Duncan Goose

In 2004, Duncan Goose decided to quit his job and set up the not-for profit organisation ‘Global Ethics Limited’ with the aim to raise funds for projects in developing countries.

Global Ethics went on to launch ‘One’ water in 2005. One is a new brand of ethical bottled water whose profits all go to providing water solutions in Africa. One water is based on the premise of ‘water for water’; when UK consumers drink One water, Africa gets to drink too.

One Water began in a completely innocuous way when Duncan, between 1998 and 2000, fulfilled a life-long ambition of riding a motorbike around the world. During this time, Duncan witnessed first hand the devastation caused in Honduras by Hurricane Mitch which led him to set up a fund-raising programme resulting in the re-building of 13 villages. This experience radically changed his view of the world and he realised just how a little bit of support can drastically improve peoples lives forever.

Consequently, Duncan quit his job as a business development director and board director of WPP plc, and founded Global Ethics, launching the not-for-profit water brand, One water.

1.1 billion people in the world have no access to clean drinking water and 2 million people die each year from diseases related to unsafe water. The worst affected are the 1.8 million children who die from diarrhoea and those who lose 443 million school days to water-related illnesses…all this could be prevented with access to clean water.

100% net profits of One water go to installing water systems in Southern Africa. In the first year of trading, One donated £70,000, this year it will be over £200,000 – the aim is to donate £2.5 million a year directly through One water sales.

This money goes to funding roundabout powered PlayPumps, a unique water pumping system in which children play on a roundabout that pumps fresh, clean water from deep underground into storage tanks for use by the whole community.

Since One was launched at Live8 in 2005, it has helped install 899 roundabout pumps in South Africa, Mozambique, Swaziland and Zambia – enough to supply 1.2 million people with clean drinking water from a sustainable source. This has changed the lives for many African children who now have the opportunity to go to school rather than spending their time collecting water and has had a significant impact on reducing the prevalence of illness and death from contaminated water.

One water was the official brand of water for both Live8 and Make Poverty History and continues to change the way in which people consider buying water in the same way that Fair-trade has changed buyer behaviour for many different frequently purchased consumer goods. Duncan’s next mission for Global Ethics is to develop other like-for-like initiatives such as selling condoms in the UK to fund HIV prevention work in Africa.

“I believe his work at Global ethics and the amazing charitable donations he and his colleagues have achieved through the development of the ‘One’ water brand are nothing short of spectacular.”

Kevin Thompson, Director, Brandsmith

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