This World Water Day (March 22), and every day, let’s drink more tap water!
Europeans are the top consumers of bottled water in the world. In the Netherlands, we consume 1.4 billion single-use plastic bottles each year, and these bottles have a huge negative environmental impact and footprint from the waste that ends up in our landfills and oceans.
Did you know that Amsterdam has some of the highest quality and safest tap water in the world? And there are lots of options available to help tourists and others who are out and about in the city to drink tap water. Join the Pipe bottles city tap water in stylish and reusable plastic bottles, for sale at major grocery chains like Albert Heijn. In addition, there are public water fountains located all around the city if you need a drink or a refill of your water bottle. A map of public fountains, provided by Waternet, can be found HERE.
There are also innovative options for restaurants, offices and event spaces to provide tap water to guests. Companies like Join the Pipe and Made Blue offer taps that dispense still and sparkling tap water, to replace cans and bottles.
At The Student Hotel Amsterdam City, the Commons restaurant provides water from a Made Blue Tap. In the TSH Headquarters, a Join the Pipe tap was installed recently to replace cans of sparkling water provided to employees. So far, Innovation Lighthouse has measured the following impacts of this innovation in the TSH office:
- 6 month calculated return on investment
- €45 savings per employee per year
- Over the next 5 years at the TSH headquarters alone, the tap is projected to result in savings of over €50,000 and the avoidance of 17.7 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions, all from replacing cans of sparkling water with carbonated tap water
Look for our full report on this project next month, and have a happy World Water Day.
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