In Good Conscience

The next time you buy a bottle of water, you can lighten your conscience while you appease your thirst. An Edmonton-based company, Earth Water, donates 100 per cent of its net profits to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

“Lack of fresh water kills more than 6,000 people a day,” says Kori Chilibeck, 28, who founded Earth Water in 2005. He says the idea came to him in Nepal while climbing to the base camp of Mount Everest.

“We passed this old man who wasn’t wearing any shoes and he carried a huge backpack filled with cola,” says Chilibeck. “He was being paid 25 cents a day to carry cola. We realized that the biggest companies are literally making money on the backs of the poorest people in the world.”

By July, the fledgling company will have sent $36,000 to the UNHCR.

Earth Water comes in two types: spring water from Pemberton, B.C., and Reverse Osmosis water from Alberta’s Saskatchewan Glacier. You can find Earth Water at retailers across Canada.