Years? Days? Perhaps weeks? Perhaps the amount of time you need to drive to Canada and come back? Perhaps I am completely going insane…! Nothing has changed since the last time we spoke. I am still sitting in the back store of the superstore, with Miss Evian who is getting more and more winy as time goes by. Of course, I had to  tell Miss Evian the truth, an aggressive group of Bamboo bottles took over the supermarket. YES! THEY HAVE REPLACED US! THEY HAVE REPLACED PLASTIC BOTTLED WATER!! The change is official and so is the end of my liquid life! I must admit, it is something very hard for me to say, but people are finally sick of us! They have realized that plastic bottled water is a waste of money and has terrible consequences for the outside world.

Bamboo B. not only stole the heart of Miss Evian but also decided to steal my place as Supermarket King! The situation has gone over bored! His coup d’état was a success and he took over MY shelf, replacing all the plastic bottled waters with Bamboo B. clones. The saddest part in all of this is that customers seem to have already forgotten us!! What a shame! I am terribly offended every time I hear them say: have you heard about the coolest bottles? They are made out of glass, bamboo and a small part of plastic that is 100% recycled! This bottle last forever, unlike the plastic ones! Yes, and if you decided to get rid of it, the glass is 100% recyclable… ENOUGH! I can’t listen to those comments anymore!

I know that us normal boring plastic bottled water are not as cool as the new recyclable multiple use water bottles. I also know that every year close to 600 million of us end up in a landfill. Its not like it is MY fault if people don’t recycle us!?! Indeed Miss Evian reminds me all that time that because we are made of PO-LY-ETHY-POLY, no that’s not it, it sounded more like PO-LY-ETHY-LENE or something like that, we can be used only once for sanitation purposes. Poly something apparently is not good on the long term. I hear most people call it (PET). I wonder why?….Well as I was saying, the need for…AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

HELP ME WHAT IS GOING ON! WHO IS TOUCHING MEEEEEEE! LET MISS EVIAN ALONE!! OR ELSE YOU AR GOING TO HAVE TO DEAL WITH ME!!!

A strange voice exclaimed: “these two plastic bottled waters are slippery, funny thing it seems like the almost now their lives are over. Well, come to think of it not completely over, after the plastic will be recycled the bottles will probably reborn into something else like a kayak or a pullover”. A woman’s voice shrugged and told the man that once the bottles would reach the recycling facility they would get squished with all the other bottles made of PET and sold to reclaimers, companies that help process plastic. Machines later shred the plastic balls apart as the remaining flakes are melted and transformed into strands. These strands later get transformed into plastic pellets that will later serve to make other products like fiber for clothing or milk jugs.

Source: http://www.bamboobottleco.com/

Source: http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0913/p18s02-hfks.html

Calcium – Ca++

Adults need about eight hundred milligrams of calcium per day–babies don’t require as much, but fifteen to nineteen year olds need significantly more. The many benefits of calcium include stabilizing bone structure, teeth, and cell membranes; ensuring nerve and muscle impulses are properly transmitted; and helping to prevent blood clotting. Calcium also has a balancing effect for numerous skin allergies. Bones decalcify (osteoporosis) and fractures become more likely if a body is not getting enough calcium. Bottled water usually has less than 100 mg/l of calcium, but a few examples have about 500 mg/l.

Potassium – K+

Two to four grams is usually a sufficient day’s supply of potassium. Children and young people should pay particular attention to their intake, since potassium aides the growth of cells. The pressure of water between cells is regulated by potassium, which also makes sure each cell gets enough food. Potassium has special roles to play in muscle contraction and the formation and conduction of impulses of the heart. Potassium deficiency can weaken skeletal muscles and make smooth muscles tired. Typical potassium content in bottled water is less than 5 mg/l, but some (such as Ferrarelle and Malvella) can have as much as 50 mg/l.

