It’s hard when you’re producing a charity supporting product such as Thirsty Planet and really committed to making a real difference to be faced with those who just want to buy ethical to ‘wear the badge’ and to be ‘seen to be doing the right thing’.

There are many excellent charity-supporting brands on the market, giving customers their biggest choice ever. Some are clear about what they do to help make a measured difference, whilst others are not.

It must be a difficult decision for consumers and it’s no wonder especially in this economic climate that many consumers have become ‘charity cynics’.

The Zenith Report 2011 reporting on the UK Bottled Water market, raised the importance ‘that the correct message is delivered to the customer’ with respect to ethical waters, ensuring total transparency to allow consumers to make an informed choice.

It would be great if the message could be standardised to allow comparison across brands, to differentiate between those ‘ethical’ brands that are happy to appeal to the ethical market, have some charitable associations but don’t actually achieve very much, to those brands that donate significant amounts and are making a real impact.

Consumers deserve to know the facts, we all want to help and do something good, but we need to have confidence in the funding mechanism and level of donation.

The most frustrating situation however is when people do have enough understanding to make an informed choice and actually do consider the facts, but still don’t care enough.

They are happy to be seen to be buying an ‘ethical product’ but don’t really care about ‘why.’

Be sure that Thirsty Planet is committed to a guaranteed donation, paid direct to Pump Aid with every bottle and pack sold and that your donation gets to the heart of the issue and to the people who need our help most.