Reduce your environmental footprint, drink more tap water! – These 7 social enterprises show you how.

Soulbottles – the glass bottle with the mission to #Act on Plastic
Soulbottles are more than a simple glass bottle which you use to fill with water. The Berlin start-up is one of the pioneers of the Purpose Economy, is fully owned by its employees and has developed a hierarchy-free organisational model. The company wants to live up to the values which their customers are likely to have – being entirely committed to sustainability and a better world. With the Soulincubator and the Act on Plastic program, Soulbottles supports social innovators who fight against plastic waste.

Dopper – the plastic campaigners

At first sight, something seems wrong. A company that sells plastic bottles as a driver to fight against plastic waste in the seas? But dopper is just that: The social business founded by Marijn Everaarts from the Netherlands was created with the mission to make people aware of the problem of ocean pollution – and he was one of the first people to do so. The company supports campaigns against plastic waste in the oceans and donates 5% of its revenues to its own foundation set up specifically for this purpose. The bottles themselves are “cradle-to-cradle” certified and are entirely BPA-free.

Klean Kanteen – better steal bottles 
The stainless steel bottles are not only robust. They are produced by a company that is serious about saving the planet. Klean Kanteen is committed to a zero-waste economy and actively supports campaigns to avoid disposable togo cups. Their latest product: dishwasher-safe reusable “straws” made of stainless steel with a silicone tip.

Züri-Wasser

The idea is as simple as it is brilliant. To make it attractive to the restaurants to serve tap water, the Swiss association “Drink & Donate” invented “Züri-Wasser” (Z2O), which is now expanding into other regions of Switzerland as “Schwiizer Wasser” (CH2O). The idea is: the customer pays three francs for a 0.5l carafe of water. The restaurant owner receives two francs, one franc goes as a donation to drinking water projects of Drink & Donate. Thanks to the easy-to-recognize logo, the customer knows that while he is paying for water, he does it for a good cause.

Vitalized water
An equally simple alternative for upgrading water for use in the catering industry is the use of devices that filter and vitalise the water. The Berlin-based company Leogant, for example, specifically addresses the gastronomy. With vitalized water, the restaurant owner can create a “trendy drink” on the menu that is produced directly in the kitchen, based on tab water which is vitalized through a special process. This is likely to replace many a mineral water that is taken from far away and thus relieve the environment. We cannot judge which methods are most effective in returning water to its original fresh spring state, as it is promised. However, we observe that the demand for vitalised water is increasing.

Viva con Agua
At Viva con Agua the impact dimension is firmly embedded in the shareholder structure. 60% of the company shares are held by the Viva con Agua Foundation and the Viva con Agua charity, the rest by Impact business angels from the wider family and friends of the organization. The water is bottled regionally and is available in the variants “quiet” (still water) and “loud” (carbonated).

Share
Share was co-founded by Sebastian Stricker, who had previously founded the ShareTheMeal donations app, which now forms part of the UN World Food Programme. The company’s mission therefore is truly authentic. The B Corp Certified company is driven by the 1+1 vision. Every organic nut bar donates a portion of food, every hand soap donates a bar of soap and every bottle of water donates a day’s supply of drinking water.