Water Solutions Company Touts ESG Benefit At Golf’s Final Major

Cam Smith’s clutch putter and closing nine 30, a Sunday back nine score lower than any prior Open champion, dominated St. Andrews chatter but the mullet-wearing Australian golf star also managed to make hydration part of the conversation. After hoisting the Claret Jug, Smith revealed that his celebrations would certainly entail finding out “how many beers fit” inside the vaunted chalice. The answer which he revealed earlier this week: “pretty much exactly two.”

As for the fluid most gulped by spectators of all ages, the R&A once again tapped Sweden based Bluewater’s drinking water solutions to reduce the marine pollution caused by single-use plastic bottles at the event. Today, the company, which merged with Denver-based FloWater this past Spring, revealed that their hydration stations situated across the Old Course dispensed 76,869 liters of water to 290,000 fans over the course of the event. That is equivalent to 153,738 500ml-sized plastic bottles.

The governing body who organizes the Open Championship first teamed up with Bluewater for the 2019 edition, making it the first Men’s golf major to eliminate single-use plastic water bottles while simultaneously making re-fillable bottles one of the most popular merchandise shop items.

“We want to thank the R&A, the organizers of The Open, for taking the lead in providing hydration solutions that end the need for an event to sell plastic bottles of water, and the fans who made the choice to support the planet by purchasing a sustainable Bluewater bottle to replace throwaway plastic bottles,” Bluewater founder and CEO Bengt Rittri said.

Before The Open started implementing the company’s water refilling stations the annual tournament would regularly go through in excess of 100,000 single use plastic bottles destined to blight oceans that abut the seaside links style courses the championship is played on. With human consumption flooding oceans with 8 million tons of plastic each year, according to a United Nations report if current trends hold up our oceans will contain more plastic than fish, when measured by weight, by 2050.

Beyond feeling good about doing their part for the environment, getting rid of single-use plastic water bottles also proved to be revenue neutral with sales of reusable bottles making up the difference. Smaller aluminum cans of still-water were also available for spectator purchase.

“The sale of Bluewater bottles help compensate for any loss in revenue from selling those plastic bottles,” Dave Noble, Bluewater Director of Events, PR and Communication, said.

The company is also providing water stations for the Senior Open this coming week as well as for the AIG Women’s Open in early August. They are currently in negotiations with several other golf events that tee off later in the summer and in the early fall.