Blog Posts: Bottled water

By Ben King 

It’s no secret that big businesses try to influence the political environment and government through lobbying, PAC money and plying elected officials with campaign contributions. After reviewing contributions made by Nestlé Waters, it seems that the company is no stranger to this strategy. 

From Michigan to Florida, Nestlé has been very generous with contributions to members of Congress whose districts include springs and other water sources or bottling facilities. 

In 2007, Nestlé gave thousands in campaign contributions to Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels [R], who supported the Great Lakes Compact, a legal agreement among states in the Great Lakes region governing management of the local water supply. The Compact included a loophole that exempted the bottled water industry from following its water withdrawal regulations. Nestlé also received $850,000 in property tax credits from the state for a bottled water facility built in Greenwood, Indiana during his term.

In 2004 and 2008, Nestlé gave big contributions to New York State Senator Carl Marcellino [R], a vociferous opponent of a new bottle deposit bill which would have imposed fees for certain plastic bottles, including those for bottled water, to encourage recycling. Marcellino called the bill a “money grab” out of the pockets of beverage makers.

But it seems that there’s nowhere that Nestlé has spent more money than in the state of Maine. 

As Food & Water Watch blogged last month, Nestlé is trying to enter into a new 25-to 45-year contract with the Fryeburg Water Company, which has been supplying the company with water since 1997. Though Nestlé claims the agreement will benefit the public by generating substantial revenue, there is no certainty that this plan would actually keep water rates down. The State Public Utility Commission is currently reviewing the contract. 

In this contentious environment, Nestlé, its employees and lobbyists have spent nearly $650,000 on campaign contributions and support in the state of Maine. Notably, they spent $218,000 to defeat a state bottled water tax in 2004 and 2005, and another $106,000 to help repeal a state beverage tax in 2008. They’ve also given to dozens of candidates and PACs across the state, from Aroostook County to Portland. Among these legislators are more than a few representing districts where Nestlé’s springs and bottling operations are located, including those in Denmark, Fryeburg, Kingfeld and Poland.

But Nestlé’s influence on state government doesn’t end there. One member of the State Public Utility Commission – the very body deciding whether to allow Nestlé’s new contract – has already recused himself from that decision because of his ties to the company, and the two remaining commission members also have documented ties to the corporation. Maybe that’s not surprising though – two of the commissioners were appointed by Governor Paul LePage [R], the third by former Governor John Baldacci [D]; both candidates received campaign contributions from Nestlé.

Residents of Maine, and all states for that matter, deserves public servants who make decisions based on what’s best for their constituents, not their corporate donors. Communities need to stand up to protect one of their most precious resources–their water–from being subject to corporate takeover. 

Ben King is a Food & Water Watch spring water research and policy intern and a Master of Public Policy student at Georgetown University.  

By Kate Fried 

When the organization you work for is dedicated to ensuring that everyone has access to safe water and good food, every day feels like Earth Day. But today is actually Earth Day, a time to show Mother Earth a little love. Forget flowers and cards; this year, we’re marking the occasion by celebrating the achievements of the schools participating in our first ever Tap-a-palooza contest, in which we challenged colleges across the U.S. to compete with one another to reduce their bottled water consumption. Think March Madness, but with reusable water bottles instead of basketballs and well-hydrated college students in place of really tall people (although we imagine there may be some overlap there). 

The contest first launched in March on World Water Day, and since then, over three-dozen schools have been using our new app Tap Buddy to track their progress. We’re still tallying the pledges, but when they’ve all been counted, the victor will win $1,500 to put towards public water infrastructure improvements on their campus, such as a hydration station, drinking fountain retrofits or reusable bottles for students. 

Feeling inspired? You too can reduce your bottled water consumption with the help of Tap Buddy, even if your college days are but a fond, hazy memory. Download Tap Buddy to your iPhone or Android and use it to find water fountains near you and record the location of water fountains for yourself and others. You remember water fountains, right? 

Sure, they’ve fallen out of popularity due to the rise of the bottled water industry and the decline in federal funding for community water systems, but with the help of Tap Buddy, we think they’re poised to make a comeback. 

By: Alison K. Grass

Did you hear the news? Yesterday I attended a media briefing where Nestlé Waters Chairman Kim Jeffery spoke. It was so nice to finally put a face to a name!

