Tag Archives: bottled water

Bottled water news from the Eden Springs water cooler blog.

Children, bottled water and fizzy drinks

Posted in Bottled Water Coolers on by .

Why Parents Give Their Children Bottled Water

The healthy message that drinking water is good for you has gradually been seeping through, however soda drink sales don’t appear to have dropped significantly as a consequence. Parents can help children make healthy decisions by providing bottled water instead of sugar filled soda drinks when they’re at school, on a long car journey or anywhere where your kids are going to need rehydration.

Why water is good for you

You don’t need an advert showing a person crawling across the desert to know that your body needs water otherwise it won’t function properly. With water making up more than 50% of your body weight you wouldn’t be able to survive for more than a few days without it.

Water doesn’t just rehydrate you, it also performs a number of significant functions. Your blood, which holds water, carries oxygen to cells around your body. Your body would stop working if the cells died because of a lack of oxygen.

You will also find lots of water in the lymph fluid which forms part of your immune system, designed to help you fight off any illnesses. Water helps you digest food on the way in and helps waste on the way out. Sweating, which is an important part of your body’s life cycle, is mostly made up of water, but we call it perspiration.

Fortunately, you won’t receive your entire water intake just by drinking water. Many fluids that you digest will contain water. Milk contains a lot of water and even fruit contains a little. Most vegetables are full of water, fresh or cooked.

Encouraging children to drink bottle water

Packing bottled water for your children will help ensure that they can turn to water as soon as they feel that they need a drink. This means that not only is the water easily available, but your children don’t have to go searching for taps, particularly in bathrooms, where the water may not be drinkable, but may include impurities because it has been collected, perhaps, from rainwater and is circulated around bathrooms in out of date plumbing.

Many children prefer to drink bottled water, in preference to tap water, because most tap water that is safe to drink has a metallic, chlorine taste, which is sometimes considered not as nice as some bottled waters. Bottled water, in this instance, may mean that your children drink more water during the day.

Some people will argue that fluoride is missing from bottled water, but sufficient can be obtained from other sources. If children are trained to clean their teeth twice a day they will get sufficient fluoride for their bodily systems. Many would even argue fluoride-free is better!

Bottled water doesn’t have to be an expensive item and can quite easily cost less than the latest sugary soda drink. And there’s one more benefit: where parents are able to teach their children to drink bottled water consistently, they are setting a pattern that will hopefully pass on successfully to the next generation and beyond. Consistently drinking sugar and soda drinks will reduce the high levels of obesity found in teenagers today.

As the UK’s No. 1 plumbed-in water cooler supplier, Eden Springs is happy to meet your water needs, whatever your age!

Image: Julien Harneis/Flickr

Eden Springs at the MOBOs

Posted in About Eden, Bottled Water on by .

mobo awards logo

Eden Springs are pleased to have been asked to be the official bottled water supplier for the VIPs at the MOBO Awards, to be held this Saturday 3 November at the Echo Arena in Manchester.

With nominees including current chart-topper Labrinth, Plan B, Professor Green, Jay Z, Jessie J, Tulisa and Rihanna it’s sure to be an incredible evening, and with live performances and celebrating to be done we can be sure the attendees will need to have some water close to hand to stay hydrated!

We’ll be watching along on Saturday 3 November, so find out what we think and tell us your opinions and views:

Eden Springs on Twitter:  

Follow along with all the news, views and results from the awards at the official Twitter account and hashtag:

MOBO Awards on Twitter @MOBOAwards #MOBO

mobo awards

Hydrating Team Macmillan at the Virgin London Marathon

Posted in Bottled Water, Charity, Community, Water Delivery on by .

joe-mcdermott

Joe McDermott, Challenge Events Manager for Macmillan Cancer Support, describes the experience of the 2012 London Marathon and support from Eden Springs water

On the morning of 22 April 2012, 850 Team Macmillan runners lined up at the start line of the London Marathon in Blackheath and Greenwich, ready to take on the challenge they have been preparing for over the last six months of their lives. Each and every one of runners in their green Macmillan vests – whether it was for a close personal reason or just that they have admired the charity’s work – will have spent just as much time fundraising as training for the run (the London Marathon is the largest annual fundraising event in the world), something that Macmillan is keen to repay when it comes around to Marathon week itself.

