It seems hard to imagine, but more than 1 billion people on our planet can’t get clean water to drink.
As the founder of Ethos Water, Peter Thum turned his idea of bringing clean water to children into a successful social venture that was subsequently acquired by Starbucks.
Peter Thum, co-founder of Ethos, visits children in Sumatra, Indonesia, who were getting water thanks to Ethos. (Courtesy Starbucks)
Ethos Water was created to help raise awareness about this terrible crisis and provide children with access to clean water. Every time you buy a bottle of Ethos® Water, you contribute $.05US ($.10CN in Canada) to the Ethos® Water Fund, part of the Starbucks Foundation.
So far more than $12.3 million has been granted to help support water, sanitation and hygiene education programs in water-stressed countries – benefiting more than 500,000 people around the world. In 2014 grants were made to six NGOs in the following coffee-growing countries: Tanzania ($750K), Indonesia ($750K), Colombia ($1.1M), Guatemala ($480K) and Nicaragua ($300K).
Since founding Ethos Water, pioneering entrepreneur Peter Thum has become a leader in creating businesses that do good, while also doing well. In this segment, we’ll explore Peter’s most recent venture targeting gun violence in the United States, the characteristics that drive effective social entrepreneurs, and how private foundations can invest in social enterprises.
LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE
More About Peter Thum: He is currently working to stop gun violence. Peter is Founder and CEO of two brands: Fonderie 47 and Liberty United; ventures that transform illegal guns into jewelry, watches, and art. In 2008, while working in Africa on water projects, Peter met boys and young men armed with assault rifles. He decided to try to do something to turn the AK47 against itself by transforming these guns into objects that were beautiful, noble and completely opposite to the gun from which they were made. This concept has evolved into Fonderie 47. It has destroyed more than 40,000 assault rifles in African war zones. Liberty United funds programs to stop gun violence in the U.S. and focuses on making children and communities safer in neighborhoods with extreme gun violence. Peter previously founded and was President of Ethos Water, which was acquired by Starbucks in 2005 and has provided water to some half million people worldwide. Thum founded the non-profit Giving Water, which has helped over 6,000 schoolchildren in Africa get water and sanitation access. He previously worked at the consulting firm McKinsey & Company and the Gallo Winery.
To learn more about Fonderie 47, click here. Interested in learning reading and hearing more stories from podcast series, Forward Thinking? Click here.
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