Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff founded Honest Tea in 1998. In the recently released Mission in a Bottle, the co-founders tell -- in comic book form -- the story of building a successful mission-driven business. Goldman, now president and "TeaEO" of Honest Tea, joins Motley Fool CEO Tom Gardner to discuss sustainability, entrepreneurship, and what it means for a socially responsible, health-oriented business to be bought by Coca-Cola (KO 0.29%) .
Protecting water resources is a big part of sustainability. In this video segment, Goldman discusses the improvements Honest Tea has made already, and what he sees as the company's most significant area of impact when it comes to water.
A full transcript follows the video.
We hope you enjoyed this refreshingly honest Motley Fool interview with Honest Tea CEO Seth Goldman.
If you did, you may be surprised to learn that over the past two years, Motley Fool co-founder and CEO Tom Gardner has sat down with dozens of the world's brightest investors and business minds on behalf of his Motley Fool ONE members -- we're talking true American legends like Whole Foods co-CEO John Mackey, Costco founder Jim Sinegal, and even Vanguard founder Jack Bogle.
On March 20, this "crown jewel" service will reopen to new members for only the third time ever. And to celebrate, Tom would like to offer you a front-row seat to watch these visionaries share the keen insights and unparalleled business acumen that got them to where they are in life.
Even if you aren't an investor, the business lessons you'll take from these conversations are priceless. So please click here to access our Motley Fool ONE member lobby and our entire collection of these interviews absolutely FREE of charge!
Audience member: Fantastic presentation. Thanks so much for being here; it's really enlightening.
Some people say that water is the new oil. I'd love to hear your thoughts on what Coca-Cola and you are doing to protect our water resources, and where you're going to get your water in the future.
Seth Goldman: It's actually a really fascinating thing to watch. First of all, you've got to decrease your water consumption. And I'll be honest, that plant we owned back in the day -- "I'll be honest" -- I guess I'm sorry for that!
That small plant that we owned, terrible water use. We would use basically three times as much water to make a bottle. Now the ratio people look for is 1.5 or less. There's been a lot of advances, and Coca-Cola and the big companies are much more sophisticated than we used to be.
But beyond that, what they're really doing that's interesting is they've developed these solar water filtration stations in the developing world. In Africa and in South America, a solar powered water system, of filtration.
You hear the stories about people having to walk miles to get to a water source. Being able to set up really in areas where a community can gather, and taking action there; that's an interesting step.
It's impressive technology. It was actually developed by Dean Kamen, the same person who did the Segway and the dialysis pump.
To me, when I think about Honest Tea, where is our biggest impact on water, it's around organic. The chemical pesticides and herbicides that are used to grow nonorganic ingredients, they don't go away. They get washed away, but they get washed into water. They get washed into food supplies. So, for me, organic is a really important part of addressing global water issues.
