Not-for-profit firm One water hopes to sell enough bottled water this year to fund 300 pump projects, writes Caroline Madden

'ON DAY one we had Brad Pitt standing on stage waving one of our bottles at the audience," recalls Duncan Goose, founder of ethical water brand One. "So it was kind of a baptism of fire."

One water was launched into the intensely competitive UK bottled water market at the Live 8 concert in July 2005, at which stage Goose's philosophy was that, if the company generated enough money to change just one person's life, it would be a worthwhile venture.

Less than three years on and One water is producing 1.4 million bottles a month and is now expanding into the Irish market.

From this week, bottles will be hitting the shelves in Tesco and various other outlets around the country, coinciding nicely with World Water Day, which takes place tomorrow.

As in the UK, all net profits from the sale of One water will go towards installing water systems in southern Africa. In the year to the end of January 2007, the company's turnover hit £1.8 million (€2.29 million) and a total of £500,000 was donated, funding 101 water pump projects.

This year the company has set an ambitious target to push sales up to £4 million, donate £2 million and fund more than 300 pump sites across South Africa, Lesotho, Zambia, Swaziland and Mozambique.

The water systems installed by One are known as PlayPumps - children's roundabouts installed over sustainable boreholes in rural African schools. When children play on the roundabout, it generates energy and pumps water into a storage tank.

The eventual goal is to fund one pump a day. "At the start of last year we were doing one every 11 days," says Goose. "And then we got down to one in seven days, and we're down to about one every four days now."

This means that the expansion into the Irish market could give the extra boost needed to achieve the goal of one pump a day.

But how does Goose expect existing players in the Irish market to react to this ethical interloper? He anticipates a similar reaction to that experienced in the UK. One water has become quite successful "in a small way" there, he says, with the result that a lot of big competitors have either tried to push it out of the market or get a piece of the ethical action by creating a copycat version.

"We're a not-for-profit business so all the money we make goes to these projects, whereas what's happened with a lot of people is that they've jumped on this bandwagon and they've seen that consumers like it," he says. But as these large companies retain most of their profits, Goose feels they are actually "profiteering" on the back of this ethical movement.

Goose hopes to see Irish competitors such as Ballygowan going down the route of pledging to donate a certain proportion of their sales to One (as some UK competitors have done), rather than trying to squeeze it out.

As well as partnering with Tesco, One water will be distributed in Ireland by Pallas Foods. Goose also hopes to persuade Ryanair and Aer Lingus to stock the water on their flights.

In addition, he hopes Irish students will follow the example of their UK counterparts, who campaigned successfully to have One water brought in as the official water in many universities.

"A lot of what we do in Africa is about getting kids into school. By providing water to communities, it means that women and children aren't walking five hours a day to go and collect water, and kids go to school and get education," says Goose. Because of this, he feels that there is a nice symmetry in having One water stocked in universities.

Will it really make a difference if Irish consumers switch to One water? Estimates suggest that if every person in Ireland bought one bottle of One water a week, 2,739 water pumps could be funded each year, changing the lives of more than 3.8 million people a year in Africa.

"There are a billion people in the world who don't have access to clean water, so it'll never be solved in my lifetime or your lifetime or our children's lifetime, but the thing is that every project makes a difference to people," says Goose.