Sodium – Na+

A person’s level of exertion largely determines his or her daily requirement of sodium. Normally about three grams are necessary, but severe physical stress can bring the requirement up to fifteen grams or more. The heart’s metabolism is affected by sodium, as is the regular contraction of the heart. Today, we rarely have to worry about sodium deficiency: Salt is an integral part of many foods, especially those that are highly processed. Sodium in bottled water ranges from 10 mg/l in most bottled waters to 1,200 mg/l in a few waters, such as Vichy Catalan and Vichy Célestins.

Sulfate - SO4-

Sulfates are the salts of sulfur. They aid the liver in detoxification and help digestion by stimulating the gall bladder. Sulfates in high doses act as a laxative. Fish, meat, and milk contain sulfates, which are an important component of protein. The human body only absorbs small amounts of sulfates, but these amounts are sufficient to stimulate peristalsis by binding magnesium and sodium to water in the intestine. This effect makes mineral waters rich in sulfates, which taste slightly bitter, suitable as “nonalcoholic bitters” after a meal. Most bottled waters have well below 100 mg/l of sulfates, but San Pellegrino and a few others can reach 500 mg/l.

Bicarbonate – HCO3-

Present in all biological fluids, bicarbonate is essential for maintaining our bodies’ pH balance. The substance is also found in stomach secretions. Lactic acid generated by physical activity is neutralized by bicarbonate dissolved in water; a similar process raises the pH of some acidic foods. The typical range for bicarbonate in bottled water is 50 to 200 mg/l, but it can reach up to about 1,800 mg/l in waters such as Apollinaris, Gerolsteiner, and Borsec.

Silica  - SiO2

Most adults need between twenty and thirty milligrams of silica daily. [An essential mineral building block, silica is one of the body’s greatest energizing nutrients.] Silica reduces the risk of heart disease and may prevent osteoporosis; it also helps tissue repair by serving as an antioxidant. Hair and nails are strengthened by silica. If bottled waters contain any silica, it’s usually less than 20 mg/l, and the higher levels in waters such as Fiji and Antipodes are well below 100 mg/l.

(Source for the minerals: http://www.finewaters.com/Mineral_Water.asp)

Minerals are fundamental to the human body yet the ones found in solid food are difficult to be absorbed. For this reason minerals found in water, more easy to absorb, are an important supplement and source of nourishment to our body.

“Bottled Water! I have had enough! You have got to tell me what is going on! Where are we?? Why am I SUPPOSE TO KEEP MY VOICE DOWN??! WHO ISN’T SUPPOSE TO HEAR US?? Where is Bamboo???” exclaimed Miss Evian with a very loud and impatient tone of voice.  Well, to tell you the truth, despite all the bad things that have happened to us I am happy Bamboo is out of the picture!! I decided I wasn’t going to tell her the complete truth but I had to tell her something: “Miss Evian, we are hiding in the back store of the superstore, because we are playing a game and the other bottles are not suppose to find us!”. I wonder if she is actually going to buy this lie! Knowing her I doubt it!

Miss Evian replied with an annoyed tone of voice: “First of all stop calling it the “superstore” it is a SU-PER MAR-KET!! It is not such a hard word to remember! Second of all, this game is ridiculously silly! I don’t want to be hiding out in the back store with those annoying bags of flour! I want to be out in the supermarket with mr Bamboo and you have NO RIGHT to keep me away from him!!!! If you don’t let me go right now, I will call the police of the supermarket! Frank the security guard that has arrested that little boy that one time tried to steal a chocolate bar…remember?”

I told Miss Evian to calm down and I decided to tell her the truth. The whole truth! Here I go! Miss Evian, I have got some bad news for you. They took over the shelf. All the rest of us are gone. This is why you have got to keep your voice down, we are the only two plastic bottled water left. If they found us it is over! We need to stay out here until I come up with some sort of plan.

“Bottled Water! WHO TOOK OVER THE STORE?!! WHERE ARE ALL OF OUR FRIENDS? SHOULD I BE AFRAID? replied Miss Evian with an alarmed tone!

