FIJI Green Gal: Here’s an update from Fiji courtesy of Molly, our FIJI Water Foundation coordinator…

FIJI Water and its hundreds of employees in Fiji were proud to join Fiji”s Earth Hour celebrations this year. On March 28th from 8.30pm to 9.30pm, the factory in Yaqara shut down bottled water operations and used critical lighting only, as did the logistics, finance, and foundation offices in Lautoka and Suva. We encouraged our employees, friends, and neighbors in the communities around our factory to do the same, supplied water to Earth Hour volunteers in the West, and also assisted in the collection and recycling of those donated bottles.

Elsewhere in Fiji, landmark buildings turned off their lights, restaurants held candlelit dinners with live guitar serenades, and at resorts guests were guided to their rooms by tiki torch.

Participating in this year”s Earth Hour is a part of our ongoing commitment to energy efficiency and the environment. As we work on big projects – cutting emissions across our products’ entire life cycle, promoting local recycling, investing in forest carbon and renewable energy projects- we also remember that there are small things we can all do every day to make a difference on our planet.

For more information about Earth Hour, visit www.earthhour.org and see how you and your community can be a part of next year”s celebration.

Last October, Major League Soccer team Real Salt Lake unveiled the Rio Tinto green stadium in Utah. FIJI Water is the exclusive water of this innovative sports arena. Our incredibly talented production artist Robert, along with sales guys extraordinaire Jonathan and Parker, helped transform one of the stadium’s luxury suites into a gorgeous space that reflects the beauty of Fiji. Looking at these photos reminds me of sitting on the beach in Fiji…ahhhh…

You would think some marketer at a technology company would have thought to include a voice recorder in the hospital goodie bag I received after my babies” delivery. I liked the free baby shampoos, diaper cr”me, and all thatÖbut I’d use a recorder more often and much longer! I would record the following: “Don”t touch,” “Careful,” and “Rocks are not food.” I”m sure battery companies would be grateful, but I digress…

In the spirit of this FIJI Water blog entry, it makes me think of our ad campaign “Untouched.” FIJI Water is untouched by man; I”ve been to Fiji and seen the factory. No one is yelling, “Don”t touch!” No one has to…FIJI Water”s state-of-the-art bottling facility is designed to protect the purity and quality of the water. It sits on top of an aquifer (which is like a huge, slow-moving, underground river), and the water is drawn into the factory straight into the bottle without human contact!

Now if I could only get my little ones to leave Mommie’s shoes and jewelry box “Untouched!”

FIJI Green Gal: This week, one of my colleagues is joining this blog to share her thoughts on FIJI Water. As she is the proud mother of twins – and therefore one of the toughest women I know! – we”ve dubbed her “FIJI”s Favorite Mom.”

Admittedly I am a Mommy who talks about her kids WAY TOO MUCH! And this blog just gives me another outletÖ

Fact: I love my kids. But having responsibility for them is already scary enough, and what I feed them is at the top of my anxiety list!

It started before they were born. I would travel as far as necessary to shop for groceries, paying double for a prenatal vitamin, organic waffles (they”re all I could keep down the first 4 months), other organics, pesticide/hormone/flavor-free everything…just so I knew my growing babies were getting the best nutrition available. Now add to that the fluid intake I needed. I”ve never been one for soda or highly caloric juices, so I relied on water. With most foods, I got heartburn. I tried all the water I could, whether based on a cute bottle, flavor, or price, but even water gave me heartburn! Then I tried FIJI Water and loved the taste. And I could drink more without getting heartburn. Other mommies-to-be told me it was the purest water I could drink and provided natural minerals both the babies and I could benefit from.

Fast forward a few years later, I”m now an employee at FIJI Water. A week into my job, they sent me to the island of Fiji to see where the water comes from. I have seen where the water comes from and gets put into the iconic square bottle. I am proud to work for a product that is as natural and untouched as the product claims. And I am proud to serve the best in my home – especially to my kids!

