FAQ's
Who is Global Ethics Limited and what is their relationship with One Products?
Global Ethics Limited is the company set up by Duncan Goose to launched One products. 'Global', because we want to make a global difference – one person, one day at a time – and 'Ethics' because we aim to be the best ethical brand in the marketplace. We give away all our profits to fund clean water, health, and sanitation and hygiene projects. So far, we’ve given away £5 million and changed the lives of one million people.
What is your mission?
To save as many lives as possible, one person at a time.
What charity do you support?
We give all our profits to The One Foundation, which is the UK based charitable division of Global Ethics Limited. Working in partnership with selected NGOs in Africa who are specialists in their respective areas; addressing the most pressing humanitarian needs such as clean drinking water, nutrition, HIV/AIDS testing and sanitation.
How do you raise funds</p>
We raise money for The One Foundation via the sale and marketing of a series of One branded products, including One Water, One Vitamin Enhanced Water, One® Condom, One Handwash and One Toilet Tissue.
The One Foundation is a Registered Charity No: 1118810.
Exactly how much money goes to your charity?
This is a tricky question to answer. When we started out we wanted to say e.g. 10p from each bottle goes to charity. The reality is that, because some retailers sell it at different prices, we have to be flexible about the donation. Unfortunately, we can't influence the retailer's margins, but some people are so behind the idea that they give some of their own profits back to us too, rest assured that we don’t take a penny profit – that all goes to where it’s needed most.
Records for The One Foundation and Global Ethics Ltd can be found at Companies House and further and The Charities Commission.
What products do you sell?
One Vitamin Enhanced Water, One Condoms, One Toilet Tissue and One Liquid Handwash and One Water
One Vitamin Enhanced Water - The profits from One VitaminEnhanced Water go to fund Nutritional projects such as vegetable gardens; We work with Self Help Africa providing rural communities with the training and knowledge to help families grow enough food to feed themselves plus a little extra to sell.
One Condoms - Sale of One Condom funds HIV/AIDS Awareness and Voluntary Counselling & Testing (VCT) outreach clinics with The Donald Wood Foundation
One Handwash and One Toilet Tissue - All profits from the sale of Handwash and One Toilet Tissue funds sanitation & hygiene programmes to ensure sustainable solutions. Training people in good sitting of sanitation facilities and there maintenance. Teaching in the safe handling and storage of food and disease prevention as construction of sanitation blocks
One Water - 100% of One Waters profits fund roundabout pumps, these are called PlayPumps®.
Where is your water from?
We always try to source water from the country where it will be sold. In Ireland, One water comes from a natural spring in Limerick in the west of Ireland. It’s bottled by an Irish-owned, family business called Shannon Minerals who are hugely supportive of what we do. In the UK, our water comes from a natural spring water source in Heartsease, Powys. It’s bottled by Radnor Hills Mineral Water Company.
In Australia, our water is supplied and bottled by Coastal Springs at Kulnura New South Wales, Central Coast Highlands of Australia and Palm Springs in Western Australia.
How do you transport One Water?
We transport our products the same way everyone else does, by truck. We do NOT import our water from distant shores. Instead, we bottle locally with several bottling facilities around the country. We do not transport the water more than 500 miles from the production facility to the customer and strive to minimise this distance to 300 miles. It is our goal to transport all the water less than 300 miles.
What kind of water is it?
It's is pure spring water.
How can I stock One water?
If you would like to find out more about stocking One Water, please get in touch.
What is a PlayPump®?
A PlayPump® is a unique water pumping system. Children play on a roundabout and it pumps fresh, clean water from deep underground into storage tanks for use by the entire community. Simple.
Why have you chosen PlayPumps® rather than other kinds of Pumps?
Other kinds of pump (normally called Elephant Pumps or Hand Pumps) are powered by hand or pedal, which the women and children traditionally do, this often interferes with their education. A PlayPump® is powered as a by-product of children's play, and even though they are more expensive to install than traditional hand pumps, they are very low maintenance and provide a sustainable source of pure, clean water for entire communities.
Elephant pumps go to a maximum depth of 30m, which means they can only be used in areas with a high water table. A PlayPump® can reach up to 100m, which ensures the purity of the water is good (the water quality is always tested prior to installation). This also allows them to be used almost everywhere and helps deliver water to areas with previously inaccessible water sources – the areas with the most need. The PlayPump® bore is also sealed, which helps to keep out contaminants.
The PlayPump® is incredibly efficient and stores water in a 2,500ltr tank. In some cases, we've even had to reduce the gearing on the PlayPump® as the children have pumped too much water. People can then just turn on the tap next to the PlayPump® when they need water. A PlayPump® also has only two moving parts making them incredibly low maintenance. The storage tank has four advertising panels and two of these pay for any maintenance that may be necessary. The other two panels are used for community information messages. Every PlayPump® is guaranteed for at least 10 years. We are not saying they are the holy grail of systems, but we feel they fill a niche in the bigger water solution issue.
How many PlayPump® systems have you built?
At the moment, we’re building a PlayPump® every 3 days. Our aim is to install one every day and change the lives of hundreds of thousands of African people. So far we have built 536 PlayPumps®.
