from every bottle sold to UN program which approximately the amount needed to provide a child with a daily norm of water .

Bottled water market is very competitive. And it is very hard for an entrant to compete with such giants as Pepsi, Coke and Nestle. It is even greater challenge for Earth Water to compete on the market since one of its target audiences is campus students. And Universities are normally having exclusive contract with supplier of beverages on the territory of campuses. However, the company believes that targeting students is an important aspect of success since students is an active and conscious audience.

Earth Water is also participating in various fairs and is organizing events which are aimed to increase the overall awareness of people about the water problems in developing countries.

In addition, currently the company is trying to go beyond plastic bottles which are hardly or even non-recyclable and use, for example, corn-based bottles which are decomposable and recyclable (already implemented in Canada) .

Source of inspiration

The CEO and the founder of Earth Water, Kori Chilibeck, traveled around 32 countries during his University times to understand what is going on in the real world. He found an inspiration for his enterprise while his trip in Nepal near the Mountain Everest base where the group he was traveling with met an barefoot man, wearing torn T-short and jeans in a really cold weather and caring a bundle of Coca Cola cans up to the tourist camp. With the help of an interpreter they got to know that a man was paid 50 cents a day for his job. At this moment Kori asked himself why “couldn’t a company pay their employees a competitive wage and compete on the world stage, and at the end of the day give back the profits to those who need is the most” .

Bibliography

http://www.bizlink.com/foodfiles/PDFs/dec2007/food_insider_dec07.pdf
http://www.expressnews.ualberta.ca/article.cfm?id=6902
http://www.bizlink.com/foodfiles/PDFs/dec2007/food_insider_dec07.pdf
http://www.citytv.com/edmonton/yourcity_35962.aspx
http://www.changemakers.net/en-us/node/6988

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3 Discussions / 3 Messages

  • Earth Water Inc 5 June 2012 at 22:26 , by Manel

    Wow, I think this company is an example to follow. It’s really true what the article says, to compete with huge multinationals like Coca Cola or Nestlé is very difficult, but this is the example that is possible. I’ve had very good vibrations while discovering companies like this or TOMS, using the profits from the developed countries to help those who really need it.

    It’s very very interesting that many companies that have strong ethical values and it’s activity mission includes this ethical values have been created after the founder had a "revelator" trip. I don’t think every ethical company needs a shocking image to become ethical, we all know that the world is unfair and we all should try to drive the world into the same direction. What do you think?

  • An ethcial company-Earth water Inc 5 October 2012 at 10:18 , by Li Changdong

    student: Li Changdong
    SN: 1121209251

    I would like to congratulate the author who can find such an inspiring company. Not only the author was inspired, but also all people who know this company.

    Earth Water faces strong competition since there are many giant companies in bottle water industry. The company’s founder decided to establish a company which can compete with other excellent companies on the world stage just because he was inspired by a water-carrying man. I surely admire his dauntless spirit, not to mention his public welfare purpose.

    On the one hand, Earth Water put all its net income to the United Nations refugee agency and related programs in order to help people who are in most need. The company often participates in and organizes some activities which aim at arousing the worldwide awareness about the water problems in the developing countries. This kind of idealism owes exclamation! Many companies may also do charity and public welfare for propaganda purposes, but there are few companies would donate all the profit. In this sense, Earth Water is a charity rather than a company.

    On the other hand, Earth Water treats employees and environment well. The company gives employees with competitive salary. At the same time, the company is trying to use recyclable material substitute plastic bottles. I have to say, it is a company with foresight and responsibility.

    Finally, I want to say, this is really a dream company. It does not need to be qualified by ordinary profitable standard. It is absolutely worth a thumbs-up because its contribution on business ethics.

  • Earth Water Inc 13 May 2013 at 13:01 , by turkislam

    I really appreciate this firm, their business model and social responsibility projects. They have merged their business model and social responsibility in the same basket. Today water is one of the most important issues of world. Nearly 1 billion people can’t drink clean water. Life starts with water, it’s the origin of life. Here there is an explanation of "Why water?": http://www.charitywater.org/whywater/

    In addition, in their website, I saw that in 2011, Earth Group donations helped World Food Programme provide nearly 200,000 meals to children in school in Kenya. In a world of injustices we need this type of practices, it’s not only making profits.

    Thanks for letting us know about this company, it’s really inspiring.

Location: Canada

Sector: food

Official website: http://www.earth-water.org/

Key figures:

Revenue: £22.3 millions

Profit before tax: £705 000

Nbr. visits: 2558

Nbr. inspires: 6