As well as all of the top notch training and nutritional advice given to every Macmillan runner, in the week before the event Team Macmillan staff are on hand at the London Marathon Expo to give some last minute advice and encouragement to all of the runners who drop by the Macmillan stand and put on a Pasta Party the night before so runners can stock up on those vital carbs.

team macmillan eden water

Hydration and recovery on the big day

On the big day itself, eight cheer points are set up along the route in order to give Team Macmillan runners a motivational boost along the course. Over 400 volunteers come out to the cheer points to support the team, so each cheer point is provided with banger sticks, foam hands and Macmillan t-shirts to be as visible and noisy as possible for the runners! The glug of water kindly provided by Eden Springs is also gratefully received at the cheer points as voices start to get hoarse!

Perhaps the peak of the support given to the runners on the day is at the Team Macmillan Recovery Centre. Runners can stagger here once their marathon journey is complete, to be greeted by a massive round of applause and a massage to help those tired legs recover. There are plenty of refreshments on hand too so runners can stock up on depleted energy levels. Here, too, the Eden Springs bottled water is invaluable to ensure none of the runners succumb to dehydration – especially vital on a day when it was much warmer than expected given the amounts of rain the London Marathon was sandwiched between.

All in all, the 2012 London Marathon managed to smash new records for Macmillan, with a record sized team hopefully raising a record amount of money for Macmillan Cancer Support, ensuring that people across the UK continue to receive emotional, medical, practical and financial support to people affected by cancer across the UK. With the 2013 ballot filling in less than 24 hours, 2013 promises more of the same – visit macmillan.org.uk/londonmarathon for more details.

 

The carbon footprint of water

Posted in About Eden, Bottled Water Coolers, Environment, water coolers on by .

water cooler carbon footprint

Putting Eden water’s carbon footprint into perspective

water cooler carbon footprintEden Springs, as a low carbon company and the first accredited carbon neutral water cooler company in the UK, are committed to reducing the environmental impact of what we do. However it’s important to know how our products perform in relation to other hydration options and popular products. Thanks to our stringent auditing and research process undertaken as part of our journey to become carbon neutral we know exactly what carbon footprint a glass of our water has.

The Carbon footprint of a product is the total greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted, directly or indirectly, during the extraction, production, distribution and consumption of the product. We can see that a glass of Eden water has a carbon footprint of about 1/6 of that of a glass of orange juice, and almost half that of a cup of tea.

Compare the carbon footprints of several day-to-day drinks or services for yourself:

Product Size measured kCO2/size kCO2/litre
Glass of water from an Eden bottled water cooler 20cl 0.03 0.150
Glass of water from an Eden plumbed water cooler 20cl 0.03 0.140
Glass of water from a PET bottle 20cl 0.03 0.360
Glass of Tropicana orange juice 20cl 0.18 0.899
Glass of milk 20cl 0.21 1.040
Coca Cola Classic (glass bottle) 33cl 0.36 1.080
Cup of hot tea 30cl 0.07 0.236
Cup of large cappuccino 20cl 0.24 0.940
Cup of Nespresso coffee 5cl 0.10 1.960
Innocent smoothie 25cl 0.29 1.176
An email normal email 0.004 -
A Google search a Google search 0.002 -
A banana medium size 0.08 -

Eden help the SSBA Charity Golf Day

Posted in Charity, Community, Water Delivery on by .

Prudential Golf SSBA

Eden Springs recently donated water to the Scottish Spina Bifida Association in aid of their charity golf day at The Earl of Mar Golf Course, Mar Hall, Scotland, through our free water for fundraisers programme.

Despite the ‘dreich’ weather, the event was a great success and they’ve kindly provided us some photos of the event. With our support helping the outing raised L8,000 for the Scottish Spina Bifida Association. The victorious team are pictured below!

Making a big difference

This charity is the only charity in Scotland dedicated to providing advice and support to people born with spina bifida and hydrocephalus and their families, and receives less than 1% in Government funding. The money raised will help them make a big difference.

Thanks to monies raised the charity have also been able to employ support staff specifically for the North of Scotland which enables them to provide more services and attend to any emergency situations quickly, and their facility in Cumbernauld continues to offer numerous services and specialised equipment.

If you have a fundraising event coming up and would like some free water, do get in touch at our free water for fundraisers page.

Prudential Golf SSBA

scottish spina bifida charity event

5 Tips for Looking after your Water Cooler

Posted in Bottled Water Coolers, Customer Services, Health, water coolers, Well Being at Work on by .

water cooler tips video

water cooler tips video

water cooler tips video

Water from Eden water coolers is tasty, safe and refreshing. However we want to ensure your cooler is working exactly as intended and keep you cooler in top shape, so take the advice of  Steven Riley, Cooler Expert for Eden Springs UK, to ensure the very small risk of water contamination remains small and unnecessary call-outs are avoided!