TO BE CONTINUED…

This particular water comes from a simple hydrogeological model that is explained on the company’s website: “water is mineralized through contact with the rocks and is heated by geothermal gradient until reaching the spring, where it has the balanced composition of S. Pellegrino mineral water” (Source: http://www.sanpellegrino.com/index.html). As early as the 12^th century the Sanpellegrino sparkly water was used for its apparent healthy properties.  In 1842, the town decided to sell the spring to Ester Palazzolo with the condition that a part of the share would be given to the local citizens so they could have access to the water free of charge.  With thousands of bottles selling around the world, the Italian brand decided to put together mineral water and Sicilian oranges and invented a new soft drink called “Aranciata”. In 1999, the brand became the latest new addition to Nestlé’s bottled water empire. According to San Pellegrino’s latest quality report, the water that comes from the sources is always tested as it enters the plant in order to comply with international standards and with Nestlé own requisites. It appears that “quality first” is the motto of this luxury water bottle as the product is “screened for over 200 possible contaminants annually, even more than the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or Italian Health Authorities require” (Source: http://www.nestle-watersna.com/pdf/SP_BWQR.pdf).

Stefano Agostini, the president and chief executive officer of Sanpellegrino presents environmental sustainability as one of the main objectives of the company as he declares that the company’s mission is “that of guaranteeing water a future of quality” (Source: http://www.bpcommunication.net/risorse/sanpellegrino.pdf). According to the company’s statements, the firm is involved in various programs of water conservation in order to protect their water sources and to render them sustainable on the longest term possible. Sanpellegrino states the importance of protecting water sources and its surrounding ecosystems. In order to be coherent with the green values advocated by the Italian brand, the company promotes water and education programs for young children in order to raise awareness at an early age about the importance of water conservation. The brand is a promoter and partner of the WET project (Water Education for Teachers) that aims at educating the little and the old about responsible principles of water consumption. In addition, San Pellegrino says that in the last four years, they have reduced by 48% the total water volume they use in the production process. “To reduce the environmental impact, San Pellegrino is investing in rail transport  and also adheres to CONAI the National Packaging Consortium for the disposal and recycling of containers and is developing a careful reduction plan of materials for the packaging of its products” (Source: http://www.bpcommunication.net/risorse/sanpellegrino.pdf). While the company’s website tells us it is working hard at diminishing its packaging waste, it fails to give additional details, concrete actions and examples to illustrate how the brand is really achieving these environmental friendly goals. While details on the company’s concrete actions in regards to green productions processes seem to be somewhat lacking, Sanpellegrino presents a much clearer picture of its involvement in Africa on a water friendly project.

Working with the AMREF (African Medical and Research Foundation), the Italian brand has sponsored the construction of a well in Makueni, Kenya and its working with the local population in order to enable a water management training to “teach the local population the proper hygiene and the proper health practices to be adopted” (Source: http://www.sanpellegrino.com/index.html). According to its website it appears that the company is committed to a long-term partnership with AMREF in order to help bring quality water to those who need it the most. With the current controversy against the negative effects of plastic bottled water on the environment, giant companies like Sanpellegrino quickly realized that a strong corporate social responsibility is necessary to the survival of their firm and can only increase the brand’s equity.

Oh! You scared me Mrs. Goldendiamondy!! I feel like you are always sneaking up on me…Or maybe you just like playing hide in seek…? Well, Mrs. G. today is not a good day for me to play and have fun. I am sad and I don’t feel like listening to your usual advice.  Of course, you know her now, she just wouldn’t have and decided to tell me everything she knew about Miss E. Let’s call her Miss E. for now, it is less painful and it also has a sort of secret agent feel to it.  Anyways, Mrs. Goldendiamondy that the world on the aisle 5 of the superstore is that Miss E. has fallen madly in love with Bamboo B. ! Isn’t that name SO ridiculous?!!

