Ethos Water is an American brand of

bottled water Bottled water is drinking water (e.g., well water, distilled water, mineral water, or spring water) packaged in plastic or glass water bottles. Bottled water may be carbonated or not. Sizes range from small single serving bottles to lar ...

with a social mission of "helping children get clean water." A

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain. As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 cou ...

subsidiary, Ethos began in 2001 when

Peter Thum Peter Thum is an American businessman. He has founded several companies and not for profit organizations. Thum is best known for creating the brand Ethos Water and leading the company as its president through its acquisition by Starbucks. Ear ...

had the idea after working in communities in South Africa that lacked access to clean water. Thum, who was working as consultant for

McKinsey & Company McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. McKinsey is the oldest and ...

at the time, realized the potential to create a bottled water brand to raise awareness and funding for safe water programs. The idea became an obsession for Thum, and he wrote the business plan for Ethos, left McKinsey, and moved to New York in early 2002 to start the venture. Starbucks Ethos water

Thum recruited his business school classmate

Jonathan Greenblatt Jonathan Greenblatt (born November 21, 1970) is an American entrepreneur, corporate executive, and the sixth National Director and CEO of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Prior to heading the ADL, Greenblatt served in the White House as Special A ...

to join Ethos in late 2002. They launched operations as a bottled water company in August 2003, and also formed an organization called "Ethos International" to invest funds from the business in safe water programs. Since only $0.05-0.10 of the retail price ($1.80) goes to charity, the Ethos brand is primarily commercial and therefore a for-profit organization. Nevertheless, as of at least 2009, Ethos, through the Starbucks Foundation, had granted more than $6 million, according to the company, to help support water, sanitation and hygiene education programs. Ethos water is manufactured by

PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the food and beverage market. It oversees the manufa ...

and

Safeway Safeway is an American supermarket chain founded by Marion Barton Skaggs in April 1915 in American Falls, Idaho. The chain provides grocery items, food and general merchandise and features a variety of specialty departments, such as bakery, del ...

's Lucerne brand, but unlike other Pepsi products, Ethos bottles do not contain recycled plastic. In 2005, Starbucks purchased the company for $8 million. Ethos Water has also inspired other companies such as Dynamo Foundation.

Criticism

Starbucks was criticized in 2015 for sourcing their Ethos water from California during the

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

. In May 2015, the company moved production to Pennsylvania and sourced its water from Naturalle Springs located in Greeneville, Tennessee. Currently, Premium Waters, Inc. bottles Ethos Water from the Lafayette Spring in Lafayette Township.

References

External links

* {{PepsiCo Bottled water brands Starbucks 2005 mergers and acquisitions