Ethos water is a brand of bottled water

Bottled water

Bottled water is drinking water packaged in plastic or glass water bottles. Bottled water may be carbonated or not...

 with a social mission of "helping children get clean water." Ethos began in 2001 when Peter Thum

Peter Thum

Peter Alan Thum is an American social entrepreneur, business executive, and humanitarian. He is the founder of the social venture Ethos Water and the non-profit organization Giving Water....

 had the idea after working in communities in South Africa that lacked access to clean water. Thum, who was working as consultant for McKinsey & Company at the time, realized the potential to create a bottled water brand to raise awareness and funding for safe water programs. The idea became an obsession for Thum, and he wrote the business plan for Ethos, left McKinsey, and moved to New York in early 2002 to start the venture.

Thum recruited his business school classmate Jonathan Greenblatt

Jonathan Greenblatt

Jonathan Greenblatt is a social entrepreneur and co-founder of Ethos Water. Jonathan joined his friend Peter Thum to start Ethos Water. Ethos water's mission is to help children get clean water. Ethos was based on a simple premise: water for water...

 to join Ethos in late 2002. They launched operations as a bottled water company in August 2003, and also formed a non-profit called Ethos International to invest funds from the business in safe water programs.

In 2005 Starbucks purchased the company for $8 million and its products are now sold throughout North America. After Starbucks' acquisition, the brand has become known for its campaign to raise ten million dollars by donating between five and ten cents from every sale to a non-governmental organization working to increase access to clean drinking water in the developing world.

Criticism

Bottled water can be a problem in the amount and type of waste it generates. The Ethos brand apparently has selected bottles made of a polyethylene terephthalate (PET

Polyethylene terephthalate

Polyethylene terephthalate , commonly abbreviated PET, PETE, or the obsolete PETP or PET-P, is a thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family and is used in synthetic fibers; beverage, food and other liquid containers; thermoforming applications; and engineering resins often in combination...

) instead of polycarbonates that use bisphenol A

Bisphenol A

Bisphenol A is an organic compound with two phenol functional groups. It is used to make polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins, along with other applications....

 (BPA) as part of its manufacturing process.

Since only approximately $0.05 to $0.10 of the retail price ($1.80) goes to charity, the Ethos brand is primarily commercial. Nevertheless, according to the Ethos water homepage, the company has raised around $6.2 million for this purpose to date. It has been argued that donating $100 to CharityWater would be equivalent to purchasing 2,000 bottles of Ethos, without the environmental impact associated with 2,000 bottles composed of non-recycled plastic.

Ethos water is manufactured by PepsiCo

PepsiCo

PepsiCo Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Purchase, New York, United States, with interests in the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of grain-based snack foods, beverages, and other products. PepsiCo was formed in 1965 with the merger of the Pepsi-Cola Company...

, but unlike other Pepsi products, Ethos bottles do not contain recycled plastic

Plastic recycling

Plastic recycling is the process of recovering scrap or waste plastics and reprocessing the material into useful products, sometimes completely different in form from their original state. For instance, this could mean melting down soft drink bottles and then casting them as plastic chairs and tables...

.

External links

• Ethos Water official website