How many lives does each PlayPump® improve?
This depends on the size of the community where we install the PlayPump®. Some communities are as small as 1,800, some as large as 8,000 (In our figures we use an average of 2000). But no matter what the size of the community, a PlayPump improves the lives of every member.
Where do you install your PlayPumps?
To date, we have funded 615 PlayPumps and these are sited in South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland and Malawi. Our focus for this year is Malawi and 70% of our PlayPumps will be sited in schools in this country. Traditionally Malawian schools have over 1,000 children in attendance.
We have funded the majority of our PlayPumps in the last few years and following our selection protocol, these have only been installed in schools with over 350 pupils as a minimum requirement. We recognize that a badly placed PlayPump, e.g. in a community with very few children and many older adults is not ideal and that is why we have our selection processes in place to ensure the correct siting of our PlayPumps.
How do you choose the location for the PlayPump®?
We never agree to install a PlayPump® in any other location other than a school. The reason being twofold: Firstly, there is an endless stream of children constantly playing on the roundabout. At every school located PlayPump® we have ever installed we have only ever received amazing praise for the scheme. This praise often comes from the principal and teachers from these schools, and it’s so heart warming when we do hear from them as they are the guys on the ground who really have an understanding of what these children’s’ needs are.
Secondly, its children that are most at risk from waterborne diseases. Because PlayPumps® use a field bore rather than the well system of a hand pump, the water comes from a much deeper and safer source.
We recognise that a badly placed PlayPump, eg. in a community with very few children, is not ideal. That’s why we install in schools that have over 350 pupils as a minimum requirement.
These schools often cover vast rural areas and can have well over 2,000 pupils. The PlayPumps in the schools also serve to provide vegetable gardens that can supplement the children’s diets and are also available for the immediate community to take advantage of the additional tanked water generated by the children during schools hours.
Of course not all communities in need have schools large enough to make PlayPumps a viable solution, so we are looking into appropriate water pumping technology for them.
How do you ensure the PlayPumps® are properly maintained?
All our PlayPumps have a pre-agreed and contracted maintenance agreement which ensures that the pump is kept flowing by a locally trained and properly equipped maintenance team rather than relying on the local community to supply the tools and have the knowledge to fix any issues, something that we wouldn’t expect here in the UK. At our last audit, 96% of our PlayPumps were flowing – a figure that compares very well with the 66% of hand pumps in operation throughout Africa. The PlayPumps also have a 21-day service agreement, which means that if they have a serious service issue that stops water flowing, this will be fixed within 3 weeks by the trained team, all of whom carry spares with them. Our next PlayPump audit is taking place in September 2010 by an independent NGO and we will publish the results of this on our web site.
Why are schools the right location for PlayPumps?
We have only ever received praise for the scheme from every school where we have installed a PlayPump. This praise often comes from the principal and teachers, and it really is inspiring when we do hear from them as they are the guys on the ground who really have an understanding of the children’s needs.
The reasons are four-fold:
Firstly, the children have little or no playground equipment and for them to have the use of an amazing toy that both gives them huge amounts of fun and also provides water at the same time is fantastic.
Secondly, siting at a school means that there is an endless stream of children constantly playing on the roundabout.
Thirdly, its children that are most at risk from waterborne diseases. Because PlayPumps® use a field bore rather than the well system of a hand pump, the water comes from a much deeper and safer source.
And finally it is often children who suffer as schools close due to lack of water. Siting a PlayPump within a school ensures water for drinking (preventing dehydration), cooking, hand washing and irrigation of vegetable gardens, giving children a valuable source of nutrition during their day to supplement their diets.
An additional benefit of the PlayPump is that water is also available for the immediate community to use during school hours.
Why are PlayPumps the best solution?
The PlayPump water system is an excellent solution for schools as it provides a truly sustainable source of clean water:
Testing All potential PlayPump sites are tested for both water quality (bacteriological testing) and quantity (sustainability) prior to installation.
Sealed bore The PlayPump bore is sealed – this means that no contaminants like animal or human effluence can leach into the bore and cause illness and disease.
Sustainability The PlayPump bore is drilled up to 100m deep – this ensures that water is constantly available. In many areas throughout Africa traditional hand pumps only contain water for a few months of the year, or even once or twice a week or month.
Storage tank As children spin on the roundabout, clean water is pumped from deep underground into an above surface storage tank. This is sited high above the ground and ensures that water is available simply by turning on a tap. You don’t have to pump for a period of time to create sufficient pressure to extract the water as you do with a traditional hand pump.
The storage tank also provides space for community advertising messages, which in turn pay for a trained maintenance team to service the PlayPumps.
If you’re so concerned about World water issues, how can you sell bottled water?
One is a not-for-profit business, operating in the corporate world; in the most ethical way possible, to make money to give away to people that really need it.
The reality is that the market is worth over a billion pounds in the UK. It's a market where healthy profits are made. As with all our products lines, our mission is to displace those profits into causes that address the imbalance in our world.
