iF SOCIAL IMPACT PRIZE Winner Success Story: MyMizu is Japan's first Free Water Refill App
The social project MyMizu from Japan is fulfilling the dream of reducing plastic consumption through iF support.
MyMizu won the iF SOCIAL IMPACT PRIZE 2019 for their free water refill app. Co-owner Robin Lewis said: “We are truly honored and extremely grateful for this recognition. This prize will help us go a long way in achieving our goal.”
The Mission
The mission of MyMizu is to reduce consumption of plastic bottles. In order to do so, a smartphone app connects people with more than 8,000 free refill stations (water fountains & partner cafes/restaurants/shops) across Japan and 200,000 globally.
In fact, the project was set to start during the olympic games, which had to be cancelled due to Corona. However, this didn't stop the team of MyMizu at all. We talked to co-owner Robin Lewis and Mariko McTier about what happened since winning the prize money – and there are some good news!
"In January 2020, we launched the 'Refill Tracker' function that helps people to track their CO2 emissions, plastic reductions and how much water has been drunk“, Robin says. Through this tracker function, Robin and his team has tracked the reduction of over 15,000 single-use plastic bottles and over 5,000 kilograms of CO2 emissions, and have helped people drink more than 7,500 liters of water via the refill locations.
MORE INFORMATIONS
Free refill stations
The MyMizu App
Worldwide
Refill Tracker
Free refill stations
The MyMizu App
Worldwide
Refill Tracker
„We have grown our network of crowdsourced water refill spots to 200,000 locations across over 100 countries, building a truly global ecosystem for hydration without the plastic. This includes 500 'refill partner' shops (cafes, restaurants, hotels that have registered to give out free water), including refill partners in countries including Japan, Venezuela, Kenya and Singapore!“
There are also MyMizu workshops and seminars on plastic reduction and sustainable living and a campaign with IKEA World Environment Day 2020. "We have also launched our Ambassador Program. So far, we have announced two world-famous athletes and influencers as mymizu Ambassadors. Together with them, we raise awareness of the oceans and plastics crisis“, Robin reports proudly.
We at iF are also proud and happy about these great outcomes and developments and wish the team of MyMizu all the best for their future projects!
iF SOCIAL IMPACT PRIZE aims to publish and support projects that contribute to our society. In 2019, MyMizu belonged to 12 winners in total that were financially supported by iF.
