BWT is the new Global sponsor of the Salzburg Festival through 2025
BWT is the new Global sponsor of the Salzburg Festival: Helga Rabl-Stadler, President of the Salzburg Festival, and Andreas Weissenbacher, BWT’s founder, announced the signing of the contract at today’s press conference in Salzburg. The cooperation agreement has been signed for an initial five years, running through 2025.
“Sustainability is the order of the day. We are particularly pleased that the Festival has managed to find an additional Global sponsor in BWT – Best Water Technology – who will support us in striving towards this goal. The idea of banning single-use bottles from our lives shall conquer the world from Salzburg,” said Festival President Helga Rabl-Stadler.
“As long as we don’t have the choice of emigrating to another planet, we should take care of the one we have. Plastic waste, single-use bottles and their worldwide transport must be reduced drastically. Towards this end, we implement Plastic Bottle Free Zones. I am glad that this vision has now arrived in the cultural sector, as this partnership with the Salzburg Festival demonstrates, and that it will reach the world from this platform,” said Andreas Weissenbacher, founder of BWT.
On the occasion of World Water Day, which takes place on 22 March every year, Andreas Weissenbacher and Helga Rabl-Stadler discussed the future of the valuable resource of water during a press conversation. What are the most pressing future challenges with regard to water and water treatment; how can BWT contribute to sustainable development on our planet; how can plastic be avoided in the future, and how can water sources be made accessible for everyone in other countries?
About BWT
Change the world – sip by sip
BWT Best Water Technology – a Company with a Sustainable Mission
When Andreas Weissenbacher bought the water technology branch of the company Benckiser 31 years ago, in 1990, as part of a management buyout, he did so with a clear vision: to develop the company into the internationally leading water technology group. Benckiser Water Technology turned into BWT – Best Water Technology, and this acronym has described the mission to this day: to deliver best performance day by day, ensuring the greatest possible safety, hygiene, health and wellbeing in daily contact with water through economical and ecological water treatment technologies. Today the Best Water Technology group is Europe’s leading water technology company. Approximately 5,000 staff work to provide customers in private households, industry, manufacturing, hotels and municipalities with modern and sustainable treatment systems and services for potable water, pharmaceutical and process water, heating water, boiler, cooling and air-conditioning water as well as swimming pool water – delivering optimum quality for all areas, from source to seepage. BWT employees have always focused on new processes and materials, using the latest methods in research and development to develop ecological and economical products. One important aspect is the reduction of resource and energy use of its products, thereby also reducing CO2 emissions. This mission of saving our planet’s resources through sustainable products is more topical and current than ever, considering the challenges our society faces around the world today.
From Plastic Planet to Planet Blue – Change the World sip by sip
Earth’s population is growing rapidly – as early as 2050, more than 10 billion people will inhabit our planet. Demand for hygienic, clean drinking water will rise by 55 percent by that point, but even today, more than 800 million people lack access to clean, healthy and pure water. In parallel, the worldwide transport of goods and products will rise by 350 percent during the coming 30 years – meaning the volume of transport will be 4.5 times what it is today.
For instance, one million plastic bottles are manufactured every minute worldwide, which are then transported around the globe, creating unnecessary CO2 emissions as well as tons of plastic waste. We all live on a “plastic planet”. The flood of plastics increases continuously, and so-called microplastic can be found everywhere – in the air, in the soil, in our food, in water, and it has also been found inside our bodies. This is an enormous problem for humans and the planet: to counteract this problem is BWT’s mission and goal.
BWT Bottle Free Zones – Use local Water – avoid single-use plastic bottles
BWT’s declared goal is to provide water of perfect potable quality everywhere in the world. Innovative, patented BWT technologies make it possible to filter local water while also enriching it with valuable minerals and trace elements such as magnesium, zinc and silica. Thanks to BWT, tasteful, mineralized water is delivered directly from the tap, watercooler or tabletop water filter. This saves elaborate transportation, storage and disposal of water bottles. BWT focuses particularly on sustainability, social responsibility and the preservation of limited resources, ensuring that future generations can enjoy a beautiful, habitable world. The philosophy of the Bottle Free Zone brings us closer to this goal every day, sip by sip. However, a Bottle Free Zone does not mean it does not contain any bottles. Rather, the idea is to avoid single-use plastic bottles which cause vast quantities of waste. Inside a Bottle Free Zone, reusable bottles made of glass or synthetic materials or thermos bottles are used which are free of BPA and materials that are harmful to the environment. Whether at home, at the office, in the gastronomic and hospitality sector or in public buildings: inside a BWT Bottle Free Zone, locally treated, mineralized water is bottled in environment-friendly reusable bottles, having been enriched with valuable magnesium, zinc and silica.
Every sip helps another person drink
BWT has always considered it part of its mission to help people suffering existential need, supporting projects which are proven to contribute to sustainable development in regions affected by poverty. As part of the b.waterMISSION project, BWT will help build a total of 10,000 wells in the Gambia, Tanzania and environs over the coming 7 to 10 years, enabling locals to source clean drinking water. Thus, Bottle Free Zones not only stand for optimum-quality water, but they really change the world – sip by sip.