We are not saying buy our water INSTEAD of using tap water; we are saying IF you are going to buy bottled water, buy One and make a difference at the same time. And it adds up – so far, One has raised £4 million in donations and provided clean water to over 1,000,000 people.
What better way to directly aid those who need it most?
All our water is sourced locally in the country of sale, so water sold in Britain is bottled here, same for Australia and Ireland. Our bottles are recyclable and further to that, we are working on a guide that will show our customers other amazing uses for empty bottles.
One is not a bottled water company; water is just one of our product lines. We also have One Condoms, One Vitamin Enhanced Water, One Toilet Tissue and One Hand Soap.
Everyday products where all our profits go to good causes. If you are buying hand soap, buy One; if you are buying loo roll buy One... why wouldn't you?
What are your bottles made of?
Our bottles are made of PET and are the lightest weight 500ml plastic bottles available. They use far less plastic than the typical water bottle and are 20% lighter than the next closest 500ml water bottle. In fact, they are 50% lighter than your average soda bottle.
There are no quick wins to this, but people are moving in the right direction. And we work closely with our manufactures to look at the best long term, sustainable, environmental options, rather than a quick fix solution.
Why don’t you use Biodegradable bottles made from corn that breaks down in the soil in 4 months?
We actually employ a CSR person who actively looks at all the things we do, obviously, the whole plastics' debate is always on our radar. Since 'biodegradable' bottles first came on the scene, we were keen to do this. But it's a bit of ‘greenwash’ at the moment to be honest. In fact, Cargill Dow, the chemical giant that pioneered the technology (using their own genetically modified corn) is/has pulled out of it.
There is a new green technology, called 'Revert' that we are looking at, we feel that PCR, or PET is the way forward. It's in its infancy at the moment and there are volume supply problems, possibly this is where the future lies. We're always on the lookout for better solutions and over the last few years have light weighted our bottles (they use less plastic / oil / energy to produce) we have also changed the caps to make them more recyclable (we're ahead of Pepsi, Coke, Poland Springs, Evian, etc. on this one) and we have included recycling web links on our labels - as well as moving into non-packaged 'water' through point-of-use coolers, refillable bottles.
We've also just signed a 3-year exclusive agreement with a company that moves us further away from 'bottles' and we're really excited about that.
If anyone out there has ideas they want to share, new technologies they've seen, etc., please do let us know.
Where can I buy refillable bottles?
We’ve had a few queries on this. Here is the link to the refillable bottles on our online shop.
Why do you need 250,000 fans on Facebook campaign?
Well one of our trustees has said if we can get 250,000 fans on Facebook, he will fund a PlayPump to provide clean water to an entire village in Africa.
So why 250,000? Well that’s because we stock our products, including One Water, in a number of UK retail and food outlets. But we'd like to get on the shelves in the leading supermarkets in the UK. And they need to be convinced there will be demand for our products. 250,000 Facebook fans will go a long way towards convincing them that there are people out there who love and want One products. We know that once it's on the shelves it will sell.
We'll never employ tactics that make you feel pressured, put you on a guilt trip or make you feel bad. In fact, we rarely talk about the problems in Africa. We'd rather focus on the solutions and create good feelings. Make a change in the world and have fun at the same time.
I know the business model is new to a lot of people and it can create confusion. They expect charities to be begging and businesses to be greedy. We are a positive hybrid of the two - a business that makes money to give it away.
Don’t forget that ALL our profits go to good causes. One Water funds water projects, One Vitamin Enhanced Water funds vegetable gardens, One Condoms funds HIV awareness and testing, One Toilet Tissue, and One Hand Soap fund sanitation programmes
If you get the chance to meet our MD Duncan Goose you should and if you’re ever in London we'd love you to come to our offices.
So far, through purchasing One products and generous donations, our supporters have raised £4 million and changed the lives of over one million people.
With all the natural disasters, why should we give to you?
We are a charity but we don’t ask people for money – we ask for support and switching from buying their normal brand to simply buying ours. That way we can all easily make lasting, sustainable change just by redirecting the profits made from fat cat pockets to communities who really need it.
Where will the Facebook PlayPump be located?
The Facebook PlayPump will be located at the Chikumba FP School, District of Thyolo Malawi. The PlayPump will provide fresh, clean drinking water to 1103 girls 993 boys and 13 Teachers at the school, the wider community of 7300 will also have access to the PlayPump.
How can we get One representation in the US?
We want to bring One to you guys in the States very badly. Some of our biggest supporters are out there and it pains us that you can't just pick up our products at your local market.
Please keep posting on Facebook if you are American and want to see One at a store near you. For our part, we’re going to try harder and act on every suggestion. After all, if we get to America, we’ll sell more, and if we sell more then we all save more lives together.
Do we have permission to use your logo on flyers and sponsorship forms?
The best way is to use the example leaflets and posters & logos that are held in the resources section on the onedifference.org website. That will ensure the logo is the right colour, size etc.
How can I become more involved?
There are many ways you can help spread the word, invite everyone you know to join our Facebook campaign and raise awareness. You can also download our “Please Stock One Products” letter from our website and take it to your local shop/supermarket.
