Student Action

Canada: Creating a ripple at Fleming College

My Kawartha. By Lauren Gilchrist -

Fleming College student Bonnie Tennant drinks about eight bottles of water a day.
At $1.75 a pop, Ms Tennant says the cost to buy bottled water is hard on the wallet, plus there is the environmental kick-back of having to properly dispose of all the plastic. “My house is crazy with all these water bottles and we're not the best at recycling,” admits Ms Tennant, a student in the social worker program. So she is thrilled that Fleming College is taking steps to reduce the amount of disposable water bottles used by students.

Fleming has installed a reverse osmosis water filter system and has introduced four new water filling stations and two new water fountains around the Sutherland Campus. Students and staff can now take their non-disposable water bottle and fill up at these new stations. The best part? The water is free. “I think it's awesome they are doing this because it's driving me crazy to not be able to access free water,” says Ms Tennant. “It's a win-win situation all the way around.”

Fleming is the first institution of its kind taking action on the environmental issue of disposable water bottles.
“I think it's outstanding,” says Dale Northey, faculty member in the School of Business. According to the Environment and Plastics Industry Council, 88 per cent of water bottles are not recycled. In 2002, some 65,000 tonnes of beverage containers ended up in landfills or incineration.

On Wednesday (March 19), students and staff got a chance to taste test three samples of water and pick which one they liked best. Sample A was local municipal water, sample B was Fleming's new brand, and sample C was a popular brand of bottled water. “You could tell the municipal water right off the bat,” says Ms Tennant. Mr. Northey's least favourite sample was also the local tap water, while his favourite sample was Fleming's own brand. The Fleming Applied Agency, a marketing agency at the college run by students and teachers, is taking care of all aspects of branding and marketing Fleming's new water. They have created logos and taglines as well as campus advertisements to create awareness throughout the school and the community.

They decided to call the water F-H2O. Along with a taste test day, Wednesday also marked the official launch of F-H2O.
Student Scott J. Peterson is the project manager for F-H2O. “We're the first college in Canada to take on this type of initiative,” he says. He notes there is a significant amount of energy that goes into creating the disposable, one-time-use only water bottles. “It takes 10 times the amount of water to make it [the bottle] than what goes into the actual bottle,” he explains. He calls F-H2O a marketing solution to an environmental problem. The slogan for their F-H2O brand is 'Creating a Ripple.' “Nowadays people have to take into consideration sustainability and decreasing the footprint of every individual,” he says.