What does Bamboo B. have that I don’t have?!? Maybe, he is older, maybe he is one of those new and hip bottles made of 100% recyclable plastic?

“No my poor child, the Bamboo water bottle is fresh, innovative and most importantly environment friendly” said Mrs. Goldendiamondy with a shrug. She went on and even told me that the Bamboo has a cool modern design with an exterior made out of wood as an outside shell protecting the inside element of the bottle that is made out of glass. The bamboo exterior protects the bottle from breaking up into a million pieces if it falls. Well what is a regular plastic bottled water suppose to do against the superman of bottles???! I have lost my battle!!  The Bamboo B. is invincible! You can reuse it as many times as you like! All the other bottles seem to be talking only about Bamboo! Apparently a customer that came to visit the superstore even dropped Bamboo B. on the hardwood floor and Bamboo B. survived without a single scratch! That is not fair! I can’t compete against a glass water bottled, let along a super bamboo glass bottle!  Bamboo B is like the Batman of bottles!!! This is not fair! Miss E. is a traitor! She replaced me so quickly with the next best thing! The other thing that truly worries me is that all customers seem to have fallen in love with Bamboo! They point and stare and keep on saying: “Look at this new bottle!! It is SO eco-chic! I need to buy one! Plus who needs plastic bottles anyways?!! They are SO not trendy anymore, a plastic bottled water is so 1995!”.

This is ridiculous!!! I am as much “ECO- CHIC” as Bamboo! Actually, I am super CHIC! Whatever that means…!

I need to come up with a master plan… A secret plan to get rid of Bamboo B! Muhahahaha!

TO BE CONTINUED.

Source: http://inventorspot.com/articles/sporty_and_green_bamboo_water_bottle

Well, good morning to you as weel my lovely friends!

It is a nice sunny day outside! Well, not that it makes any difference for me, since I am stuck in the superstore. No wait, the supermarket!  Well I don’t really know what they call it super, since its not that super to me…It is cold all the time, the lights are to strong and well people come and look at us through the glass…they stare, point and stare some more. Some of people actually are nice they open the door and pick me up! Boy does it tickle, but at least I feel warm for a couple of seconds. After reading the paper that is all around my tummy, they exchange looks, nod and usually but my right back on the shelf. This is starting to happen way too often lately. Does nobody want me anymore? Maybe because I have been here a while now and I am not the cutest one anymore. I want to get adopted I am nice!! Anyone out there?!!!

“You silly silly young boy! It has nothing to do with you not being the cute one anymore!” said Mrs. Goldendiamondy with a smear. Why does she always have to know the secret to everything! She quickly explained, that the problem is that people don’t like plastic water bottles anymore. According to miss know-it-all, more than 60 cities in the USA have banned the expenditure of tax dollars on other bottles like me. Everyone is now convinced that we are terribly bad for the environment and we get discarded, ruining the “natural habitat” of animals and the sea creatures. What is a “natural habitat”?? It sure sounds like a funny word! Is it a fancy grown-up way to say “home”? Well, then I guess my “natural habitat” is the cold fridge of the superstore! Nobody is ruining my habitat; I sure don’t want to disturb birds, and fish and bears by entering their homes uninvited.  Mrs.Goldendiamondy even told me that water is heavy and its transportation internationally uses a lot of energy that could be saved to serve more useful purposes. She even sounded very smart and cool when she told me with nonchalance that every year, the bottled water industry can generate around 30 000 tonnes of carbon dioxide only in transportation! Do you even realize how much 30 000 tonnes means? Well, I can’t this is why I am convinced it is super gigantic. Bigger than the supermarket, bigger than the city! Bigger than the earth?! I still have to figure that out but anyways that it is a lot of carbon dixide. I am not completely sure I understand what that long word carbondixide means, it probably is something for grown-ups, but it sure does sound important.

