An Overview Of Our Solution
We call our product More Than Water because our mission is about more than great tasting water. As a bottled water company, we consider it our responsibility to reduce the amount of plastic waste going to our planet’s landfills and oceans. Our bottles look and feel the same as a traditional plastic bottle but are made 100% from plants, mostly sugar cane. These biodegradable, compostable bottles break down in as little as 45 days, a big difference from the 500 years it takes standard plastic to do the same.
- Population Impacted: 693,972
- Continent: North America
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Context Analysis
We created this product to lead the charge in decreasing plastic waste. Americans now buy more bottled water than ever before - surpassing soda sales for this first time in 2016 and continuing to dominate the beverage market. This becomes alarming when we consider that only and estimated 9% of plastic bottles actually get recycled. That’s why we designed our bottle to disappear. When it comes to water, its truly the packaging that causes trouble. Most people do not realize that plastic bottles are a made from fossil fuels, using a feedstock of crude oil and natural gas. We instead utilize renewable plant-based materials, mostly sugarcane bagasse. Sugar cane bagasse refers to the fibrous part of the cane that is left over after the edible portions have been extracted. Using bagasse allows us to create a plant-based plastic alternative that doesn't take away from the global food supply. Farmers also typically burn their bagasse, releasing CO2 into the atmosphere.
Describe the technical solution you wanted the target audience to adopt
We want our audience to have the option of buying a better bottle. Millions of Americans live a lifestyle that includes the convenience of buying bottled water on the go. While the number one most sustainable choice anyone can make, is to take a reusable water bottle with them wherever they go, we like to think we're a strong number two. We're targeting people who buy bottle water and providing them a product that looks and feels the same as bottle water, but is made from renewable plant-based sources. We're asking them to compromise next to nothing to make a more sustainable choice, with an estimate 75% lower carbon footprint per bottle.
Type of intervention
Describe your behavioral intervention
In practice, we are trying to change a small degree of behavior to a large impact. We're asking our audience to purchase water in a bottle that its nearly identical to the harmful plastic bottles they already purchase, but with far less harm. Our greatest strategy for ensuring this behavior change occurs, is that we provide the same experience to our customer while the make a more sustainable choice.
As needed, please explain the type of intervention in more detail
Our greatest emotional appeal is that we ask people to compromise nothing to make a better choice. These is truly no reason for a person who cares about people and planet to not select More Than Water over other brands. We also utilize simplified choice architecture, in that we are not asking them to accept water in a different container or in a different way. It looks the same and gives the same benefit, but provides a more sustainable choice.
Describe your implementation
From numerous grocery channels, to fast-casual restaurants, gyms and fitness studios, there so many spaces in that More Than Water plans to provide a better option. What we are most excited for, is creating change in the conferences and events space, focusing on instanced where people often cannot bring in water and they must purchase is on site. Even now, we have had several large grocery chains reach out to us to not only carry our product, but transition their own private label water brands to our plant-based, sugar cane bottle. Our key success factor is getting our bottle in front of consumers where they already buy bottled water, allowing them to make the switch and build a different future one bottle at a time.
External connections
We have received such wonderful support from the grocery industry. Several key players in this space believe in the change we're creating so much, that they act as out best advocates and bring other grocers to our brand. Through word of mouth alone, we have received commitments for almost 100,000 bottles for the upcoming year. To clarify, that is 100,000 plastic bottles that grocers have committed to not purchase, but purchase compostable, plant-base bottles instead. Specifically, Danielle Vogel of Glen's Garden Market in DC has been an amazing supporter of More Than Water.
Who adopted the desired behaviors and to what degree?
We launched at Glen's Garden Market in DC on Earth Day, and our first round of bottle sold out in just a few days. It's clear that this is a change people what to see. Glen's customers, who we believe are a great snapshot of the conscious, DC customer, connected with our product and strongly supported a shift away from plastic.
How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?
Natural resource use is a huge part of why we launched this product. As we said before, traditional plastic bottles use a feedstock of crude oil and natural gas. Even if the identification, extraction, and processing of these fossil fuels was not completely harmful to our plant, these sources are not renewable and will run out. Shifting to renewable resources to make the products we use in our lives must happen. This is why we utilize renewable plant-based materials, mostly sugarcane waste, to make our bottles. From a greenhouse has emissions perspective, our bottles has a 75% lower carbon footprint than a traditional plastic bottle even if it ends up in a landfill. If our bottle is properly commercially composted, it has even more of a positive impact. This does not take into consideration, the emissions reduction created from purchasing sugarcane waste from farmers and preventing industry standard burning of this biomass.
What were some of the resulting co-benefits?
Our key co-benefit is creating a market for what is currently considered plant waste, and turing it into something of value that creates positive change. We do this by using sugarcane bagasse to make our bottles, preventing the burning of this material.
Sustainability
We are proud to say that our business strategy is economically sustainable and sound. We use market-based revenue from the sale of our product to run and grow our business, showing an entire industry that innovation in the name of sustainability is not only meaningful, but profitable.
Return on investment
It cost lots of time and roughly $7,000 to start More Than Water. We have a clear path to create a great positive return on investment when we scale our inventory this Fall.
How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?
Yes, our product has the ability to be scaled globally and is price competitive with other comparable products.