REDUCING WHEREVER POSSIBLE
From our inception, we've made it a high priority to be good stewards of our resources and to care well for our community. Not to pat ourselves on the back, but it is something that we've taken seriously and want to be an example for.
- We shop locally and enjoy selling to the many great retailers in Austin who have the same vision.
- We promote home delivery of our 3 and 5 gallon jugs, which not only eliminates plastic waste but also reduces fuel emissions, and especially now that...
- We deliver with bio-diesel instead of petroleum (see "Green in Austin" sidebar).
- Our electricity comes from 100% renewable sources and our warehouse is an Austin Energy GreenChoice Small Business Partner, which means we are making a direct financial investment in the quality of life that all Austinites enjoy.
- For our liter and half-liter PET bottles we use no.2 plastic, the most easily recycled plastic available.
- We intentionally switched from bleached to unbleached cardboard for our boxes, removing the dioxins that are produced in the bleaching process. Plus we think the natural brown color looks great with our new logo in dark blue!
- We reuse our boxes as many times as we can ... once they are simply too worn out to be worthy of the Cielo they are carrying, we take them to Ecology Action and recycle them.
- We drink our own Cielo from 5-gallons in our warehouse, and on the occasions when we drink something else (it's been known to happen), we recycle all the plastic bottles & cans.
- One of our four employees bikes to work each day, in fact he doesn't even own a car.
CARBON-BALANCING WHAT WE CAN'T REDUCE
We've worked with TerraPass, perhaps the most well-known carbon offset firm in the country, to design an innovative carbon-balancing program for bottled water companies.
- Reduce as much as you can (see above ... and below) before even considering carbon offsets
- Carbon-balance each small plastic (PET) bottle ... in fact we provide a double carbon-offset (see "TerraPass White Badge" sidebar)
- Offer a carbon-offset rebate to our delivery customers, as a way of thanking them for not drinking from the small PET bottles
- Carbon-balance the emissions from our bio-fuel delivery vehicles (and occasionally we deliver with a non-biofuel vehicle).
- Offset the carbon dioxide from our employees' commutes to work ... except for of course the bike commute, which is already clean!
- Calculate the emissions from our web server, and carbon-balance that as well.
WE'RE NOT SATISFIED YET
While we're excited about what we've been able to do, we know we still have a ways to go. Below are a few areas we'd like to improve. We invite outside input on these and other issues we're currently facing and would love to hear your ideas. Email or come by and talk to us and you'll probably find a nice cold bottle of Cielo as our thanks.
- We're hoping to host our own biofuel tank in conjunction with Austin Biofuels, reducing our driving needs that much more plus offering East Austin this valuable resource.
- Although our no. 2 plastic bottles are easily recyclable, we'd rather find an even less energy intensive solution. We've looked into biodegradable bottles but that technology is not yet recommended for water storage.
- Currently the runoff from the process of purifying and oxygenating Cielo is literally going down the drain. We would like to be able to recycle this "waste water," which is still good water, from the manufacturing process but haven't yet found a viable solution.
Although the environmental way forward is not always clear, we're proud to join with many of our customers in being a part of the solution.