BTW: Since working here, I”ve learned about BPA, and the product has never had it!

Barbara Chung, FIJI Water’s Senior Manager of Sustainable Growth, delivered an international keynote address on July 24 at the 2nd Annual Climate Change Summit in Sydney. You can view the presentation and listen to the speech online.

What made Australia an appropriate venue for sharing the story of FIJI Water’s path to sustainable growth?

• FIJI Water and Australia are in the same boatÖoften literally when it comes to their products.
• The effects of climate change are already apparent in both Fiji and Australia, with rising sea levels in Fiji, and heat waves, less rain, and increased drought in Australia.
• The food & beverage category represents a vital export contributor and economic growth opportunity for both countries. FIJI Water comprised almost 20% of Fiji”s exports in 2007, while food exports comprised almost 20% of Australian merchandise exports in 2005, with beef, dairy, fish, grain, and wine as the leading contributors.
• Because of their distance from their major export markets, both FIJI Water and Australia are sometimes challenged by “food miles” misconceptions.

As Barbara explained in her introduction, “What I want to do today is share what we’ve been doing at FIJI Water, of course, but more importantly share with you the lessons we’ve learned on our path to sustainability in the hope that it would be helpful to you as well.” At FIJI Water, we think of sustainability as a journey, not a destination, since there is always room for improvement in how a company does business and how we as individuals live our lives. And it’s much easier (and more fun!) to travel this road when we can all help each other do so.

In my last posting, I shared with you an overview of the work FIJI Water is doing to bring clean safe drinking water to our neighbors in Fiji. Today I’d like to share a little bit more about one of the many projects we’ve completed.

Malolo Lailai Island is a 620-acre island that is part of the Mamanuca Islands, in the Western Division of Fiji. Along with having a pretty name, it is home to two villages – Yaro and Solevu – and five settlements (Cubi, Kawalevu, Vuya, Nawaikama and Yako) with a total population of about 1,300.

The Malolo Lailai Island residents have not had access to running water in the past, so they would use rainwater catchments and wells to get water. Since the island receives rainfall for only three months of the year, island residents would spend the other nine months trying to get water from the mainland or sporadic rainfall. The well water was used for washing only, since it was not fit to drink.

This all changed in December 2007, when the Rotary Pacific Water for Life Trust, which FIJI Water has funded, brought clean running water to every house in the villages. We were delighted to help make this happen. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – we believe that Fiji is home to the best water on the planet, and the people of Fiji should be able to enjoy it as much as the rest of the world does.

We at FIJI Water are proud of our Fiji heritage and dedicated to contributing to Fiji”s social and economic development. Because of this, we have funded local and national development work in Fiji, including water access projects. The fact that our business exists is the reason why a hundred Fijian villages will have clean water this year.

We believe that Fiji is home to the best water on the planet, and the people of Fiji should be able to enjoy it as much as the rest of the world does. Reliable access to clean, safe drinking water is common throughout much of Fiji, but there are still remote villages where infrastructure is lacking.

FIJI Water has taken direct responsibility for providing water access to the villages that surround our source in the Yaqara Valley. We are doing this work through the Natural Waters of Viti Limited Trust, which we established in 2000 and fund with a percentage of company revenue. All funds from the trust go directly to projects in Vatukaloko, our local vanua, which is comprised of the six villages surrounding our plant and is home to more than 75% of our 400 person workforce.

Over the last eight years, the trust has invested hundreds of thousands of Fijian dollars upgrading water systems in local villages, and this year we have used our own onsite talent and resources to drop three new bores in the villages to provide better quality and more consistent water supply. We have completed projects that serve the towns of Drauniivi and Togovere, and by the end of 2008 we will complete similar projects in Naseyani, Nananu and Rabulu.