It was quite clear from the beginning that Mr. Jeffery knows about Food & Water Watch and our Take Back the Tap campaign, which encourages consumers to choose tap water over bottled. He repeatedly informed the audience that our organization is one of the two national advocacy groups involved in the movement against bottled water. Thanks for the shout-out, Kim!  

When I had the opportunity, I pointed out to Mr. Jeffery and the audience that the rosy picture he painted about Nestlé Waters’ business may not reflect what is actually going on with his company. Over the past five years, Nestlé Waters’ total sales declined 31 percent—28 percent in North America, and 51 percent in Europe. In that time, other regions of the world, which the company calls “emerging markets,” experienced a 73 percent increase in sales for Nestlé Waters.
Read the full article…

Last night in the Republican Party’s response to President Obama’s State of the Union address, Senator Marco Rubio unintentionally added some dramatic flair to his speech when he paused to reach off-camera for a bottle of Poland Spring water. Now we have a response of our own to the “sip heard around the world.”

Dear Senator Rubio, 

First, what an epic sip! When thirst strikes, Senator Rubio, it strikes regardless of where you are or what you’re doing. In this case it struck a few feet too many to your left during your formal response to the State of the Union. Yikes.

While we’re sure you weren’t intentionally plugging Poland Spring, we’d like to offer a few suggestions for your next on-camera appearance: Read the full article…

By Kate Fried

Thanks in part to the consumer backlash against wasteful, unnecessary bottled water Nestlé’s sales figures are declining in the United States, Europe and Australia. The company has recently resorted to unorthodox, nay, illegal measures to maintain its stranglehold over the earth’s vital food and water resources. Even before the company’s share of the bottled water business fell by two percent in the west in 2011, Nestlé ripped a page from a James Bond villain’s playbook, turning to good old-fashioned espionage to protect its corporate interests. Read the full article…

By Wenonah Hauter

Ah, Nestlé, you’ve done it again. First, in the 1970s, campaigners boycotted you, charging that you violated World Health Organization guidelines on advertising and duped mothers (especially, and most tragically, in developing countries) into thinking infant formula was better than breast milk. Then Elisabeth Badinter, the heiress to Publicis (your PR firm that has long been pushing formula) wrote a book about how breastfeeding is bad for feminism. Now, you’re getting sued—again—for misleading labels.

A Chicago-based firm is suing Nestlé Waters for supplying them with purified municipal tap water instead of the “100 % Natural Spring Water” it uses in the marketing materials for it’s Ice Mountain Water brand (which apparently does not apply to the five-gallon jugs of Ice Mountain Water, a fact which is hidden in a document on Nestlé’s Web site, Forbes reports.) Forbes also reports that several years ago, Nestlé Waters settled a lawsuit over its Poland Springs brand, which was marketed as coming from a deep underground source when in fact it came from a well encircled by a parking lot.

It seems like a pattern, Nestlé.

You so badly want to corner the market on nourishment for all ages—whether it’s bottling our communities’ water and selling it back to us for an exorbitant profit, or using healthcare facilities to market your infant formulas to exhausted or uninformed new mothers. And your latest effort? Gerber Pure bottled water, which you are marketing as “made for mixing (infant formula and/or cereal).” Not only should you buy formula—you should also buy our bottled water to mix it with!

Nestlé’s strategy for growing profits is clear with its newest legion of Popularly Positioned Products (PPPs). Earlier this year, we blogged about Nestlé boasting in its investor materials that it is including its Pure Life brand (which is really filtered tap water) and its infant formula as products they are positioning in developing markets: “PPPs target less affluent consumers in emerging markets (UN/World Bank definition – those with an annual purchasing power parity between US$ 3,000 and 22,000 per-capita) as well as low food spenders in developed economies. Together, they represent some 50 % of the world’s population. Hence, PPPs target the biggest and fastest growing consumer base in emerging markets as well as important sub-groups in developed markets.” (Soon after the blog was published, they made the report accessible only via login.)

You can see how that strategy to expand its consumer base would sound good to Nestlé’s investors. But wait a minute—the company is blatantly marketing its products like bottled tap water and infant formula to the people who can least afford them?

Perhaps they have done their market research. Only 35 percent of women living below the poverty level in the United States reported breastfeeding at six months compared with 53 percent of women at the highest income level. And 31 percent of women living in poverty supplemented with infant formula within two days of giving birth compared to only 21 percent of women at the highest income levels.

