Updates

Just a couple things I wanted to let everyone know about…

First, we will now be providing all the drinking water for the Inn From The Cold shelter. Located in Kelowna, Inn From The Cold is a low-barrier shelter in operation since 1999. They house and feed up to 35 people a night. And now all those people (plus the staff) will have lovely alkaline drinking water to have and to hold!

Also, we had a visit from the fine folks from Shaw TV yesterday. They had a tour, did an interview and chatted for a bit. All in all it was a good time, and we should have some details on the broadcast schedule soon.

That’s all for now!

Outside Sources

If you take a moment and do a little background on the relationships between media outlets and various corporate and quasi-governmental organizations it becomes clear why we’re deprived of the impartial, unbiased observation the media is supposed to provide in a democratic society. So we need to go to other sources for our information. Luckily, with the widespread dissemination of inexpensive communication tools, that information is more available than it’s ever been. And lucky for you, I know some good places to start.

globalpost.org:
Strong focus on international reporting with some excellent feature writing as well. Very strong presence on the ground with more than 70 independent correspondents in 50 countries. Its networked approach may be the new face of journalism.

africanews.com:
Focused on news out of the continent. Correspondents are on the ground and part of their communities providing content no outside journalist could.

eurasianet.org:
Focused on the ‘stans plus a few others. Many people feel this will be the world’s next hotspot.

PET vs PLA vs Oxy-PET

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been grappling with producing Vital Waters small-pack (500mL/1L bottles). One of our biggest challenges has been resolving the plastics issue. What kind of plastic do we use?

• There’s PET, which is the standard, found in the billions and billions and billions of soda bottles and water bottles found literally everywhere. It is manufactured from petroleum, and will degrade sometime in the new millenium when l finally get my flying car.

• There’s PLA, made from corn, which obviously degrades quickly. However, big agriculture is little better than big oil and the externalities ( fertilizers, runoff, GM crops, food shortages) associated with mass producing corn are undesirable to say the least. On top of that is the fact that at the moment, there are very few facilities capable of composting PLA bottles, they will not compost in the standard composter you might have at home, and if they get into the normal PET recycling stream they will not be any better than normal bottles. So while PLA is composed of ‘greener’ materials, and is capable of quickly and properly breaking down, it’s also far from ideal.

• Finally, there is a third option, PET bottles manufactured with an additive that degrades the plastic into carbon dioxide and water in 10 to 20 years. This oxy-PET plastic needs no special composting or recycling and is truly biodegradable. Sounds great right? I throw my bottle anywhere and it does it’s thing and in 20 years I don’t have to worry about it. Except that we still need oil to make it, we support people who have no interest in creating a world aligned with our highest desires, (predictably, all the big boys, Coca-Cola, Nestle, et al, are all over this new technology) and we don’t change anything. It’s another throw away item for a throwaway culture.

We’d love to have found that silver bullet so we could say here buy water out of these bottles, they are perfectly sustainable. Unfortunately, that bullet does not exist and we are left to choose from among several imperfect solutions.

I’d love to hear from you, what would you do? What would you buy? What do you want from your water bottle?

Another and larger ongoing debate concerns some of the issues surrounding the use and sale of small water bottles.  Some of us here are uncomfortable with Vital Waters selling these products considering the well-known negative impacts of one-use plastic bottles. While these bottles ARE all recyclable, recent studies have shown that recycling rates have declined and now sit in the 25% range. That’s a lot of plastic filling our lakes, rivers, oceans and landfills.

So, if you are a company with lofty goals, intentions of living the changes we want to see, what do you do? On the one hand, without the single serving bottles, we will never grow large enough to impact the world on the scale we intend. On the other hand, the world we intend to create does not include continent sized pastic saturated dead zones in the middle of our life-giving oceans.

Again, we’d love to hear from you, what would you do? What would you like to see us do? What would you think of us as your grocery store water provider?

Here are a couple quick links…

See the costs & benefits of different plastics

What do 2 million water bottles actually look like?

