Small eco-friendly water bottle outfit GiveMeTap has signed a major contract to supply corporate giant Deloitte with more than 10,000 of its re-usable aluminium bottles.
Business advisory firm
Deloitte has ordered 12,500
GiveMeTap water bottles, following a successful pilot earlier this year, which saw it reduce the number of plastic cups thrown away in its offices by 20 per cent. It's the biggest order to date for Manchester-based social enterprise
GiveMeTap, which launched three years ago with a mission to reduce plastic bottle
waste in the UK at the same time as raise
money
for water-related projects in countries under water stress.
"We’re always looking for better ways of managing our environmental impacts and the GiveMeTap bottle is a very visible way to help us reduce waste," Simon Booth, director of Environment at Deloitte, said. "Add to this the wider benefits of GiveMeTap’s project, and our commitment to support social business, and the relationship with GiveMeTap really makes sense for Deloitte."
An estimated 13 billion plastic bottles are consumed annually in the UK and 90 per cent still end up in landfill. Meanwhile, in countries like Ghana, where Edwin Broni-Mensah, founder of GiveMeTap is from, water is become a scarce commodity. GiveMeTap gives 70 per cent of its profits to funding independent water projects in regions where it is needed most.
"Deloitte’s support has been nothing short of amazing. Their commitment to the movement and especially their belief in me, has allowed GiveMeTap to flourish and expand our team and impact to Ghana, my ancestral homeland. This is a
remarkableexample of how a social enterprise joining forces with a corporate can encourage sustainable and healthy living," Broni-Mensah said.
Broni-Mensah started out by canvassing restaurants and cafés in his local area of Manchester to provide free water to anyone who had purchased a GiveMeTap bottle. Now his company has signed up more than 200 outlets including Pizza Hut, Byron and Neal’s Yard. The company is now working increasingly with companies looking to reduce plastic cup wastage within their own offices. As well as Deloitte, it has developed relationships with Start UK, Rackspace UK and PwC.
