January 23, 2024

The water cooler seems like such a timeless icon of American office culture. But, bottled water, particularly the large containers used for the classic water cooler, is a climate and environmental justice problem for a number of reasons: It extracts water resources from other communities, it contributes to plastics manufacturing derived from fossil fuels, and it contributes substantially to waste plastics pollution. Trucking water back and forth across the highway network, likewise, has a big carbon impact. And we're starting to learn of the health impacts of the nanoplastics that are commonly found in plastic-bottled water.

The Climate & Sustainability team notes that across Drexel's offices, purchasing is down by 58 percent for the five-gallon water bottles that power the water cooler, with a concurrent 28 percent reduction in invoicing for calendar years 2022 and 2023. That may in part reflect that more of us are working remotely for more of each week, not to mention increased consciousness around budgeting. But the team believes it also indicates a growing awareness among the campus community of bottled water's downsides.

Each Drexel campus building is equipped with clean, filtered water via hydration stations and water fountains, and Philadelphia's municipal water supply is of consistently high quality. The Climate & Sustainability team suggests keeping a reusable water bottle in your office to use throughout the day rather than relying on bottled water and disposable plastics.

You can find a map of campus hydration stations on the DrexelOne mobile app. To access the map, log in to the app, open the navigation menu on the left, select “Other Places” from the “FIND” menu, select the three-dot icon from the bottom-right corner, and make sure only “Hydration Station” and “University City” are selected.

For more information about sustainability initiatives on campus, visit the Climate & Sustainability website. Questions? Email sustainability@drexel.edu.