The journey to live a eco-conscious lifestyle is a difficult one even when it involves something as simple as water. At our office in SoHo, we get sent lots of things, often from small start up companies with innovative twists on old products. Some of these products can be new, fresh, thought provoking.When Tasmania Rain sent us two bottles of their new mineral water to our office we were left puzzled what to do. In one way, we wanted to write about a new company with a twist on something we see everyday (and yes, we wanted to be the first to write about them). In another way, we wanted to write about what might be happening with our modern wellbeing when consumers felt that they had to ship the purest water in the world more than 10,000 miles to our dirty, hectic city.But that was what stumped us as well: 10,000 plus miles (we thought Poland Spring came far enough ;) ! Weren’t we supposed to be all thinking about buying local these days? It’s not exactly like there’s a shortage of water in NYC – and I couldn’t help thinking that Fiji Water had already got some stick from the green contingent – and, they were only 7,500 miles away!Yes, we had an urge to cleanse our bodies with this water that hadn’t even touched the ground, but we weren’t sure that by doing so we’d actually be affecting the air this rain-water traveled in.It was time to ask an expert. We spoke to Lloyd Alter of Sustain Homes in Canada – a regular contributor to eco-lifestyle blog Treehugger. He said,“Not as strange as this water from tasmania packed in ice trays!” he said. “When I wrote my how to go green: water I tried to calculate the carbon footprint of Fiji Water. I couldn't do it, but bottled water from anywhere is a scam. But to ship halfway around the world from Tasmania? The Average CO2 generated by using bottled water is 82.08 tons per day, so what could it possibly be if you added in transport from Tasmania? Anyone who drinks this in Hobart should be ashamed; imagine how they should feel in London or New York!”He then emailed me two extracts to follow up: From the Earth Policy Institute:

“BOTTLED WATER: Pouring Resources Down the Drain - In contrast to tap water, which is distributed through an energy-efficient infrastructure, transporting bottled water long distances involves burning massive quantities of fossil fuels. Nearly a quarter of all bottled water crosses national borders to reach consumers, transported by boat, train, and truck. In 2004, for example, Nord Water of Finland bottled and shipped 1.4 million bottles of Finnish tap water 4,300 kilometers (2,700 miles) from its bottling plant in Helsinki to Saudi Arabia."

From the Guardian:

Shipping is by a long way the most energy-efficient and the least environmentally damaging form of transport - a point reinforced by New Zealand's agriculture minister, Jim Anderton, when talking about kiwi-fruit exports. It produces less greenhouse gases per tonne mile than any other form of mass transport, and technological advances and larger ships are constantly improving that efficiency....

Despite the fact that shipping carries 75% of world trade, last week's Stern Report showed that shipping and rail combined produce only 1.75% of greenhouse gas emissions - compared with 10.5% for road transport.

This leaves us all a bit confused. Maybe water by boat from Tasmania is less harmful than by truck from France to London or Colorado to New York? Maybe we should just go and get a Brita filter!But once you start questioning yourpurchases, you can’t stop: You consider buying a Brita filer and you immediately ask, “How green is the Brita filter? Has it been created from sustainable products? Has the plastic they use been recycled?”In fact it’s amazing how many questions you begin to ask yourself when you make product or service choices. Sometimes this can be very overwhelming, but in the end, asking questions may be the first step of the journey here: to live an eco-conscious lifestyle maqybe first we all need to achieve eco-consciousness.

 

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