Presentation on sustainable operations, supply chain management, green business, marketing and insights from the bottled water industry. Learn more about Sustainable Business & Design at: http://sustainablelifemedia.com

1. The Bottled Water
Industry and
Sustainable Operations
Steve Emery
EARTH2O Natural Spring Water

2. Understand the category you compete in

3. Understand Market Dynamics
Factors Impacting Beverage Distribution
• Consumers driven by price first
• Retail consolidation to national brands limited local options
• Convenience & Gas category distribution purchased
• National brands purchasing market share – DS Waters
• Distribution cost increases
• Disposable income declining

4. Michael Porter Competitive Advantage Model
• Cost Leadership (low cost producer) – Private Label, Nestle
• Differentiation – all other bottled water producers Believe theirs
is best based on content of water
• Focus – Coke (Dasani) Pepsi (Aquafina) outstanding distribution
execution

5. Be careful of competitor creep Green Washing

6. Green Washing in the bottled water industry
• “Carbon Negative” bottled water imported into USA use carbon
offsets
• “Eco” bottle – borehole pumping?
• PLA Bottle – cradle to cradle or grave?
• Reverse Osmosis waters generating 3 to 9 gallons (New state of
the art 1 waste for 1 produced) of waste to produce 1 processed
gallon: “Eco Challenge – bottle is 100% recyclable” – “our bottle
is 100% recyclable change the bottle, keep the taste, help the
earth”
• X Waters “Go Green” campaign urges consumers to recycle

7. Porter Value Chain Framework
reduce waste and communicate
Waste = Expense & Emissions

8. Inbound Logistics

9. Elimination of waste in packaging
First water company in US to eliminate Cardboard in PET
Packaging

10. New Solar Array

11. Additional Operations
• Recycling of inbound waste material
• Affluent pond - evaporation and irrigation
• Efficient and passive lighting
• Facility heating
• LEAN Manufacturing

12. Outbound Logistics

13. Conclusion
• Get a clear understanding of the segment in which you compete
and differentiate you brand message
• Green Washing will cloud the sustainability effort, consumer
confidence
• Evaluation of Value Chain will help to determine sustainability of
a product
• The Value Chain with the least waste will be the most profitable
and competitive
• True investment in sustainable efforts will yield higher returns