Save our planet – Our Water, Our Future – No to Nestlé

Dear Readers,

If you’ve been following The Story of Stuff Project this last year, you probably know that it’s high time Nestlé changes how it does business. All around the world, Nestlé has been a leader in the effort to privatize our public water, and sell it back to us in little plastic bottles. But more brave communities are starting to fight back. One group in Cascade Locks, Oregon is doing something truly historic, and we need your help to spread their story.

The more people who learn about this campaign against Nestlé, the harder it will be to ignore. Nestlé puts millions of dollars each year into advertising, trying to convince people around the world that bottled water is good for people and our planet. Upon discovering that The Story of Stuff Project planned to release a new film about Cascade Locks, Nestlé even tried to preempt us by releasing a misleading video of their own. But we know the truth: a sustainable society and a healthy planet requires protecting water as a public right, NOT as a source for corporate profits!

We may not have Nestlé’s financial resources, but our community of a million supporters worldwide is a force to be reckoned with. With your help, we can spread this story even farther than Nestlé’s advertising dollars.

Will you help us share this story with your friends and neighbors?

https://www.facebook.com/storyofstuff/videos/10154741725385884/

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We’ve already gotten Nestlé’s attention; now we need to keep up the pressure. Nestlé thinks it can continue expanding its water bottling operations indefinitely, until public springs run dry and our oceans fill with plastic. We need to let Nestlé and communities know that a better alternative exists.

We’re standing with the people in Cascade Locks as they defend their community against the influence of Nestlé and other bottling corporations. Our demands are simple: we want clean public water for everyone, and we want Nestlé to stop bottling in communities like this one, where citizens are protesting the privatization of their resources. This Story belongs to everyone, and you can help write the ending. By sharing our new video, you can help us increase public pressure on Nestlé AND connect with more communities making a difference.

When enough people act together, we can change the way corporations do business – for the better. To challenge global giant Nestlé, we need your help growing this movement, from coast to coast and country to country.

Will you help spread the word by sharing the story of these brave changemakers’ campaign to defend their public water from Nestlé on Facebook?

Thank you for all you do!
Emma Cape, on behalf of The Story of Stuff team

Save our planet – Ho ho ho, Nestlé’s got to go!

Here is another post from the people at “The story of stuff”. They are doing a great job and I want to share this with all of you.

Please have a read then take action!

 

This is an exciting time for The Story of Stuff Project. Last year, after nearly half a million people worldwide signed our petition calling on Nestlé to stop privatizing public water, we knew it was time to turn this Community’s passion into action. Since then we’ve seen these efforts pay off in a big way.

Thanks to support from Story of Stuff Community members like you, we made a film and filed a lawsuit to stop Nestlé from illegally pumping water from California’s drought-scarred San Bernardino National Forest. In doing so we grabbed worldwide news headlines and the attention of Nestlé Waters’ CEO Tim Brown, who reached out to our Campaigns Director to request a meeting.

In the weeks after we launched our campaign in San Bernardino, we heard from communities across North America that are fighting their own battles against Nestle’s water privatization agenda. From California, Oregon, Maine and Pennsylvania to British Colombia and Ontario, one thing has become crystal clear: these brave folks on the front lines of efforts to protect our public water need our support to hold Nestlé accountable.

Will you help us make a movie about the communities worldwide fighting Nestlé, so that their stories go viral until Nestle cleans up its act?

By talking to concerned citizens all over the world, we’ve learned a lot about how Nestlé operates. The company has interfered with local politics, aggressively tried to elect Nestlé friendly officials to change zoning laws, and even attempted to bribe townships with “community development funds” and donations of…yup, bottled water!

But while the communities fighting Nestlé on the ground are all too familiar with these tactics, there is a world full of Nestlé consumers who are unaware they’re supporting these bad practices. By telling this story, we can bring unprecedented visibility to these local struggles, and harness the power of public opinion — and our Community — to curb Nestlé’s unethical business practices.

We’ve already been in touch with two communities whose stories we think are worth telling:

Story 1: In Cascade Locks, Oregon, Nestlé has proposed to bottle over 100 million gallons of water per year from Oxbow Springs, a publicly owned water source in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. Local activists and tribespeople have united together to defend this water, on which the region’s fishing, tourism and farming industries rely. These activists not only want to stop Nestlé from drawing water in the Columbia River Basin for bottling and sale, but to pass a law to stop all future water exports from their beautiful state, creating an example for people worldwide.

Story 2: In Kunkletown, Pennsylvania, dozens of local residents are fighting Nestlé’s attempt to draw hundreds of thousands of gallons of water daily from a well in the town for its Deer Park bottled water brand, a proposal they fear will permanently alter the quality of life. According to these residents, zoning laws have been changed to accommodate Nestlé without the proper degree of public oversight or comment. These residents want to defend their democracy against Nestlé’s interference, and we want to help.

Community members are excited to work with us on this project: “I’m thrilled that The Story of Stuff Project wants to make a film about our experience in Oregon,” says Aurora with the Local Water Alliance in Oregon, “The increased exposure from the film can help us win against Nestlé, and I hope that we can in turn show communities around the world how they can defend their local resources.”

Will you chip in to help give larger visibility to the communities fighting Nestlé, so that our movies result in real change in these communities and worldwide?

Thanks to the support of our Community members, we’ve accomplished great things this year. We’ve made two new movies that have inspired Changemakers to action. We’ve banned polluting plastic microbeads in California, and our national legislation is on the way to winning. We’ve also made real strides in holding Nestlé accountable for bottling water in National Forests during California’s drought, by launching a lawsuit with our partners from Courage Campaign and the Center for Biological Diversity.

Now with your help, we can make the holidays in the communities fighting Nestlé a little brighter by showing them that people around the world care about their story. With our support they can win in the fight to protect their public water against Nestlé, and inspire more people to get involved worldwide.

Whether it’s protecting watersheds in the drought stricken North American West, or working to protect small towns from corporate meddling, we’re building power and solidarity so that all communities fighting Nestlé’s water grab speak with one voice against corporate greed. By telling these important stories, we can create a movement like no other.

Are you in?

Yes, I’ll pledge $10

Yes, I’ll pledge $25

Yes, I’ll pledge $50

Yes, I’ll pledge $100

Yes, I will pledge another amount

Thank you for all you do!
Michael O’Heaney
Executive Director
The Story of Stuff Project