By OCTAVIA MUIR
An eco no-brainer
We meet the makers behind the incredible brands, artists and artisans as part of our Brands in Residence edit at LOVE BRAND & Co. Curated by Co-Founder Rose Tomalin, shining a spotlight on smaller, slower, sustainable and more meaningful brands from around the world.
Meet Will Pearson and Nick Doman, the two young entrepreneurs behind Ocean Bottle. A brand that is bringing consumers the “worlds most needed bottle”. With 22 million kilograms of plastic entering our waters every day, plastic is choking our oceans. Nick and Will are on a mission to change this with their planet-friendly stainless-steel bottle.
The Ocean Bottle is the perfect reusable companion. An eco no-brainer to avoid single-use plastics, not to mention your ticket to becoming part of a movement dedicated to turning the tap off ocean plastic and saving our oceans. Endless reviews on this bottle only highlight the shockwaves it has caused in the already booming reusable water bottle market! So much so in fact that The Telegraph has even celebrated, that “when looking for Planet Friendly credentials, it doesn’t get much better than this bottle”.
With their plastic fighting mission, Will and Nick told us how they were inspired by making a business that would “work for the future of the earth”. With environmentalism as a fundamental guiding principle for both these eco-conscious co-founders, they set out to “fix the problems” that we, unfortunately, have created ourselves.
Helping the plastic collecting communities
With Ocean Bottle, they were wanting to initiative an emphasis on stopping ocean-bound plastics. Beach clean-ups in their eyes are in part helpful but they believe that efforts need to be made before any plastic hits the water, to truly make a difference.
Their bottles are made from stainless steel and are incredibly sleek, stylish and practical. Each Ocean Bottle that is purchased helps to fund the equivalent collection of 1,000 plastic bottles. Collections happen worldwide from Haiti, Indonesia and the Philippines to Brazil, and Egypt.
The brand’s partnership with Plastic Bank, a social enterprise committed to stopping ocean plastic while providing opportunities for brands to have environmental & social impact, ensures that Ocean Bottle can help communities that are in need. This partnership allows for their plastic collectors’ livelihoods to be proactively supported. In exchange for their collection, they can be given money or credit via blockchain technology to spend on tuition, products, or health care.
As a force for good it doesn’t stop there… Funds on purchases are also put towards securing much-needed waste management infrastructure improvements in these regions. Something that is vital to cutting plastic pollution, as Will and Nick explain, it is actually the lack of waste management infrastructure in coastal communities around the world that is one of the biggest contributors to ocean plastic.
Innovation and sustainability combined
Committing to transparency and holding themselves accountable for everything they do as a brand, their promise is to steer clear of greenwashing consumers. Something that many brands of today are unfortunately falling into the trap of, promising greener and cleaner credentials, but a closer look behind the scenes, reveals that this certainly isn’t the case.
Sustainable innovation at its finest, technology has been embedded into the Ocean Bottle to future proof its fight against the war on single-use plastics. Each bottle has a smart chip activated with an NFC chip. This means that in the future with digital advancements, you will be able to donate more money to the plastic collection when refilling at partner locations such as in gyms, cafés, and university campuses.
Ocean Bottle set out to make a defined impact per product with the sale of every bottle. Not only are they built to last a lifetime, but they are also the ultimate “no bullshit sustainable innovation.” Something that our conversation with Will and Nick made clear was that they wanted to ensure they were offering their product for as long as required.
In their own words they told us that thinking ahead, their ten-year plan is to be “Out of business! we exist until we are no longer needed”. Only emphasising the ongoing message of acting now to save the planet.
Oceans bottles really are helping stop plastic polluting our seas. Join the journey in helping face the crisis that is causing irreparable damage to our planet.
