Akvo commercial partners
The organisation: Earth Water was founded on a simple concept: ‘If you had the chance, would you change the world?’ Earth Water gives 100% of net profits to clean drinking water projects that help refugees around the world. Earth Water International has secured the cooperation and support of the United Nations Refugee Agency, which works in over 110 countries. It markets distinctive bottled water in Europe and North America that features the UNHCR logo, helping raise awareness and funds for water projects.
The partnership: Earth Water is using Akvo to make it clear to customers where the net profit from the bottled water they buy goes. It has partnered with Akvo to raise funds for water projects at sports tournaments and events. This includes the De Parade theatre and music festival, with specially-designed festival toilets showcasing and raising funds for Akvo water and sanitation projects.
The organisation: Foundation Helder (Clear) Water is a non-profit organisation selling bottled water in western countries. 100% of its net profit goes to support projects bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing countries. Transparency has been key to Foundation Helder (Clear) Water from the start. This was part of the reason it was established as a foundation. According to Foundation Helder (Clear) Water, the concept can only succeed if consumers can see where the money is going and that there are clearly no commercial interests for its managers.
The partnership: Helder Water funds projects in the Akvo marketplace. Customers can see progress as it happens.
The organisation: Founded by Emmy-winning producer Kevin Wall, in partnership with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, Live Earth is built upon the belief that entertainment has the power to transcend social and cultural barriers to move the world community to action. A for-profit company, Live Earth seeks to leverage the power of entertainment through integrated events, media, and the live experience to ignite a global movement aimed at solving the most critical environmental issues of our time.
The partnership: Live Earth and its partners will be using Akvo's project matchmaking and Really Simple Reporting (Akvo RSR) tools to support global engagement and fundraising during 2009 and 2010. Akvo is also helping Live Earth extend its partnerships across Europe and beyond as we work together to create an exciting new series of events in 2010.
The organisation: ProWeb is a UK-based provider of media advertising tools, internet connectivity and hosting services. Based in Nottingham, UK, it operate its own server hosting facilities, providing secure and reliable infrastructure and outstanding 'redundancy', to ensure client systems stay online and operating at maximum performance.
The partnership: ProWeb provides and maintains all of Akvo's server-side infrastructure free of charge. Akvo.org is hosted at the company's data centre in the Midlands, UK, where its team ensures the operational reliability of the Akvo system is very high. It manages database backups, ensures the system is secure, and provides automated tools and recovery procedures in critical failure situations.
The organisation: Voltea aims to help people and businesses access clean, potable water while reducing environmental impact. Its CapD-I systems are designed to provide desalinated water at lower economic and environmental costs. Initial investment came from Unilever Ventures. In 2009, leading US water company Pentair invested. Rabo Ventures led an additional financing round in 2010.
The partnership: In 2011 Voltea technology will be field tested in Bangladesh using Akvo as the project reporting and communication platform. This programme, focused on developing local business capacity, is being run in partnership with the Dutch Ecological Management Foundation (EMF), the Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM), the Proportion Foundation and Micro Water Facility.