BYE, BYE CARBON

At Open Water, our goal has always been to provide the most sustainable bottled water option on the planet. By using infinitely recyclable all-aluminum bottles and cans, our products already offer the best end-of-life prospects out of any packaged-water option out there, but we wanted to do more.

Carbon emissions are one of the biggest, most immediate threats to the health of our oceans. That’s why we are going carbon neutral for our entire supply chain. That means that we are measuring, reducing, and offsetting all of the emissions that we create as a company, from powering our team’s computers to producing and shipping our bottles and cans.

We are proud to be the first certified Climate Neutral bottled water company in the world. Being Climate Neutral allows us to offer a solution that is better not just after you are done using it, but every step of the way.

Excess Carbon Emissions Are Particularly Threatening To Ocean Health.

You see, historically carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was in a delicate balance, where the amount available was used by plants during photosynthesis. Now, though, we are producing CO2 faster than our planet can absorb it.

This excess carbon, having no where else to go, dissolves into the bodies of water, producing carbonic acid as a byproduct, which further breaks down to bicarbonate and hydrogen ions (chemistry, right?!). This happens on a massive scale, and the excess hydrogen ions cause the pH of the water to become more acidic.

Ocean acidification means particular trouble for plankton—the base of the marine food chain, crustaceans and mollusks, and coral reefs. The problem, of course, is that this creates a domino effect and touches nearly every life, from oysters to dolphins to kelp…all the way up to us.

So, How Exactly Does Climate Neutral Certification Work?

Eliminating a product’s carbon footprint is no simple task, so we partnered with an independent non-profit called Climate Neutral to make sure we did things right. Their process consists of 3 main steps. First, we measure our emissions. We include all emissions from manufacturing and production, all the way through finished product delivery. Then, we reduce our impact by implementing changes in our operations. These can be related to transportation, energy, materials, and more. Finally, we offset whatever is left over by using carbon offsets. That means that for every tonne of carbon we emit as a business, we invest in projects that take a tonne of carbon out of the atmosphere, effectively taxing ourselves for our impact and driving our footprint to zero.

Measure

Offset

Reduce

Repeat

Some of the Carbon Offset Projects We Invest In

We only support projects that are independently certified and that meet internationally-recognized standards. Our projects not only remove carbon from the atmosphere, but they also have impactful secondary benefits like preserving wildlife habitats and protecting bodies of water like streams and lakes (which in turn helps maintain water quality for all of us). Here's a look at a few of the amazing projects we're helping to fund:

Illustration of rainforest leaves overlapping

Support the preservation of nearly 500,000 acres of Amazonian rainforest. By protecting the world’s largest rainforest, we are preserving wildlife habitat and helping defend the “lungs of the planet”.

Illustration of clouds in various gray colors

Capturing landfill-generated methane in Florida. Methane, a greenhouse gas 30x more potent than CO2, is released into the atmosphere as waste breaks down. This project captures emissions and transforms them into electricity to power about 1000 local homes.

Illustration of car charging station icon

Installation of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations. Electric vehicles help displace traditional fossil fuel–burning vehicles used for passenger and freight transportation. In addition to reducing GHG emissions, this project could help improve local air quality.

But Why Aluminum?

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BYE, BYE CARBON