Nestlé is still using dishonest claims to position their products as better than tap (or breast). That’s the way you’re going to get repeat customers, Nestlé—hoodwink exhausted new mothers, who are seeking the best possible ways to start off their little ones, into thinking that your product is better than much less expensive and more sustainable alternatives.

Mothers deserve better than the dishonest marketing claims they are barraged by everyday from Nestlé. Never has there been a more appropriate saying than Buyer Beware when it comes to the products Nestlé pushes and the nourishment of our families.

By: Alison K. Grass

The multinational bottled water company Nestlé Waters is no stranger to legal battles. For years, communities around the U.S. have found themselves in court fighting the company for control over their community water resources. Nestlé has also been sued for using deceptive marketing practices. In 2003, several class action lawsuits were filed against Nestlé because consumers found claims that its Poland Spring brand water was “found deep in the woods of Maine” and “exceptionally well protected by nature” to be misleading. Once again, Nestlé’s pursuit of public water has landed the company in hot water.

For almost five years, Chicago Faucet Shoppes, a faucet and toilet repair parts store, bought 5-gallon jugs of Nestlé’s Ice Mountain brand water for their office. Like many consumers, the company was under the impression that it was purchasing spring water, but recently learned that the water actually came from municipal supplies. After discovering the truth, Chicago Faucet filed a lawsuit against Nestlé for misleading practices.

As explained in a Law360 article (subscription required), “Chicago Faucet is suing on behalf of all persons in Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and Missouri who purchased the 5-gallon Ice Mountain bottles, claiming unjust enrichment and deceptive trade practices under the Illinois Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act and seeking actual and punitive damages, an injunction mandating disclosure and restitution.”

Within the past few years, many bottled water companies have shifted their advertising messages in ways that obscure the source of their water. For instance, Nestlé promotes its Pure Life brand, which is primarily sourced from municipal supplies, as a necessity for a healthy lifestyle. This also helps the company avoid controversy and potential lawsuits over the legitimacy of its water source.

For these reasons and more, it’s clear that consumers should ditch the bottle, take advantage of the free, healthy water flowing from the faucet and pledge to take back the tap. After all, water belongs to the public and should be preserved for all.

By Kate Fried

It’s a known fact that apathy is the enemy of social change. It’s the objective of any activist to not only take stock of the challenges confronting communities, but to galvanize their members to overcome the frustrations inherent to enacting true reform. Devin Schroeder has learned this lesson a little earlier than some. The 15 year-old Durham, New Hampshire resident recently won the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes, awarded once a year to twenty-five young leaders between the ages of eight and 18 who have made a positive difference to people and the planet, for his work helping to reduce bottled water consumption in his community.

At age 13, Schroeder launched a Take Back the Tap campaign at Oyster River Middle School after watching the film Blue Gold and drawing inspiration from Ryan Hreljac, who raised $2,000,000 to build 319 wells in 11 countries through the Ryan’s Well Foundation.  Dismayed by the dismal figures regarding plastic bottled water recycling in the U.S.—about 75 percent of empty plastic bottles wind up in landfills, lakes, streams and oceans—Devin set out to educate his community about the problem, and its impact on oceans and the environment.

“They’re starting to drill [for bottled water] in Barrington, which is nearby,” said Shroeder in a recent interview. “And if we allow this to happen, the groundwater in my community will be affected at some point. Plastic bottles are contributing a lot to pollution in the oceans, which is affecting the climate. It’s not just affecting my community, but the world I live in.”

To kick off his campaign, Schroeder invited the community, including the town councilors and the school board, to a screening of the movie Tapped, followed by a question and answer session. He prepared for the event by touring the town’s water facility and learning the facts about tap water and bottled water. After the screenings, he donated to the town library a copy of the documentary, and to his school, he gifted a large water cooler to help faculty provide free tap water at events.

Devin continued to host screenings of Tapped, and although he is now a student at Phillips Exeter Academy, he still returns periodically to host more screenings and educate students about the negative environmental repercussions of bottled water.

His efforts are paying off. Oyster River Middle School has eliminated bottled water at all athletic events, and even amongst budget issues, it has since replaced all of its water fountains with hydration stations to encourage students to drink tap water, developments that Devin was instrumental in bringing about. Linda Rief, Devin’s former language arts teacher, noted recently that one of the stations alone has saved 10,000 plastic bottles from landfills.

