Challenge: Environmentally sustainable initiatives to help reach goal of becoming a ‘Green Star – Education v1’ enterprise.
Solution: Water refill stations and drinking fountains across three Deakin campuses.
Result: A sustainable initiative in the effort to achieve best practice water conservation.
Working towards its goal of being a ’Green Star – Education v1’ enterprise that integrates environmental sustainability principles into all of its operations, policies and activities, Deakin University has installed aquafil™ water refill stations and drinking fountains in key locations across three campuses.
Challenge: Finding innovative ways to achieve the communities strategic plan 2013-23 objective relating to practicing sustainable living and reducing their ecological footprint.
Solution:
– Installing a permanent water refill station and drinking fountain at Reddall Reserve on the Lake Illawarra foreshore
– Providing portable water refill stations at Council’s major events in key public places.
Result: Taking a step closer to being a leader in Environmental Sustainability by supporting and encouraging the community to practice sustainable living by reducing plastic waste from disposable drink bottles.
10 aquafil Water Refill Stations made their debut in the the 2014 LA Marahon held on Sunday March 9.The ASICS LA Marathon draws thousands of competitors from across the USA all running to help raise funds for the LA Marathon Official Charity program.
The 46.16km (26.2 m) Stadium to Sea course was used this year and runs from Dodger Stadium to the Pacific Ocean passing through a number of LA’s famous landmarks such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, Rodeo Drive and Santa Monica Pier.
The average race time was 5:26:19 and 12,385 men and 9,119 women completed the race. The men’s winner was Gebo Burka with a time of 2:10:37 and Amane Gobena was the womens winner with a time of 2:27:37.
10 portable aquafil Pulse Water Refill Stations with Drinking Fountains were attached to water hydrants along the race route to supply spectators with drinking water whilst watching the race. These units also displayed the Drink Tap message making them a valuable tool in promoting the use of refillable water bottles and reducing the number of one use plastic water bottles being sold.
Reduce Reuse Recycle Refresh
Find out more about the LA Marathon
Billions of plastic disposable bottles are sold around the world each year and most of them end up in landfill, oceans and waterways. This is a major environmental disaster in itself, not to mention the millions of barrels of oil used in the manufacture of plastic bottles.
It is time to encourage people to make the right choice. Stop buying disposable bottles and carry a reusable bottle. It sounds like, and it is an easy solution but getting the message across it not that easy. With so many options of plastic bottled water readily available to buy, one forgets the negative impact that purchase is having on our environment.
Whilst more and more council, parks, schools, universities and local communities are installing Water Refill Stations and Drinking Fountains within their precincts, there are still areas where free, clean drinking water is not available.
Shopping centres and malls are slow on the uptake to supply free drinking water to customers, probably due to the fast food outlets wanting to continue selling bottled drinks at exorbitant prices and let’s be honest; nobody wants to refill their bottle in the public restrooms.
Fast food outlets should be encouraged to join the fight against plastic waste as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility. It would be a huge step in the right direction for our environment if the large fast food chains started promoting free drinking water whilst removing plastic bottled water from their fridges. To ensure no loss of revenue, they could sell branded stainless steel reusable bottles.
Think of the impact this could have on the environment and how 10 years down the track, it would be considered normal to always carry a reusable water bottle. We would have a new generation totally unaware that drinking water used to be available for sale in plastic disposable bottles.
More and more outdoor event organisers are encouraging the use of reusable stainless steel bottles. This alone has a huge impact on the environment and also means less mess at the events conclusion.
The UK Glastonbury Festival, held in June 2014, is giving away 2000 stainless steel reusable bottles to road crew and band members and will have them for sale for festival goers. The 140,000 ticket holders are being encouraged to buy or bring a reusable bottle to refill at one of the 400 drinking water points scattered around the venue. This is a great initiative and encourages other event organisers to do the same. Read more…
In an effort to build a healthy environment and lifestyle, it is time to get rid of the plastic disposable bottle.