Hyatt Hotels has taken a very creative approach to enlist the help of visitors in Hyatt’s green-ing efforts. They are asking groups that book meetings at their hotels to commit to 10 green tasks and in turn Hyatt will give them a 3% rebate…and one of the 10 steps is (drum roll please) BAN THE BOTTLE!

We love anything that gives people a further incentive to stop their bottled water consumption (although saving the earth should be motivation enough). A few of the other tasks are – Recycling, Eat Local and Use Reusable Products.

Great steps to encourage people to take their green efforts on the road. To see all the steps – Hyatt Green Efforts

Students, staff and faculty at the University of Ottawa will no longer be able to buy a bottle of water to quench their thirst.

Starting today, the university has stopped the sale of bottled water on campus.

The university is encouraging members of its community to find other ways to quench their thirst for water, including filling up glasses and re-usable bottles at the nearest fountain or tap on campus.

The University of Ottawa has invested over $100-thousand to revitalize its water fountains, and will spend an additional $75-thousand next year.

The U of O is the first campus in Ontario to ban the sale of bottled-water.

Way to go U of O!

Bill would tell state how much of its water goes to bottlers

Does the state have a right to know where its water is going?

Major multinational corporations such as Nestle are allowed to siphon it up for free—only to sell it back to Californians and others in energy-guzzling plastic bottles likely to end up in landfills or floating off our lovely coastlines. Profit margin: Up to 10,000 percent.

Bottled water is increasingly controversial for these reasons. And while you may not believe that the occasional Dasani or Aquafina is a Class A environmental felony, it would certainly make sense to have companies pay the state something for the millions of gallons of water they remove from the public’s groundwater supply.

A state bill sponsored by Felipe Fuentes (D-San Fernando) will soon get a floor vote to eliminate on part of the scandal: It would require water bottlers to report how much water they take from public aquifers. The governor vetoed the bill last year in a skirmish over the budget.

Also last summer, the City of Sacramento made a deal with Nestle that is stricter than most: It charges the company 65 centers per 100 cubic feet of water, instead of giving it up for free. But the city didn’t limit the Nestle’s total draw, even as local residents faced water restrictions. And the 65 cent price is 10 cents lower than the generic commercial rate, although Nestle will make a 10,000 percent profit on the water.

Fuentes’ bill wouldn’t undo sweetheart deals like this one, but it would force water bottlers like Nestle to report their water use to the state — which would empower officials to consider this significant source of commercial use in determining how best to handle California’s contentious water issues.

Ask your representatives to support the bill by signing this petition.

A recent report by USA Today noted filtered tap water makes up an increasing share of bottled water — rising from 32.7% in 2000 to 47.8% in 2009 — as the share of spring-sourced water declines, according to analysis of industry data by the non-profit consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch.

Nearly half of those in PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic bottles now come from municipal tap water! I can’t say I’m particularly surprised by this figure. Remember the whole Aquafina controversy? Of course you do. Pepsi, the conglomerate behind Aquafina, even admitted Aquafina comes from the tap.

“These are the numbers the bottled water industry doesn’t want you to see,” says Wenonah Hauter, the group’s executive director in a statement. She adds: “More and more bottled water is basically the same product the flows from consumer taps, subsidized by taxpayer dollars—then poured into an environmentally destructive package, and sold for thousands of times its actual value.”

The data, which come from the Beverage Marketing Corporation’s annual report on bottled water, attribute the increase in tap-sourced water to Nestle Pure Life’s switch from spring water to tap water in 2005. They also show that U.S. sales of bottled water increased sharply from 2002 to 2007 but have since fallen.

Report: Bottled water increasingly comes from the tap [via USA Today]

Bottled water sales were down in 2009 compared to the previous year. This is a big win for the Ban the Bottle Movement and a message to bottled water companies like Nestle, Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Add it all up and you get bottled water sales that dropped in 2009 for the first time in five years. Yes, folks, bottled water is becoming the new cigarette.

We can trace this change of attitude to the Australian town of Bundanoon, a hamlet of about 2,500 south of Sydney. It seems the citizens there became angry a few years back when, according to published accounts, a beverage company announced plans to build a water extraction plant in town.

Residents faced the prospect of an outsider taking their water, sending it off to the big city for processing and then selling it back to them. The town became so incensed it voted to ban the end product.

About the same time, according to anti-bottle activists, “one of the dumbest moves in advertising history” occurred when high-end brand Fiji started a campaign intended to tout its water which is imported from the tropics.

The advertising copy read: “The label says Fiji because it’s not bottled in Cleveland.”

Well, the people of Cleveland, the victims of many slings and arrows over the years, did not take kindly to the campaign. So Cleveland Public Utilities director Julius Ciaccia had the local water tested against the bottled stuff. Fiji water had 6.31 micrograms of arsenic per liter; the city tap had zero. The company disputed the findings, but change was in the air.

The cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Salt Lake City have asked employees not to use bottled water or banned city spending on it. Chicago added a 5-cent tax to each bottle.

Bottled water sales are drying up [via Pasadena Star-News]

I am actually ashamed to admit this, I haven’t thought about or said the word thermos in years! Immediately saying the word takes me right back to the good ol’ days of elementary school when my mom would give me a thermos full of juice in my lunch box…not a bottle of water. And then when the juice was gone, I would fill it up with (gasp) water from the drinking fountain …you know that drinking fountain that is full of free water! When did that stop for everyone?

Thermoses are amazing and have been around for years but for some reason (massive amounts of advertising from the bottled water industry) they have been put on the back burner. Until now, Thermos has  created a super practical iPhone App that will guide users to drinking fountains!  How awesome is that? The FREE Oasis Places app will guide users to the closest drinking fountain and allow them to rank and post photos. It’s like Yelp for drinking fountains. Just one more way to further remove bottled water from everyday life. I love that this app tackles two major points – bringing your own multi-use bottle and bringing back the tap.

Rick Dias, President at Thermos said “Thermos has been making products that help people lead healthier lifestyles for over a century….we want to make it easier than ever to enjoy a refreshing and healthy drink of cold water.” Awesome job!

Ready more here and visit Thermos to start filling up those reusable bottles…just like the good ol’ days.

Bottled water is healthy water – or so marketers would have us believe. Just look at the bottled water labels or ads: deep, pristine pools of spring water; majestic alpine peaks… In reality, bottled water is just water; however, that fact isn’t stopping people from buying a lot of it. Here are some solid reasons to kick the bottled water habit.

Via: Term Life Insurance

Sometimes I feel like tossing bottled water down the toilet to show my disdain. Maybe I’m not the only one?

A recent post at the Intuit Blog featured a great visual guide / infograph describing how small cutbacks in the home can lead to great savings. Things like changing to CFL’s, insulating the home, etc. were noted. One thing I found interesting was their idea to help save money with each flush:

A 20oz or 32oz bottle filled with water and placed in the toilet tank will reduce water use. Each flush is about one cent, roughly $48 a year.

What a great way to make use of bottled water, should you have it lying around. I’m sure I’ve never mentioned this before, but this is certainly a way you can actually save money by using bottled water [in a way I'm sure companies like Dasani and Aquafina are not quite embracing].

Budgeting: A Visual Guide to How Small Cutbacks Lead to Great Savings [Quicken Personal Finance Tips]