“Devin is exceptional in his activism,” said Rief over email. “He believes that people can make a difference one person at a time, and in small ways that will make a big difference.”

These days, Devin continues to act on behalf of the planet. He is a member of the Environmental Action Committee at Exeter, where he is helping the school reduce waste by expanding its composting program. As for his future, he says that he will continue to engage in sustainability issues throughout college and beyond.

For one so young, Devin maintains a pragmatic, yet hopeful attitude towards the sometimes sluggish engine of social change. “People are apathetic about environmental issues because they see a huge problem and they don’t know how to tackle it…you can’t be overwhelmed by all the world’s problems,” he said. “You have to start small, and it will evolve into bigger things and more will happen. One person might succumb to apathy, but if you don’t, you can help someone else out,” he said.  

By Maude Barlow

From left to right: Barbara Gysi, Cedric Wermuth, Yvonne Feri, Jacques Neyrinck, Maude Barlow, Rosmarie, Balthasar Glättli and Franklin Frederick. Photo Courtesy of Council of Canadians.

Maude Barlow is the National Chairperson of Council of Canadians and Board Chair of Food & Water Watch. This post originally appeared on the Council of Canadians’ blog.

I have just returned from a week in Switzerland to promote the right to water and to challenge the giant Swiss bottled water giant Nestlé. My visit was arranged by Franklin Frederick, an activist and leader in the global fight against Nestlé Waters, who is originally from Brazil, but now lives and works in Switzerland. Franklin is an extraordinary man. He is fiercely committed to global water justice and has been a thorn in the side of the water privateers for years. I also reconnected with Rosmarie Bar, a former Green Member of the Swiss Parliament and former senior member of the Swiss development network, Alliance Sud. Rosmarie and I worked together to form an international group called Friends of the Right to Water and worked for many years to lay the groundwork for the recognition of this right at the UN.

I spoke at the universities of Bern and Lucerne and in a beautiful 500 year-old church located in the heart of Bern. In the magnificent wood paneled Swiss Parliament, I also met with a delegation of MPs from every party who are committed to protecting public water and the human right to water. In all these venues, I met wonderful, committed people working for economic and social justice.

However, it is very clear that Nestlé is a powerful presence in Switzerland and its influence in the halls of power goes deep. Everyone I talked to said so in one way or another. Switzerland has no law limiting political donations from corporations, or requiring transparency in campaign financing. Given that the marketing department of Nestlé has a larger annual budget than the World Health Organization, it is widely understood that the company has great political influence.

Read the full article…

More than 300 Oregonians of all ages stand up against Nestle at a June rally to protect their state’s precious water resources. (Credit: Martin Evans)

By Alyssa Doom

Lately, unemployment and the suffering economy monopolize news headlines. So when Nestlé promises to bring the hope of jobs and prosperity to a city, some find it easy to ignore the track record of negative impacts that the water-bottling giant has had on communities across the country.

From California to Maine, communities nationwide have fought back against Nestlé’s water grab. Some have victoriously warded off the corporation, while others have not been so fortunate. In Mecosta County Michigan in 2009, after an 8-year legal battle, citizens finally succeeded in requiring Nestlé to reduce its water pumping and decrease negative impacts on the County’s water resources, but problems persist. Michigan Citizen’s for Water Conservation, the primary group fighting Nestlé there, was left with over $1 million in debt due to legal fees and the profit-driven corporation won’t answer the community’s questions about exactly how many local workers it employs at the Mecosta County location. This doesn’t exactly instill faith that Nestlé hires heavily from the local pool of employees.  

Now, Oregon is at the forefront of the Nestlé battle. Members of the Keep Nestlé out of the Gorge Coalition are fighting to prevent the construction of a water bottling facility in the Columbia River Gorge city of Cascade Locks. The diverse coalition, representing consumer advocacy, labor, religious, environmental, and public health groups, has been defending Oregon’s public water resources for over three years in the campaign against Nestlé. Their opposition is Nestlé proponents who believe the corporation’s promises for good local jobs.In a city where economic strife has already cost the community its high school, Nestlé supporters argue that the corporation’s arrival would bring the community much-needed stability.    Read the full article…