1. Are you plugged in?

It’s a surprisingly regular occurance – a cleaner might take out the cooler power plug so they can plug in the vacuum cleaner and they forget to plug the cooler back in. A call to our water cooler customer service team follows explaining that the cooler isn’t chilling the water, with a subsequent visit from a cooler expert, only to find out the cooler isn’t plugged in! So if you haven’t got cooled water, check one should be the power socket.

2. Watch for drip tray overflow

Often water cooler drip trays are left unemptied and overflowing, and this can lead to water spilling onto the floor. Often the first response to water on the floor is “The cooler is leaking” and an Eden Springs representative is called, and you go without chilled water unnecessarily. In order to maintain a clean and uncontaminated cooler we recommend regularly taking out the drip tray to empty and clean.

3. Store your water bottles in a suitable location

It’s important to store your water cooler bottles in a suitable room or space; yes we’d all prefer the bottles to be near your cooler, but there are other equally important factors to consider. The bottles should ideally be stored in a cold and dark environment, and they should preferably be stored off the floor to avoid any potential contamination from the floor surface. There is always a small chance that any spills, debris or cleaning fluids used on the floor can get into the bottles over time. Also the water cooler bottles themselves are made of a type of plastic, and chemicals or even the colour and dye of the bottles can seep into the water if left in direct sunlight or alongside contaminating materials.

4. Don’t refill water bottles

We generally wouldn’t recommend refilling bottles etc from water coolers, especially if there isn’t enough room for the bottle to sit well below the taps. This is because when refilling bottles people will often push the mouth of the bottle directly up against the water taps, and this is an opportunity for bacteria or viruses to transfer from the bottle to the cooler tap. If one person with a cold, say, did this in a busy office you can imagine how many people might catch this simply because they have refilled their bottle at the water cooler.

5. Clean inbetween sanitisation visits

To enjoy your water to the full contamination prevention is important. To achieve this we would recommend cleaning your water cooler intermittently and between our official sanitisation visits; it’s obviously not a full strip-and-clean of the cooler, however any cleaning will significantly reduce the chance of cross-contamination of your water. To this end we can also supply you with special sanitisation kits, which contain a small hydrogen peroxide spray, wipes, and a brush for fine cleaning around taps. Simply spray the cleaning fluid, wipe off and allow to dry.

After an Eden Springs sanitisation we also recommend changing the bottle on the cooler, as we don’t know how long a bottle has been on the cooler and with a nice clean cooler and reservoir we don’t want to reintroduce a potentially contaminated bottle.

Run With Mark – 50 Marathons Later

Posted in Charity on by .

Mark Cooper has completed 50 marathons.
Mark Cooper has completed 50 marathons.

Mark Cooper has completed 50 marathons.

Mark Cooper has just completed his incredible 50 marathon endurance programme in benefit of the charity Headway, and Eden Springs has helped support Mark through our Charity Water programme. We caught up with Mark to ask a few questions about the experience:

So, Mark, how does it feel to be finished?

It’s surreal; strange not to go and run.

Did you meet your L25,000 goal?

We raised that and there’s more to come in. It looks like we will raise over L30,000.

What was your best experience during the runs?

Crossing from France to Spain via an unofficial border crossing at the top of the Pyrenees. I’d been in France for so long. Once I got there I knew I would finish the marathons.

And your worst experience?

In terms of running, it was after the first marathon. I had a pain in my ankle and thought it would be over before I’d done anything. I saw a physio, got it sorted and after that had no problems. There was also the night when the couple in the next room got a bit noisy. When I banged on the wall, they threatened us with a knife!

Can you comment on the support you have had from Eden Springs?

The biggest thing is being properly hydrated, otherwise you’re not performing to the best of your abilities. It was great to know it was all taken care of. It was the perfect amount of drinking water, and the support on Twitter and Facebook was great too.

How has this experience affected you?

I’m much happier, relaxed and more focused than before through running. If I can go from smoking 30 a day and drinking to this, anyone can do it.

What’s next, Mark?

I won’t stop now. Anything’s possible now.  There’s a record for running 248 miles without stopping; I’ll try to break that, though that’s a few months down the line and I’ll need to train for it. I’m also looking to motivate young people to get fit and focus on where they go in life through fitness.

Any final words of advice?

I would encourage anyone who has a dream or a goal not to listen to what others have to say – believe in yourself, look within. A friend says ‘if you can dream it it’s possible’ and I think that’s right.

