Carbon Conscious Consumer Blog

A lot of you read the C3 blog reposting of the Fast Company article about bottled water that specifically targeted Fiji brand water and its particularly environmentally unsound business practices. Well, it looks as though that article has forced Fiji as a company to reevaluate and shift those practices. The following is from the 11/7/07 issue of Environmental Leader.

Fiji Water to Go ‘Carbon Negative’

Fiji Water, which has received a slew of unfavorable green press after being featured in a Fast Company article, is going carbon negative - not just neutral - beginning in 2008.Fiji says it will account for the carbon footprint throughout the entire lifecycle of its products and then, through a combination of reductions, “carbon-reducing land use” and renewable energy projects, will make the production and sale of each bottle of Fiji Water result in a net reduction of carbon in the atmosphere.

Conservation International is counseling Fiji on its sustainability initiative, which includes reducing CO2 emissions associated with operations, purchasing carbon offsets to cover 120 percent of the emissions that cannot be reduced directly, and preserving the largest remaining area of pristine rainforest in Fiji.

The plan will account for all product lifecycle carbon emissions from raw materials production through post-consumer handling of its products. By 2010 the company’s products, across their entire lifecycle, will deliver the following sustainability benefits (compared to a July 2006 - June 2007 baseline):

• 25% reduction in CO2 emissions
• 50% of energy used in the production process to come from renewable sources
• 20% reduction in product packaging
• 33% reduction in waste from the production facility in Fiji

Fiji will work with ICF International to publicly report its progress against the above targets on an annual basis.

Remaining carbon emissions will be mitigated through a portfolio of forest carbon and renewable energy offset projects developed with Conservation International. The carbon offsets will exceed total company CO2 emissions by 20 percent.

More on Fiji’s green initiative here.

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