Innovation

Founder and CEO Josh Cliffords created FreeWater in 2021. Josh has spent a lifetime working with nonprofits and charity organizations. In 2005 Josh and his wife worked with a nonprofit known as Save the Refugees which is part of the innovation inspiration. After his work in these spaces, he saw the water scarcity that refugees were facing every day around the world. Clifford's sought out a for-profit solution to provide free, clean water and build infrastructure for communities in East Africa. The company focuses on SDG 6 (Clean water and sanitation) and SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production).

FreeWater is disrupting the food and beverage industry by providing Americans with water free of charge. FreeWater is the first of its kind, offering people products and food at no charge. FreeWater is paid for by ads that are printed directly onto paper cartons and aluminum bottles. With their B-to-B model, some advertisers may choose to distribute the product for free while others may choose to sell it. With their B-to-C model, the water is always free. FreeWater is currently donating 10 cents from every bottle donated to a variety of nonprofits that are building water wells and systems in Africa. If only 10% of Americans were to choose FreeWater they would be able to permanently solve the global water crisis.

Inspiration

Josh Cliffords was inspired to do something about the global water and food crisis that became evident after he saw the impacts of the crisis firsthand. Josh Cliffords and his wife previously worked at a nonprofit which he discussed during our interview with him. In 2015, he and his wife helped over "10,000 refugees on and off for about 18 months". While speaking to them, he realized that "20-25% said they had left their home countries because they didn't have water [more so water than food or medicine]". He also realized that "it didn't matter where they were from, they all had the same story". After this, Josh completed research on how large of a crisis this is and found few statistics available to the public, but estimates that insufficient water causes around "40-50 million deaths per year". Josh was determined to help this crisis in the most efficient and easy way possible. Through this, he decided to "make donating to charity as simple as saving money on groceries or other daily-use products". As such, his goal became for at least 10% of Americans to save money and use FreeWater and by doing so donate billions of dollars to charity to fight the global water crisis.

Overall impact

The founder of FreeWater, Josh Cliffords, realized the severity of the impending global water crisis. He claims that clean drinking water is a basic human right, and created FreeWater to leave a lasting impact on businesses, society, and the environment. FreeWater distributes free water bottles; they are able to do this by using the water bottles as a platform for companies to take out paid advertisements. The water bottles distributed are all aluminum or paper cartons, as FreeWater is also aware of the negative environmental impact that accompanies the production of plastic bottles. FreeWater impacts the future distribution of grocery products, as it shows how a free grocery system can be successful.

FreeWater uses its proceeds to build water projects in places that are lacking access to clean drinking water. Currently, they have successfully built two water projects in Kenya and have an internal goal to build 100 new projects next year. FreeWater's financing of water projects to increase accessibility to clean water has a direct impact on the areas surrounding the projects. FreeWater does not want to stop at free water bottles; they have plans in place to expand their company to distribute different free grocery items as well. These new free products would be used to fund different projects for different causes. In the interview we conducted, Josh Cliffords discussed the expansion to free beer and tampons in the near future.

The future impact of FreeWater would be to reduce waste and grocery spending in America while having a direct impact on the global water crisis and other causes as well. Josh Cliffords says free groceries could save Americans $10-20k a year, as well as reduce grocery waste by up to 30%.

Business benefit

FreeWater was founded in 2021 and has seen promising growth within the company. FreeWater currently has 14 people who are working for the company on an equity basis. The company is still in the beginning start-up phases and has recently launched its crowdfunding campaign. The goal of the crowdfunding campaign is to enable them to create its first FreeWater vending machine in its home city of Austin, Texas. This would allow them to expand their reach and meet their goal of developing 100 clean water drinking wells next year. In its first year FreeWater successfully gave away over 32,000 beverages and donated over $5,000 to Well Aware a nonprofit that developed two clean water drinking wells in Kenya.

FreeWater is already beginning to look at ways to expand its business and offer more free premium products such as essential products and food. Founder and CEO Josh Cliffords stated in our interview "Free groceries and products will tremendously transform society. It will save the average American household $10,000-$20,000 a year". Josh Cliffords has created a business model that is transforming the way Americans go about their everyday lives. He is on a mission to provide everyday products at no charge all while giving back and seeing a business with growing sales and increasing profits.

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Social and environmental benefit

FreeWater is paid for by ads that are printed directly onto eco-friendly cans and cartons. Two major benefits to society are that ten cents per beverage is donated to charity and free, clean water is distributed to Americans every day. Currently, FreeWater is contributing donations to Well Aware (wellawareworld.org). Well Aware is known for drilling quality wells for people in need in East Africa and boasts a 100% success rate. FreeWater is natural spring water and all of its containers are BPA free. FreeWater chose to go BPA free because the majority of bottled water is contaminated with the chemical BPA. High levels of BPA have been linked to diseases such as hormonal disruption, diabetes, high blood pressure, infertility, breast cancer, and hazardous effects on the brain and behavior of infants and young children.

FreeWater produces eco-friendly cans and cartons that are far more sustainable than traditional plastic bottles. Their long-term goal is to cultivate, manufacture, fill, distribute, and recycle all our beverages in 100% hemp cartons from the same location. Furthermore, their goal is to be net positive by 2030. Each bottle is made with recyclable materials including aluminum. The company hopes to be completely carbon neutral by 2025. FreeWater can reduce the environmental impact of frequent advertisement mailings. Advertising on bottles is held for longer periods of time rather than flyers that are sent and thrown away leading to large amounts of waste. If only 10% of Americans choose FreeWater, they could solve the global water crisis permanently.

Interview

Josh Cliffords, Founder