Well thank god I have Miss Evian to keep me company and keep me laughing all day long. She is very nice and most of all she is the prettiest plastic water bottle I have ever seen in my entire short life.  This is why, I must confess, if you promise you won’t tell anyone, I am kind of happy that customers visiting the superstore are putting us back on the shelves; leaving me and Evian alone!  I am kind of happy people are realizing the truth, the fact that they can save money, drinking fresh cold water from the tap in order to try to lower down the number of close to 30 million plastic bottles, daily abandoned in landfills where they are left to rot alone for the next thousand years.  Oh my liquid heart would break at the thought of empty miss Evian, cold and alone in a landfill for the next hundred years to come…. Thank god customers are slowly waking up…!

According to the company’s official website, the Poland Spring Brand history goes back        13 000 years ago when a glacier retreated in what is today the region of Maine. Their water is collected from several spring water sources in Maine, water that has been in the homes of Americans through the great depressions, the passing of war and the hippy movement. This bottled water’s marketing strategy stands strong on its historical longevity, following the country and the passing of generations. This notion of time evolution and continuity of the bottle renders this element indispensable to the eyes of its buyers.  Citizens have even forgotten to ask themselves how truly essential is that water plastic bottle. It seems like this brand has managed to transform an essential good, water into a product, a commodity, a beverage that is to be requested with precision by costumers.  On the Poland Spring Water website, the company adopts a proactive approach with a page entitled “Please Recycle” that is a message directed to their customers. The corporation tackles the problems of plastic pollution directly by stating that: “the Container Recycling Institute estimates that 75 to 80% of plastic bottles end up in landfills or incinerators. We want to be part of the solution” (Source: http://www.polandspring.com/KnowH2O/Be-Green.aspx). They expose their concrete effort by producing bottles with less plastic and a smaller label in order to save trees.  It appears to be that their website is not only about promoting their green initiatives but they have also decided to inform readers about environmental facts like reminding us that “ it takes 6 trees to make one ton of paper” (Source: http://www.polandspring.com/KnowH2O/Be-Green.aspx). By informing customers about environmental issues and statistics, it appears that the company is trying to give us the impression that they stand on the side of environmentalist groups and green NGOs.  In addition their website has a special section entitled “Be healthy”, a section that gives general tips about being healthy and staying hydrated.

Their newest bottle, the Eco-Shape bottle is “lighter than most half-liter beverage bottles because it contains an average of 30% less plastic.” (Source: http://www.polandspring.com/KnowH2O/Be-Green.aspx).  The company also reminds us that in the last ten years they have saved about 30% for every liter produced, saving around 245 million pounds of plastic resin.  Yet, on the corporate citizenship section of their website, on the category of “Recycling” it seems that the company has a pretty scarce strategy or informative text as they simple say “we encourage you to recycle all of our products” (Source: http://www.polandspring.com/DoingOurPart/WhatWereDoing.aspx).

A few years back Poland water faced a controversy as it was accused of bottling water that did not come directly from the spring. “When Perrier took over the Poland spring site, it was drawing water not from the original spring at the top of Ricker Hill but from boreholes a couple of thousand feet away, near a pond base on the hill” (Source: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2004/02/09/360105/index.htm).  This controversy was somewhat concluded with the fact that the springs were somewhat linked to the borehole. This was the loophole that permitted Poland water to continue marketing their bottles as “spring water”.

On their website the company tells us that they believe that “the greatest impact we can have today to protect our environment is to design lighter bottles that use less plastic” (Source: http://www.polandspring.com/KnowH2O/Be-Green.aspx). This seems like a somewhat light and superficial statement considering the amount of plastic that is dumped in nature running the natural habitat of animals and human beings. The United States has the privilege of having access to free tap water, individuals are uphold at the potential privatization of water as they argue it should be a fundamental human right. Yet, paradoxically they fell to be coherent with their arguments since most citizens after arguing against water privatization, frown at tap water and go out and buy bottled water. This is something worth reflecting upon.

