{"id":15491,"date":"2013-03-28T10:27:07","date_gmt":"2013-03-28T16:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=15491"},"modified":"2013-03-28T10:27:07","modified_gmt":"2013-03-28T16:27:07","slug":"bottleless-water-cooler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/bottleless-water-cooler\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bottleless Water Cooler: a Triple Bottom Line Quick Win"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"glass<\/a><\/p>\n

When referring to sustainability, people often talk about the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit. Few times, however, are the solutions we implement cleanly beneficial to each, and easy to explain to people. Here is one of those few times: a cost-effective solution that eliminates carbon emissions and waste, while simultaneously improving health. It also has one other clear benefit: it’s easy to explain to facilities and office management.<\/p>\n

We all know that single serving bottled water is a disaster<\/a> on so many levels: plastic leaching, weak health regulations, high carbon emissions, resource intensive, and very wasteful (only 27% of single use plastic water bottles get recycled). So an improvement is to just use water coolers and have the 5 gallon jugs delivered, right? Well, only slightly. Think about those gas guzzling trucks driving around with several tons of water in cargo. Think about the manufacture of those plastic jugs. Think about the disposal of those plastic jugs at the end of their useful life. Think about all the petroleum that needs to be extracted to create all…that…plastic. According to a study by the environmental impact firm Environmental Capital Group<\/a>, the water cooler industry adds 70 million pounds of waste to landfills every year, since 80% of the jugs never get recycled.<\/p>\n

It’s time to take the next step in the water journey. Filtering water on site is a much better answer. Financially, it makes sense (see water cooler financial analysis here<\/a> on our sister site, Ecopreneurist<\/a>). Health-wise, it helps keep you hydrated at the office<\/a> and keeps the water cleaner<\/a> than water coolers with bottles.<\/p>\n

But let’s talk about the environmental sustainability. Filtering on site versus water coolers with bottles<\/p>\n