Winner – Best Sustainability Initiative

Going carbon neutral campaign - Icelandic Water Holdings (Iceland)

The lowdown: The bottled water industry has recently been subject to intense criticism relating to its potential impact on the environment and resulting contribution to global warming. Icelandic Water Holdings began to plan a unique approach to this over two years ago for the production of Icelandic Glacial spring water.

As part of the 4th Global Bottled Water Congress, the company’s Chief Operating Officer Patrick Racz presented information outlining the process Icelandic Glacial went through to achieve genuine carbon neutrality with the stated goal of achieving a “net zero” effect on the environment. The company wanted to effectively demonstrate that it was possible to take a leading role in the fight against global warming and to actively encourage other companies within the industry to follow suit.

The commitment made by the company to continually monitor, assess, reduce and offset any remaining emissions was recognised through full certification by The CarbonNeutral Company in March 2007.

This initiative has been receiving wide media coverage around the world and also assisted the company in securing a significant investment and master distribution contract for Icelandic Glacial with Anheuser-Busch in the US. Anheuser-Busch has acquired 20% equity of Icelandic Water Holdings.

www.icelandicglacial.com