Mrs. Goldendiamondy has been like this all week! She just won’t leave Miss Evian alone for one second. It seems like she is always looking for excuses to talk to her or to steal her away from me. I am oh so happy that in the end Miss Evian decided to stay with us at the supermarket instead of trying to escape to go to the Rice-Castle with all of the other important French water bottles.  Oups! Yah, your right! I get confused all the time; it’s not the Rice-Castle but the Ritz Carlton! I still think that the “Rice-Castle” sounds so much funnier! I can just imagine a big castle made out of rice! Hahaha! But what is the Ritz-Carlton anyways?? Mrs Goldendiamondy told me it is a place like the supermarket but instead of being for bottles it is for real people. Sounds funny, I didn’t know they had people supermarkets as well… I need to ask Mrs Goldendiamondy to tell me more about those places like the Ritz, I think that they are called something like “botels”, or was it “motels”? No wait I am pretty sure they are called “hotels” now that I think of it!

Anyways, Miss Evian doesn’t need the Rice-Castle, she seems to be doing better at the super-market! Now that we have made peace we are really good friends and I like chatting with Miss Evian, she is very nice and funny. Last night, she was telling about her cousin from Australia, Aussie Bottled Water, who is being moved to America. Aussie comes from the town of Bundanoon in Australia. I don’t know about you but I think the name Bundanoon is absolutely hilarious! Well, anyways, getting back to my story, Miss Evian told me that Aussie was “deported” to the United States because Bundapoo, I mean, Bundanoon is the first city in the world to have completely banned bottled waters like me, from the shelves of all stores! I am not really sure what deported mean, but it doesn’t sound too good especially since Miss Evian told me that Aussie was so sad to leave her home. This is scary, they are trying to kick us out from everywhere! First the Rice-Castle and now Bundaboo!

Of course, right when Evian was telling me this story about her cousin, Aussie, Mrs. Goldendiamondy was spying on us and she immediately jumped in saying: “ once someone buys us and finishes all of our water we usually end up being discarded somewhere in the environment or in the ocean where the fish never welcome us in a very warm manner”.  I’ m not sure I understand what discarded means, but I sure know I love the beautiful ocean and the fish and I surely don’t want to get them mad.  I trust Mrs. Goldendiamondy, she is older than all of us here and seems to know many top secrets things! She sure is nice even if she is making me worry with all her talks about how we, plastic bottles, are so bad for the environment! At lunch, she even told me that we cost a thousand times more than normal water that comes from the sink !!! A THOUSAND TIMES!!! That sure sound like a lot! I hope our water has some magical powers because I really don’t understand why people would spend so much money on water they can get from their own kitchen. Maybe it is a grown up thing that I can’t understand who knows…! Oh! I have to run, or should I say, roll, tonight I am going to have lunch with Miss Evian!

(Source: http://www.thegreenguide.com/food/buying/bottled-water, http://www.justmeans.com/-Battle-Ban-Bottled-Water/20493.html)

In addition to Pepsi’s corporate initiative, the firm has launched an innovative marketing strategy entitled “The Dream Machine”. “This machine is not a simple recycling bin but a dream machine”, says the company, because it do not only recycle but also try to improve the life of individuals  (Source: http://www.facebook.com/dreammachine). In partnership with Waste Management Inc.,this giant corporation has launched dream machine kiosks in various parts of America that work on a reward system that gives consumers the opportunity to collect points for their recycling activities.”The program also intends to provide funding to the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV), a national program offering free, experiential training in entrepreneurship and small business management to post-9/11 veterans with disabilities” (Source:http://pepsico.presslift.com/the-pepsico-dream-machine). The more American citizens recycle the more Pepsi will directly contributed to the Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities. Recycling takes a turn and becomes not only saving the plant but helping out people who need it. The intiative is also promoted on You Tube.