In addition, the FIJI Water Foundation – founded in 2007 with the intent of bringing similar benefits to communities throughout all of Fiji – is a partner in the Rotary Pacific Water for Life Trust, which is building sustainable water projects in Fijian communities that have been determined by an external SoPAC survey to have the highest level need. In addition to its Rotary partnership, the FIJI Water Foundation has provided water tanks, bores, piping, and expertise directly to numerous other schools and communities that have applied for aid, including Navesau Adventist School in Ra, Vunisoco Village in Namosi, and Malomalo Primary in Nadroga.

Through our partnership with the Rotary Club, we will be responsible for bringing water access to a hundred communities this year alone with the goal of another hundred communities in 2009. Over 50 of the projects we have planned for 2008 are already complete, and we’re looking forward to sharing more about individual projects in upcoming blogs.

We’re delighted to have as guest bloggers today our friends at Conservation International. Read on to learn more about our partnership to protect the Sovi Basin and how you too can help Conservation International protect rainforests around the world.

The more than 300 islands that comprise the nation of Fiji are a true biological wonder. Dramatic volcanic mountains that gave birth to these islands tower above lush verdant forests. Many of Fiji”s plants and animals are unique to the islands and have evolved very little since their ancestors inhabited the forests.

The crown jewel of Fiji”s spectacular biodiversity is the Sovi Basin, located on the island of Viti Levu. The basin is surrounded by volcanic peaks which form a bowl shape between them. The end result is one of the world”s most impressive geological structures.

At Conservation International, our goal is to protect the world”s natural biological diversity and demonstrate that human society can live harmoniously with nature. That is our mission and it guides us in everything we do.

Our partnership with FIJI Water reflects that spirit. Ours is a strategic and focused partnership whose primary goals include the protection of Fiji”s Sovi Basin, a crucial source of freshwater for the nation of Fiji and for the planet.

To that end, Conservation International”s Global Conservation Fund will contribute to a trust fund set up by The FIJI Water Foundation to protect the Sovi Basin. The fund was launched with initial funding from FIJI Water owners Lynda and Stewart Resnick and the combined donations of more than 700 FIJI Water employees. The fund will go to support the annual management costs of protecting the Sovi Basin.

One of the most unique aspects of this funding is the compensation of local communities to protect the land around the basin. The goal of that is to provide a different source of income to communities who traditionally become susceptible to logging interests and the one-time payoff that comes with cutting down a forest. The trust will also support a facility to distribute small-scale grants for community development in and around the Sovi Basin – providing new opportunities to those communities to prosper and thrive. The National Trust of Fiji is responsible for management of the Sovi Basin, and will receive and administer revenues from the fund.

But this is not just good news for Fiji. This is good news for the planet because this ambitious and forward-thinking partnership to protect the rainforests of Fiji will result in about ten million tons of carbon dioxide stored in these forests will remain out of our atmosphere. Since deforestation accounts for 20-25 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions in our atmosphere – double that of all the world”s cars, trucks, and planes combined – protecting Fiji”s rainforests protects us all.

So join us and help protect an acre of rainforest by visiting www.conservation.org and click the “Protect an Acre of Forest” button. For as little at $15 you can help Conservation International protect an entire acre of tropical rainforest. Because what is lost there, is felt here. We”ve enlisted longtime Conservation International board member Harrison Ford to help with the cause. Click here to view the startling public service announcement that”s generating a lot of buzz.

When I was a kid, I watched documentaries on PBS that talked about the importance of protecting rainforests. (Yeah, I was a nerdy kid who liked educational TV!) That instinctively made sense to me – I’d see those beautiful landscapes and interesting animals, and of course I wanted them to be safe always.

But the part I thought was really cool was how the local people lived in the rainforest – mainly because it looked like fun to move around your neighborhood on rafts instead of on land. Now I realize that’s not actually the case in every rainforest or in all seasons…but when you’ve only got a few years under your belt you miss some of the finer details.

