Stichting Helder Water (The Clear Water Foundation) was
established in 2009 by Pascal van Nieulande. After years of working
in various commercial roles, simply reaching targets no longer gave
him satisfaction.
"I came across Fair Trade coffee by chance. Being socially involved
and responsible within my role gave me a sense of satisfaction,
"said Pascal. "I then started thinking about how I could contribute
myself and with what kind of product. In the media, we regularly
hear and read about the water sanitation problem. More than 1
billion people worldwide don't have access to clean drinking water,
a basic need which is also one of the eight 2015 Millennium
Development Goals. Water seemed like the right product."
"The sale of bottled water is a strong concept as the product
directly relates to the allocation of revenue; providing third
world countries with clean drinking water. By drinking Helder
Water, the consumer contributes directly to the donation of water
projects."
Pascal has found a number of business partners that offer the
Helder Water Foundation pro bono support. Helder Water will
initially be available at many well-known supermarkets in the
Netherlands from September 2010.
In this way, everyone can contribute to the water sanitation
problem, without having to make a donation.
Thank you for drinking Helder Water!
Transparency has been key to Stichting Helder Water from the
start. This was part of the reason a foundation was chosen as a
legal entity. According to Stichting Helder Water, the concept can
only succeed if consumers can see where the money is going and that
there are clearly no commercial interests for the manager(s) of the
foundation. This is why Helder Water is registered as a Foundation
and the salary of the chairman of the Foundation is based on the
lowest scale of the Good Governance Code (Code Wijffels) outlined
by the VFI (see scale 1, € 4583 gross per month).
Price Waterhouse Coopers is responsible for the annual report of
the Foundation. The Helder Water Foundation will publish a summary
containing the results by PWC on the website every month in order
to be fully transparent.