Help Mark by getting a water cooler

If you’re connected to Mark Cooper, when you or your company installs an Eden Springs water cooler we’ll donate L30 to his chosen charity every time! Visit our charity water donation page for information.

Keep up with Mark on the RunWithMark site or on Twitter and Facebook. And don’t forget to check out our free water programme for your own fundraising efforts.

Run with Mark: 50 Marathon Runner Won’t Go Thirsty

Posted in Charity, Community on by .

Mark drinks sports fuel with Eden Springs
Mark drinks sports fuel with Eden Springs

Mark drinks sports fuel with Eden Springs

Marathon runners really need those little way stations where they can rehydrate at various parts of the race, but what if you were running 50 marathons? How much water would you need then? When runners sweat, they lose salt, sugar and water – the more they lose, the less efficient they become. But runners can solve this by drinking before dehydration becomes dangerous.

Luckily for Mark Cooper, aka Run with Mark, who started a programme at the beginning of May to run 50 marathons in just over 50 days, he won’t have to worry about becoming dehydrated. Eden Springs has agreed to supply all the water he needs and to contribute to his charity marathon campaign through our Free Water for Fundraisers programme. (Let’s face it; if Mark’s running 50 marathons, he’ll probably need those 1,000 cases of bottled water.)

Help for fundraising runner

Mark, who’s 27, began his 1,300 mile endurance run at the start of May and will run through Holland, Belgium, France and Spain. He’s raising funds for Headway Group,  a charity which assists people and carers affected by traumatic brain injury. Mark aims to raise L25,000 and so far has raised just over L12,000.  At the time of writing Mark had completed 17 of the 50 marathons (you can check his progress on this map) and was feeling good.

If you want to see how Mark’s doing with his campaign or add your own contribution to his charity fund, you can find him on the RunWithMark site or on Twitter and Facebook. And don’t forget to check out our free water programme for your own fundraising efforts.

A day in the life of Eden Water – Part 1: Water sources

Posted in Bottled Water Coolers on by .

Eden water

Eden waterEden Springs take great pride in the quality of bottled water provided, be it for bottled water coolers or small 500ml bottles. Our dedication to providing great tasting, quality water has contributed to our popularity and our positions as the UK’s leading water cooler supplier. But how exactly do Eden ensure that the water is clean, fresh and continually great tasting? We follow some Eden Water from source to office to show you how…

Bottled water sources: Only the best

Eden Springs bottled water starts its life in one of three fantastic natural water sources: aquifers in Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire; Eden Valley; and West Hyde, Hertfordshire. Although picturesque, the important thing is not that the scenery but the high quality of water that can be sourced and bottled. The Lochwinnoch site, for example, is highly regarded and trusted in the UK for its fine, soft water, and water from the Eden Valley site is also used by such high profile companies as Tesco and Asda.

Once extracted, our drinking water continues its journey to be purified and bottled. At our Eden Valley site the bottling plant is directly on the water source so there’s no journey involved, while the water from our other aquifers travels a short distance in tankers to be make its next step into bottled water. Our Scottish water is bottled and filtered for purity at our Blantyre headquarters near Glasgow. Remember that Eden are committed to reducing our environmental impact, so any travel is as short and energy efficient as possible, while to ensure cleanliness all transfer equipment and vehicles are regularly cleaned and sanitised.

Coming next:

A day in the life of Eden Water – Part 2: Water purity testing, testing, testing

Sachin Jape works as Quality & Refurbishment Leader at Eden UK, with responsibilities ranging from UK Quality Assurance, Quality Control, and leading the Cooler Refurbishment Department and Quality Team.
Sachin Jape works as Quality & Refurbishment Leader at Eden UK,
with responsibilities ranging from UK Quality Assurance, Quality
Control, and leading the Cooler Refurbishment Department and
Quality Team.

Will it be a hot summer by the Water Cooler?

Posted in Bottled Water Coolers, Well Being at Work on by .

hot-summer-water-cooler

It’s a risky business trying to predict the weather, but a long hot summer could leave offices across the UK wishing they had a water cooler dishing out some cool water.

The MET Office bungled with last year’s predictions of a ‘barbecue summer’, and Michael Fish famously said we wouldn’t see a hurricane in 1987, but following these debacles could a disbelief in a hotter-than-average summertime lead to many organisations and employees suffering in the heat?

It’s very common for sales of water coolers to increase in the summer months as people realise what they’re missing out on. Some independent weather forecasters are already predicting long period of sweltering heat, so it certainly worth considering getting your water cooler before the inevitable rush!

hot-summer-water-cooler