One Water Project 2008
For Enterprise Week 2008, One Water and Make Your Mark teamed up to launch the One Water Project for young people in the UK.
The One Water Project was a competition that was open to young people through schools, colleges, youth organisations. We challenged teams of young people to come up with innovative and enterprising ways to raise money for a good cause.
One Water is a social enterprise that sells water in the developed world, and works with communities in Africa who don’t have clean water supplies or are in need of support with their public health programmes.
And the winners are…
Through their efforts, the students generated significant levels of awareness of One Water, social enterprise and issues such as water conservation. In total, the students generated £2,000!
Open Category Winners – Birkdale School, Sheffield
A team of boys raised the £100 funds out of their own pockets to kick-start the project and opened a disused tuck shop to run their venture. They generated £404 income, deducted their costs and sent £300 to One Water as profit.
Special Award Winners – Birkbeck School, Lincolnshire
As a rural school with 310 students, and a fantastic One Water entry, the judges felt that they deserved to win a special award. Through the sales of the water and pieces of art and jewellery made from the plastic bottles ,the students raised £466.19.
Top 5 in the Hundred category:
- St Matthew Academy, London – raised £2000
- Barr Beacon Language College, Birmingham – raised £1027.30
- Farnborough School Technology College, Nottingham – raised £607.59
- Birkbeck School, Lincolnshire – raised £466.19
- Simon Balle School, Hertfordshire – raised £534
Top 5 in the Open category:
- Birkdale School, Sheffield - raised £300
- Uxbridge College, Middlesex - raised £476.63
- Fulston Manor School, Kent - raised £702.65
- Edenham High School, Surrey - raised £323.15
- Prince Rupert School, Germany - raised £300
N.B. The shortlist was based on the schools that generated the most profit from their activity, and the winners were decided on the categories of the 3Ps: People, Planet and Profit.
The judges and the prizes
The judges were Duncan Goose, Chief Executive of Global Ethics (the company that produces One Water), Claudine Reid MBE, Director of PJs Community Services and Chrisanthi Giotis from Social Enterprise Magazine.
The winners got to visit the Eden project in Cornwall, which is one of the UK’s top gardens and conservation tourist attractions - a living theatre of plants and people! The winners also won a tour around the Houses of Parliament followed by a meeting with the Minister for the Third Sector, Kevin Brenan. They even won a visit to Number 10 Downing Street!
Play the One Water game!
Check out the One Water Project web game below. It’s fun!
The 3Ps
Through the project, participants had to consider the 3Ps.
People
Look at the impact that a lack of clean drinking water has upon young people in Africa. They were asked to think about how they can use bottles of One Water to bring this to people’s attention locally considering issues such as climate change, water sanitation and conservation.
Planet
Participants needed to come up with an innovative plan to re-use or recycle their One Water bottles to minimise damage to the planet, and how there were going to communicate this.
Profit
After costs have been deducted, profits made from the sale of One Water will be donated back to the One Foundation so that participants can see what a difference their local actions can make to those in need.
Ideas and Resources
The One Water Project aims to deepen understanding of social enterprise among young people by engaging them in a hands-on enterprise activity connected to a real social enterprise – the One Foundation.
If you would like to run this competition in your school as an ongoing activity, please visit our Ideas and Resources page to find useful websites and a project toolkit to help you run the One Water Project.
The Competition
The project was launched in Enterprise Week on Social Enterprise Day, Thursday 20 November 2008. Teams had until Friday 19 December to raise as much money as the could for the One Water Project. Our aim was to raise enough to buy a new PlayPump that will provide safe drinking water for a whole community as well as a safe play to play for children in a very poor area.
Who took part?
Over 130 schools and colleges across the country were involved in the One Water Project. There were two categories:
- Open Category: Open Category: Participants were challenged to raise money for the One Water Project in enterprising ways. Ideas included buying and selling bottles of One water for a profit and creating new products.
- The Hundred Category: Young people aged 14-19 from the first hundred schools, colleges or youth clubs to register were given free bottles of water worth £100 to sell.
The Prize!
All participating organisations received certificates for their teams after the competition. Entries were judged on the 3Ps: People, Planet and Profit. A panel of experts including Duncan Goose, Founder of One Water, selected one winner from each category.
Working with others
Where possible we encouraged teams to work with local social entrepreneurs, Make Your Mark Ambassadors and businesses to help then develop and run the One Water Project.
Get in touch
If you have any queries about the One Water Project, please contact Phil Tulba at phil@makeyourmark.org.uk
