Water World!

Grabbing a drink from the convenience store or restaurant is as easy as pulling a bottle from the cooler, right? Even easier, why not make that choice water? Forget the pop, flavoured sparkling drinks etc. Just simple water. What a concept, right? And what if choosing water can also be about feeding hungry children around the world? Mind-boggling, but true. 

Sometimes simple things make the most sense. It’s that way for Edmonton friends Kori Chilibeck and Matt Moreau, founders of Earth Water and The Earth Group, who met as teens in 2005 while working at a local sports shop. Each had traveled outside Canada (on family trips or on a break from university), and both say they were changed by seeing the often impoverished, difficult circumstances much of the world lives in. A like-minded outlook soon put the pair in business together. 

“I knew we were lucky to live here, and have what we have,” recalls Chilibeck of an incident in Nepal while on a break from his University of Alberta Political Science degree. He met a man in the cold weather, barefoot and carrying a basket of cans of Coca-Cola to sell. “It didn’t sit right with me to see big corporations making money off the backs of people this way. When I told my dad the idea for the business – my parents are sort of hippies and entrepreneurs – he said, ‘you don’t want to regret not knowing if it could work’. At that time, I didn’t have much to lose, or have much at all – just student debt and a bike.” 

It was a similar motivation for Moreau, whose world travels from teens to adulthood (places like south America and southeast Asia) highlighted the often dire conditions people lived in beyond Canada’s borders. “We had normal lives, where we never went to bed hungry,” Moreau says. “I saw my parents go on a medical mission to South America, packing hockey bags filled with items to take down. It made an impact.” 

The quest to be ethically responsible entrepreneurs drove the pair in the early days, armed with just an old van, a cell phone and back packs filled with bottled water - that, plus a hefty helping of youthful idealism and hustle. The two believed in a simple premise: getting local shops, hotels, grocers and restaurants to carry Earth branded water in their coolers instead of, say, racks filled with soda. All profits would go to food programs for those in need around the world. 

“We would go up and down Whyte Avenue with water donated by Kori’s grandpa. We were getting little grocery chains, (Planet Organic, Whole Foods, Italian Centre Shop –plus an early adopter, Mill Creek Cafe) yoga studios, even offices, to carry our water, rather than buying Coke or Pepsi,” says Moreau, adding the big corporations have long-term contracts with many facilities, making growth and inroads even more difficult. “We found a bottler and stocked the water in Kori’s garage and just kept at it.” 

Over the years, the pair has given customers a compelling reason to carry the simple H₂O, in reusable aluminum 500 mL bottles. As said in its mission statement, The Earth Group exists exclusively to provide school meals to children around the world while minimizing its impact on the planet wherever possible. Working with the UN World Food Programme, The Earth Group’s efforts provide food, water and education in over 80 countries globally.  

“Every case of water sold funds one week of school meals,” Moreau says, adding the company recently reported it has funded 5.1 million school meals. And while The Earth Group doesn’t disclose exact numbers on bottles of water sold, that number is well into the multi-millions. Earth Water is sold across Canada, into the USA, even exporting into Korea, and in 60-plus IKEA locations across Canada and the USA. The Earth Group is a lean, small team of about six core staff, with an office and warehouse space on Edmonton’s south side. The company works with four bottling facilities across North America and up to 10 distributors in North America and beyond.  

The Earth Group was an early adopter of using aluminum for its water bottles too. Some 70 percent of all aluminum cans are recycled globally, making aluminum the world’s most recycled packaging material. “Knock wood we’re avoiding tariff troubles with the USA, at least for now, because we’re buying a finished aluminum product. But whatever comes, we’ll figure it out, one way or another,” Moreau says, adding the group has manufacturing partners in Saskatchewan, BC, Quebec, and Japan. 

“To see us in somewhere big like IKEA is amazing – we chased them for four years. We’ve been on the brink more than once, and just had to dig our heels in,” adds Moreau, recalling challenges like having nowhere to sell its water during the pandemic. There has been trouble with bottling facilities going out of business, and around 2010 a California distributor went rogue, selling Earth water on its own. For a time, it meant the friends and colleagues moved the office into a semi-trailer, took on other work, and scaled a team of nine back to just the two founders. 

Getting knocked back now and again hasn’t slowed the friends in their life’s work though. Moreau, Chilibeck, and key staff grab a chance to share their story whenever possible, at trade shows to meet prospective retailers and partners (like food distributors Gordon Foods and Sysco). They’ve now added fair trade, organic coffee to their roster, plus online sales, and continue to expand social media presence (Instagram, Facebook, YouTube) to increase awareness on issues Earth water is about – the environment, world hunger, recycling, buying local, etc. “There’s a social value to the ‘make the world a better place’ idea, so doing something to help those less fortunate, and the move away from plastic – it’s all in line with what we do,” Chilibeck adds. 

 Working with the UN World Food Programme, The Earth Group’s efforts provide food, water and education in over 80 countries globally.  

It’s an ongoing challenge to explain what Earth water is about, Chilibeck adds, as signage isn’t usually allowed on a store shelf or restaurant table. The team encourages corporate or personal gift-giving through the website, ideal at holiday times, and Chilibeck is a regular on Team Canada trade mission trips – bringing his product and message around the world. 

“We supply water for film and TV productions shooting in Canada – we’ve done Disney and Netflix shows – and if they call and say we need two pallets of water ASAP, we can do it because we’re small and flexible. We’re thinking about flavoured sparkling waters, a maple syrup flavoured coffee – we always have a lot of ideas on the go,” Chilibeck adds. 

Now with two young sons, Moreau says the company’s tag line means even more to him, for what impact it’ll have on his children and future generations. “Feed the world, protect the planet,” he says simply. “We’re both so lucky to travel and see first-hand the result of our work. There’s nothing more motivating or inspiring than to see kids be kids.”