(scroll down to about the middle of the page for the bottles)

Haiti

As many of you have heard, Haiti was devastated by an earthquake yesterday afternoon. In response (such as it can be), Vital Waters will be donating, through our non-profit arm VitalMission, one percent of all sales for the next thirty days to disaster relief in Haiti. As of this moment, we have not selected a specific charity. If possible, we intend to give the money raised directly to community based effort on the ground rather than a larger NGO. If you have any suggestions, please let us know. If nothing suitable comes up, the money will be given to Direct Relief International, an organisation consistently highly rated for its efficiency and transparency.

Here’s a quick link…

facebook page with info, links, and pictures

Opening Grandly

The Grand Opening ended a few days ago and I can’t think of a better way to wrap it than a running diary…

Jan 1st
(way too early in the am):

After struggling in to the store New Year’s morning, We slap together a couple sandwich boards and affix them with our awesome posters. Note to self… measuring, pre-drilling and flat surfaces are good things.

Pretty

(still too early)

Naptime…

(approaching respectability)

Joel and I put out the spread: wild salmon and tuna, organic chicken breast, organic tortilla chips with home-made salsa and antipasto, organic cheese and crackers, I was planning on taking some pictures, but it got demolished before I had a chance. Apparently someone forgot breakfast.

Jan 2nd
(10:47)

We have balloons!

We have balloon!

(10:49)

We have less balloons. Someone took our balloons. Who takes balloons?

(1:07)

Where is everybody?

(1:13)

The universe delivers! We had a super productive meeting with a gentleman who shall, for the moment, remain nameless. Suffice to say, he brings experience, expertise and the commitment to integrity and selflessness we look for in all our partners. Another example of the how not mattering so long as you know the universe will always give you what you really want. Vital Waters is about to explode!

Jan 3rd
(12:52)
The Houston Texans come back to beat the Patriots virtually eliminating the Pittsburgh Steelers from playoff contention. Somewhere my best friend dies a little inside. I’m not ashamed to admit I did a little dance.

(3:43)
The call goes out, Vital Waters is looking for you!

Jan 4th
(9:59)
Topher’s back!

(10:01)
Topher gets three websites and five logos to design. Now.

(10:02 to forever)
Slammed. I think everyone decided to come in at once. Our door isn’t wide enough. Someone will get stuck.

(forever)
The ad is like rain to a desert garden. We get former aides to the UN, organic farmers, students of the Ram and a guy who just wanted someone to listen. There are a lot of people out there seeking a change.

(umm… infinity?)
organic farming eh?

Jan 5th
(10:00)
Vital Mission is launched. Really this is the reason we’re all here. Vital Mission will be the ‘get things done’ arm of the Vital Group. Everything we make, everyone we meet, every innovation we bring to market, it all goes into the mission. We figure we’ll start small and eliminate thirst wherever it occurs throughout the world. Should be a snap.

Jan 6th
(8:30)
Field trip to the roasters.

(9:13)
Coffee beans for breakfast. Like a mule kicking you in the chest. Muuuule.

(10:17)
Vital Waters is profiled in the paper. The Kelowna Daily Courier ran a full page color spread on the front of the business section. B1. Nice.

(10:34)
Slammed. Again. We need more phone lines.

(11:55)
The radio wants us… pure leadership news network wants us… Shaw TV wants us…  Count Chocula wants us. Okay obviously I made that last one up, but I feel really popular right now.

(5:30)
Curtains. I think we learned.

Why Alkaline?

Lately, a lot of people have been stopping by the store and asking us about alkalinity and alkaline water. Seems like alkalinity is on the verge of going mainstream! Personally I think it’s one of the simplest and most effective ways to keep yourself healthy. And it tastes good! Anyway I thought I’d post a couple articles on the subject. They were written by Dr. Roger Drinkwater (I thought so too, but believe me he’s a real person, I’ve met him), a retired former pharmaceutical CEO with a PhD in biochemistry. They ran in our local paper ( here in Kelowna which is home base) and they’re a great starting point.

Links:

Our Drinking Water Choices Are Endless

The Alkaline Approach To Good Health

Field Trip

Introducing…

This is a blog.

It’s a space we want to use to share stuff with you. It could be things we are inspired by, it might be bits of the everyday that make us laugh, and it will most definitely include some stuff about us- who we are, what we are doing, and why we’re doing it. Vital is the straw that stirs our drinks, so expect some posts on vital waters, vital java and all the vitals to come.

Stay tuned.