Week of August 18, 2005, Issue #513
FRONT
Message in a bottle
By KRISTINE OWRAM
To the casual observer, the bottled water market might seem pretty well saturated—with
brands like Dasani, Montclair, Aquafina, Vittel and Evian crowding the shelves,
you’d think there wouldn’t be much room for any new brand at all,
much less a new brand based out of Edmonton. But walk into any one of 31 different
retailers in this city and you’ll find just that: Earth Water, a local
brand that’s only 10 months old, yet has already managed to expand out
of Edmonton into the rest of Alberta, B.C., Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario,
distributed by total of almost 150 retailers nationwide, from local organic
food markets to big corporations like Safeway and Save On Foods.
So what’s Earth Water’s secret? A brilliant marketing campaign?
Ridiculously low prices? No, according to 26-year-old Kori Chilibeck, founder,
president and CEO of Earth Water International, what sets Earth Water apart
is its socially conscious mandate, unusual for a corporation of any size. After
three months of negotiations, Chilibeck and his staff of three struck a deal
with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
that sees 100 per cent of Earth Water International’s net profits—after
what needs to be held back for salaries and expansion—going directly to
the UN for water aid programs around the world.
“I really believe that ethical business is good business right now,”
explains Chilibeck. “I think people are really starting to try to be careful
where they buy their stuff from, and they’re starting to think as socially
conscious consumers. They’re asking themselves, ‘Is this an organic
product? Where is it made? Is it made in Canada or is it made in the Philippines
by some little four-year-old?’ Let’s face it: the Canadian economy
is doing very well right now; people have disposable income, and I think they’re
becoming more aware of what they’re doing with it.
“This business is really controlled by the big companies, like Coke, Pepsi,
and Nestle, and they don’t need another brand of bottled water,”
he continues. “But when we put our water on the shelf with a poster and
an explanation of what Earth Water is next to a Coke product, for instance,
we outsell them two, maybe even three to one.”
Unlike most businessmen, Chilibeck is only interested in the potential profitability
of his company because it will allow him to fulfill his lifelong dream of helping
others through the UN.
“When I was a kid, I always wanted to work for the UN, but the idea for
Earth Water came to me probably only two years ago,” he explains. “I
was doing my political science degree at the U of A, and I was doing lots of
traveling at the time with the Model UN Club and also lots of travelling on
my own. I would take six months off here, six months off there, and I traveled
to 33 different countries. And being in Nepal and places like that, where water
is such a closely guarded commodity, where it’s more expensive than oil,
it really struck me how much of it we have in Canada. My ultimate goal was to
have a job and get paid and make a living, and then whatever was left over could
go back to the people who need it most. So I guess the idea is that our shareholders
are every man, woman, and child all around the world, living in the worst types
of situations.”
Even though UNHCR has yet to see much money coming directly from Earth Water’s
sales—the company just broke even for the first time about two months
ago—the UN was so impressed by the company’s ability to raise money
through various charity events and their website that they’ve since agreed
to display the UNHCR logo directly on Earth Water’s bottles.
UNHCR’s timing couldn’t be better, as Earth Water has plans to push
into Quebec, the United States, the Netherlands, and Japan within the next year
or so. Chilibeck is also in the midst of striking a similar deal with the UN’s
World Food Programme. Ultimately, his goal for the company is to grab hold of
three per cent of the worldwide market share of bottled water sales.
“That would put Earth Water on every shelf of every developed country
in the world,” he says. “So the projection that we made is that
if we could get up to three per cent of the worldwide market share, we would
be donating more to the UNHCR and the World Food Programme than the top five
donating countries combined. And that would make us one of the most powerful
aid organizations in the world.”
Lofty goals, perhaps, but the UN certainly isn’t complaining. According
to Jonathan Wade, fundraising officer for UNHCR Canada, it’s incredibly
rare for a company like Earth Water International to offer its unfettered assistance
to the United Nations.
“It’s a luxury to work with an organization like Earth Water where
the whole business plan that was put together was predicated on the desire to
help people overseas. It’s actually kind of an unusual circumstance, because
in some ways they’re operating more like an individual donor than as a
corporate partner,” explains Wade. “I can’t speak highly enough
of the importance of having partnerships with organizations like this. While
most corporations are obviously designed to make money for the owners or the
shareholders, Earth Water was designed to make money for the people who are
in the greatest need.”
And, according to Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute for Studies
in Development, Environment, and Security, the need is indeed great. “The
greatest problem is the failure to meet basic human needs for water for everyone,
and I think the financial commitment on the part of nations and the international
community has been grossly inadequate,” he says. “There are billions
of people without access to safe drinking water or adequate sanitation services
worldwide, and that’s something we tend to take for granted in the developed
world.”
According to the UN’s numbers as of 2000, there are 1.1 billion people
worldwide without access to safe drinking water, and 2.6 billion people without
access to adequate sanitation. Because of this, it’s essential that corporations
like Earth Water are willing to be flexible, allowing their donations to go
where they are needed most, says Wade.
“Although Earth Water has expressed an interest in having the net profits
of their work go toward water projects, that doesn’t keep us from putting
the money towards water projects in Africa versus other parts of the world.
So that broad-based kind of earmarking is, in fact, quite ideal for us,”
explains Wade. “When people make very, very specific designations—for
example, a donor might say, ‘I would like to give you $10,000 and I would
like you to use that in this specific community in this specific country”—that
is much harder for us to manage. We ask the majority of donors that give to
us to give support in order to allow us to determine the greatest needs and
to be able to meet those needs.”
Specifically, Wade explains that there are usually three levels of water needs
in refugee situations. First, when refugees flee a country or a region, water
is often not available in the places they flee to and it has to be trucked in.
Second, once the initial humanitarian emergency is over, the water supply will
be systematized through processes like the drilling of wells. Third, if refugees
find themselves living in a camp for many years, a proper water distribution
network of pumps and pipes will be set up. Another important area that Earth
Water’s money will go towards is the development of sewer systems to keep
existing water supplies clean and safe, according to Wade.
Unfortunately, Earth Water has yet to overcome some of the most basic problems
that commonly face new companies, including a lack of funding. However, Chilibeck
hopes that if his company continues down the same successful road, he’ll
be able to convince the banks that it’s not as ridiculous an enterprise
as it may first appear. “It’s kind of scary sometimes, because there’s
not a lot of capital out there,” he explains. “Banks don’t
particularly want to look at a CEO who’s only 26 years old and who drives
a $500 car. That’s our biggest problem, so it’s kind of all or none
right now, and everything I have is in this company.”
But despite the lack of easily accessible funding, Chilibeck’s enthusiasm
should be a relief to Wade, who is wildly enthusiastic about Earth Water and
the principles behind it. “I can’t understate the value of working
with organizations like Earth Water,” he says. “‘Corporate
responsibility’ is a term that’s used regularly by various different
organizations, but Earth Water really is a company that’s built on the
principle of helping others, and I think that’s exceptional. It’s
very rare, and it’s commendable.” V