Well, I’m a bit older now, but I’ve learned my initial instincts were sound…and also learned more about why rainforest conservation is so important. Here are the facts:

• Deforestation is the second largest source of global greenhouse gas emissions today, following only the power generation sector; it accounts for almost 20% of those emissions, or twice the emissions from all the world’s cars, trucks, and airplanes combined
• Tropical deforestation in developing countries is responsible for nearly all (96%) of the emissions from deforestation
• Forests protect water and soil quality and provide livelihoods for over 1.6 billion people around the world; many of them are the world’s poorest people in Africa, South America and Asia
• But less than 5% of tropical forests are managed sustainably, putting these livelihoods at risk
• Tropical forests play a critical role in protecting unique animals and plants you can’t find anywhere else in the world

Yet incentives to prevent deforestation were somehow not included in the Kyoto Protocol. You might wonder why the protocol didn’t address this if it’s so important.

To paint it in simple strokes: Developing nations wanted compensation for not cutting down their rainforests. After all, they argue, if they’re giving up income from forestry and logging, they should be able to make up the lost funds in another way. But industrialized nations didn’t want to pay developing nations for “doing nothing.” So they reached an impasse.

It’s our hope that future international agreements will incorporate effective action to reduce deforestation. In the meantime, we’ve been seeking to do our part by partnering with Conservation International to protect the Sovi Basin. Now, we obviously don’t treat the Sovi Basin project as an “offset,” because it’s already there – we didn’t plant it. But we knew the benefits the Sovi Basin would provide to Fiji and the rest of the world – shelter for unique species, watershed protection, erosion control, and carbon sequestration – were benefits we wanted to ensure forever.

And hopefully I’ll get to ride on a raft in the rainforest for real one of these days…whee!

To learn more about conservation and reforestation efforts going on around the world, check out Conservation International’s web site.

Ben Jelen is an extraordinary singer-songwriter with a passion for the environment. This passion is infused throughout his music – check out the video of his single “Wreckage” below – and his life – his tour is carbon neutral. We’re thrilled and delighted to have Ben join us today and share his thoughts on FIJI Water, the Ben Jelen Foundation, recycling, and what we can all do to help care for our planet. Ladies and gentlemen, here’s Ben Jelen…

FIJI WATER

What interests me most in Fiji water is that they are a carbon-negative company — this means that their net activities actually reduce carbon emissions!! – how is that even possible?

To understand, I imagined a world without Fiji water, where their company had not existed. In this world, there was no effort to replant old rainforest. In this world there was no profit set aside to offset carbon emissions — no money put into offset programs that plant trees and build infrastructure for clean energy. In fact this world had the island of Fiji exporting timber, depleting the beautiful Sovi basin. Fiji water shows us that any company, even one that is up against a literal ocean’s worth of emissions can still have a positive impact on the environment. It takes real dedication and I applaud them for setting this example.

Taking advantage of new advances in green technology, Fiji water fits into my philosophy on Environmentalism – they are targeting a way of operating cleanly, realizing it takes time to get there, so starting now. Fiji water is not abandoning their business, but taking something that is part of the problem and turning it into a solution.

It is in this train of philosophy that I have started the Ben Jelen Foundation. As a musical artist consistently writing and talking about these problems, the foundation has been an amazing outlet for me, and a real way of helping with the environmental issues out there, focusing on solutions rather than problems. We kicked the foundation off at South by Southwest earlier this 2008 and it was a great success – since, I’ve continued to raise money – the money will be donated to the four following areas, with the specific recipients changing from time to time.

• Education: Local (New York) education of teens on environmental issues.
• Political: Donations to groups that lobby for environmental protection at the political level.
• Humanitarian: Give to those worse affected by climate change.
• Investment: Continue the long process of investing in clean energy infrastructure.

We’re excited to partner with Fiji water, talk about the issues and watch our progress – Something we can all help out with now is to recycle all plastics. Once the product is in our hands we do also have the responsibility of ‘completing the cycle.’

Please enjoy the video for my song “Wreckage” – This song is about hope, that the choice of taking care of our planet is very much in our hands. I’m so glad to see companies change the landscape from the inside out, its exciting and real!

For any more info, visit www.benjelen.com/foundation