Last week Icelandic Water Holdings, maker of Icelandic Glacial Natural Spring Water, beat out beverage giants Coca-Cola and Nestle to win the award for Best Sustainability Initiative at this year’s BottledWaterWorld awards in Mexico City.
The top environmental distinction was given for Icelandic Glacial’s CarbonNeutral initiative. The initiative shows the company’s genuine and ongoing commitment to reducing its carbon footprint on the environment.
This year the BottledWaterWorld awards focused on ethical practices and sustainable growth. Although the awards recognise commercial creativity in the bottled water industry all over the world, the flagship award for 2007 was the Sustainability Initiative which was swept away by the Icelandic company.
The sustainability award is designed to reward companies which are attempting to become more eco-friendly. Improving energy efficiency and increasing recycling efforts are also considered. The award is given to the company that has been able to achieve the highest environmental benefit during the year.
The chairman of Icelandic Glacial, Jon Olafsson, said, “Icelandic Glacial is absolutely delighted to receive this award and be recognised for our ongoing commitment to environmentally friendly business practices. We hope that others within the industry will follow in our footsteps and take active steps to create a better environment and a better world”
The award is particularly significant this year as the bottled water industry has come under increasing scrutiny for its environmental impact and its contribution to the problem of global warming. The use of geothermal and hydroelectric energy in the manufacture of bottled products on the part of Icelandic Glacial has set a good example for others in the industry.
Patrick Racz, chief operating officer of Icelandic Water Holdings, spoke at the Bottled Water Congress on the company’s process of becoming carbon neutral, in an effort to inform and inspire other companies to do the same.
“Icelandic Glacial has always been viewed as an environmentally responsible producer of bottled water, largely through our sole usage of natural ‘green’ energy. In 2006 we made a decision to go fully CarbonNeutral with the stated goal of achieving a “Net Zero” effect on the environment,” he said. “Now that we have met our initial goal, we look to take a prominent leading role in the fight against global warming and to also set a new standard for the industry to follow.”
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