The long term sustainable Pepsi Refresh Project gives the possibility to all American citizens to propose a development idea online that can range into a different set of categories: health, arts and culture, food and shelter, the planet, neighborhoods and finally, education. Pepsi accepts the submission of a thousand ideas eve months and 32 potential Pepsi grants are awarded to the most voted ideas. The winner projects have the opportunity to receive a grant that ranges from $5k up to $250k. Various projects all across America have already been approved and funded like the “Enrich the lives of individuals with disabilities through the arts”, a project that was granted $50k or the “Save animals from euthanasia in Midland Michigan” project that was award $5k. Each winner project has a follow up on the Pepsi website with a section reserved to how the grant is being spent. It is a shame that this initiative is reserved only to American citizens because it is obvious that a lot of other country of the world would have a lot of valid and much-needed projects to propose.  The website has recently created a special section called “Do Good for the Gulf” (Source: http://gulf.refresheverything.com/) where people can send their ideas or contributed to raise money in order to help the clean-up procedures and the safeguarding of all the water animals. According to the firm, a small change like implementing the cultural habit of recycling all cans, could implement a considerable change on the national scale.

On the water front, PepsiCo has dedicated a special section to water recycling in its annual environmental report. The company has three main goals in terms of water conservation:” improve their water use efficiency by 20 percent per unit of production by 2015, strive for positive water balance in our operations in water-distressed areas and finally provide access to safe water to three million people in developing countries by 2015″ ( Source: http://pepsico.com/annual09/environmental_sustainability.html). This corporate sustainability strategy is a wise marketing strategy in order to increase the brand equity and could perhaps also be a way to cover the various controversies that have been around PepsiCo and its many brands like its bottled water brand Aquafina. This article present you a general overview of the controversy in order to inform you in the most objective manner all the facets of this world-know brand.

The bottle’s logo is composed of a blue label with a mountain scenery and the slogan: “Pure Refreshment”. This image marketed by Acquafina gives somewhat the wrong impression to many busy customers who are convinced they are buying “pure” water that is sourced from the mountain spring. In 2007, Pepsi-Cola had to publicly announce that the labels of the Aquafina bottles will be changed in order to clearly indicate that their water does not come from a mountain source but is instead purified and treated tap water. This news cause a lot of stir amongst customers and environmentalist groups that are already anti-plastic water bottles. The bottles were labeled : “Bottled at the source P.W.S  and only last year Americans have spent about $2.17 billion on Aquafina” (Source: http://money.cnn.com/2007/07/27/news/companies/pepsi_coke/). Spending such a considerable amount of money to drink tap water and waste a ridiculous quantity of water could have been avoided by a major transparency politics on the side of Acquafina. According to NaturalNews.com, “PepsiCo only agreed to tell the truth on their bottled water labels after being pressured by Corporate Accountability International (CAI), a non-profit organization that helps protect consumers from cooperate abuse” (Source: http://www.naturalnews.com/021962.html). The CAI gathered and instigated customers from all over the world in order to voice their complains directly to PepsiCo that later decided to add the phrase : “public water source” to the label. For many, this is still not clear and explicative enough since it could imply that Acquafina in itself is a public water source. This controversy helped to shade the light on other giant cooperation that were doing exactly the same thing. “Coca-Cola does not have plans to change the labeling on its Dasani brand bottled water, despite the fact the water also comes from a public water supply” (Souce: http://money.cnn.com/2007/07/27/news/companies/pepsi_coke/).

Despite all, Aquafina and Pepsi both are fervent believers in cooperate social responsibility based on the eco-green attitude they promote on their website. Aquafina’s link A refreshed commitment gives simple tips to costumers on how to conserve water while publicizing their new plastic water bottle that uses 35% less plastic than the one from 8 years ago. (Source: http://www.aquafina.com/). Any giant cooperation has a greener side and a darker side that is more business oriented. Giant firms are not charities and are obviously not expected to work for the good of the world.  The fact that they are under the constant scrutiny of public opinion and the media, it forces them to adopt more long- term sustainable behaviors.