Lipstick On A Pig Dept.: Fiji Water Goes Green
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 11. 7.07
That object of much TreeHugger abuse, Fiji Water, is announcing today that it is going carbon negative; according to the New York Times it plans to more than make up for the greenhouse gases released in the creation, transportation and sales of its product.
“Our existence has been a strong net positive for the economy of Fiji, and we don’t want to be any less than that on climate change,” said Thomas Mooney, who in July was named Fiji Water’s first senior vice president for sustainable growth.
They are installing a wind turbine to run the bottling plant, shipping to the east coast instead of trucking across the country, using biodiesel in their delivery trucks and reducing the plastic and cardboard in their packaging. They are also pledging money to protect the watershed where they get their water.
Nice try, but we agree with Michael Brune of the Rainforest Action Network: “Bottled water is a business that is fundamentally, inherently and inalterably unconscionable. No side deals to protect forests or combat global warming can offset that reality.” ::New YorkTimes
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Objection!
I have been to fiji. It is a 'third world nation', always on the verge of some coup or other. It is also on the front lines of climate change. Without a 'product' like Fiji Water, there isn't much they can do to survive and prosper in the face of climate change.
I call this bettah' than before for both their economy and the environment.
maybe, but the water doesn't taste as good as the water from the tap in my kitchen
If I murder one person and rescue another person, I should still be condemned as a murderer.
I find Michael Brune's comment rather harsh. Personally, I think bottled water tastes like crap, but so does the tap. I know botlled water is not full of chlorine, another "fundamentally, inherently and inalterably unconscionable" product, that is used in Michaels's tap water. Not to mention the Hetch Hetchy dam in Yosemite that destroyed countless acres of natual habitat just to hold Michael's water, later to be washed with chlorine and pumped full of flouride. THAT is "fundamentally, inherently and inalterably unconscionable."
while I can accept that bottled water has a strong negative environmental impact, the reason it is popular is that most tap in water tastes bad. The various sterilizing agents, sediment the pipes and metals and or plastics leeching into the tap water make bottled water the preferred product if you go by taste alone.
There is also a significant convenience factor in that you don't need to remember to carry any water in your car or clean out the bottles when they become filled with algae or bacterial growths from the tap water. You can just stop anywhere in pickup a clean, clear, cold bottle of water and be on your way.
yes, the environmental effects are a problem but the product is not going away because it has too many attributes the consumer considers desirable.
I think taking a carbon-negative stance is far superior to a domestic water company like Poland Spring, which isn't doing diddly-squat in terms of conservation measures.
I like this. It's a step in the right direction. No matter how hard people try to persuade others to stop drinking bottled water, people are still going to use it! And if they're still going to use it, they might as well drink from a company that's environmentally responsible.
"maybe, but the water doesn't taste as good as the water from the tap in my kitchen"
I don't much care for the taste of Fiji Water™, but it tastes better than the water in MY tap...esp. after the chlorine gets added. :blech: I refil glass bottles with osmosis-water from my local walkable supermarket.
Lloyd, you need to lay off on the criticism. Think about this, absolutely any drink you buy at the store is 99%... bottled water. Coke, Gatorade, Coors, Juicy Juice, milk. They just have different flavorings. There are many situations where bottled water is literally a life-saver. Personal stashes in the trunk for emergencies, handouts to the masses in emergencies (think Katrina); it has its uses.
So even forgetting about its importance in emergencies, on a day-to-day basis I think its much better that the kids at the local elementary school buy bottled water from the vending machine, instead of a Coke. In my county most schools have gone to bulk bottled water because the old pipes have too much lead in them. In that case its the only thing keeping the schools open (no water, no occupancy license).
Yes, a whole bottle's worth of water is wasted for every bottle made. Yes, most of that plastic isn't recycled. But since many people don't get the majority of their drinking liquids from the tap - it comes from one form of bottled water or another - why is bottled water so much worse than Coke, or milk?
Perhaps it is done with the best intentions, but it reeks of an unimaginative PR stunt. I would prefer if they invested their energies on helping the poorer citizens of Fiji get access to safe and affordable drinking water than going on about this carbon negative malarkey. Or help the island nation and others like it (e.g. Tuvalu) figure out how they can cope with rising sea levels.