earth2table: Water That's Free—and Free Flowing
If an operation can offer filtered tap rather than bottled water, it can earn points with green-minded diners—and also cut purchasing costs and waste.
-- Restaurants & Institutions, November 1, 2008
There appears to be a shift in the tide of public opinion. In certain circles, plastic water bottles are going the way of the conventional light bulb, as people abandon them in favor of initially more expensive but longer-lasting alternatives. For many foodservice operators, the change is welcome: If an operation can offer filtered tap rather than bottled water, it can earn points with green-minded diners—and also cut purchasing costs and waste.
At grab-and-go concept Alley Express at the University of Colorado at Boulder, students now can fill their own reusable water bottles at a triple-filtered-water station. The station features two 10-inch-tall spigots, an easier and faster way to fill bottles than at a standard water fountain, and water is free and unlimited for diners. Three additional water stations will debut in other campus dining areas later this school year.
“We started to look around and see that we could do our part to contribute to sustainable operations,” says Coordinator of Dining Facilities Juergen Friese, who notes that the university's grab-and-go operations sold nearly 700,000 bottles of water last year. Sustainable CU, the university's environmental-improvement initiative, gave Friese and his team a $14,000 grant to have the filtered-water stations custom-built and installed.
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