“Have you ever thought to change the world just changing the water you drink?” WAMI (Water with a mission) is an Italian start-up with a business model based not on profit but on the social value generated, following the formula “Buy One, Give One”. The company’s goal is to give drinkable water to people who don’t have access to it worldwide, building safe wells and water mains, through the selling of mineral water bottles in Italy.
Let’s change the world… one bottle at a time, transforming an ordinary act into something extraordinary. This was Giacomo Stefanini’s idea behind his start-up WAMI (Water with a mission), WOW! met during the Bike Road Map, a bike tour organized by Il Prisma to talk about 4.0 offices.
WAMI follows the “Buy One, Give One” model consisting in giving to someone else who needs it a product we’d buy for ourself. The idea is to make every consumer an agent for the global wellbeing, suggesting an informed and responsible purchase.
With every liter of water sold, WAMI can donate 100l of safe and drinkable water worldwide thanks to the collaboration with the ONG Lifewater International and Fondazione ACRA.
To this day WAMI has brought 70 million liters of water to more than 2.000 people in three different projects: a well in Ilu Dhina (Ethiopia), an aqueduct in Eguilaye and water supply connection in Niassarang (Senegal).
The lack of drinkable water it is not just a health risk for the people who drink polluted water, but also it is often the first barrier to face for poverty reduction.
A WAMI project is also sustainable from an economic point of view: they started identifying a needy community, realizing the project and teaching to the people how adequately manage the given structures.
It is only afterward that WAMI recovers the investment through the selling of the mineral water bottles: using the code print on each one, the customer can see on the company’s website which project they are supporting.
WAMI can be bought in many bars and restaurant in Milan, Turin and Bologna, or in the Bio c’ Bon and Carrefour store in Italy.
WAMI is a sustainable business model also environmentally speaking: the 0,5l and 1,5l PET bottle’s packaging is 100% recyclable, while the 0,75l bottle is in glass. Who wants to contribute to the project, but doens’t like to buy water in plastic bottles, can have the WAMI steel one.
Moreover, in order to minimize the environmental impact and to contribute to the reabsorption of CO2, the start-up plants trees in Italy in collaboration with Rete Clima.
Text by Gabriele Masi.