WhiteWater, a leading waterpark manufacturer, has partnered with an environmental charity, Swim Drink Fish, to help clean Canada’s waterways and encourage sustainability within the attractions sector.
The partnership forms part of WhiteWater’s company Sustainability Scorecard, a hands-on approach to environmental sustainability that participates in initiatives outside the tourism industry. Forming part of the company’s Social Responsibility aims, WhiteWater plans to donate 1% of corporate profits each year to a water-based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), and support its employees to take on social responsibility for everyday actions.
WhiteWater’s chief marketing officer Una deBoer says: “Swim Drink Fish is the right fit for WhiteWater because both our organisations are all about people enjoying and celebrating water. We wanted to find a charity that is local yet internationally involved.”
Program manager for Swim Drink Fish Sadie Caron adds: “WhiteWater’s sponsorship is directly cleaning up waterways through Swim Drink Fish’s Vancouver Plastic Cleanup. Swim Drink Fish is installing, maintaining, and overseeing multiple Seabin trash trapping devices in Vancouver to engage in a waste characterisation, plastic education, and advocacy project. This is made possible with the support from WhiteWater.”
Data is knowledge
WhiteWater is sponsoring an important seabin sustainability project which features a number of special floating rubbish containers attached to docks, skimming the water surface to capture floating rubbish.
Swim Drink Fish will remove and recycle the waste from the bins, sorting and characterising to understand the pollution source. Rivers and lakes can often be polluted with a range of different macroplastics, microplastics, or other materials – by providing data, this can inform governments and businesses, particularly the FMCG sector, on how to prevent wastage and littering.
There are currently 860 seabins working around the world. With four already operating in Vancouver, WhiteWater will work with the organisation to support the installation and maintenance of further Seabins in the area.
WhiteWater believes that the whole industry has a part to play in reducing pollution in natural environments, with deBoer saying the charity’s work “is tangible proof to say to water parks and theme parks, ‘avoid single-use plastics’.”
Cleaning up communities
Waste characterisation, combined with water monitoring and sampling, will generate valuable data that will create informed policy and infrastructure decisions, and measure the impact that Swim Drink Fish’s work has on the environment.
In addition to its charitable events throughout the year, WhiteWater has adopted a river trail adjacent to its corporate headquarters where employees regularly remove garbage from the water.
Swim Drink Fish provides a wide range of volunteer opportunities for individuals and organisations who want to assist with the ongoing cleanup, such as water sampling, waste characterisation, beach cleanups, and fundraising events.
A WhiteWater company representative concludes: “WhiteWater looks forward to supporting Swim Drink Fish with its continuing efforts to connect communities to clean water, as both organisations are passionate about people enjoying water safely.”
WhiteWater recently teamed up with Gateway Ticketing Systems to celebrate International Women’s Day with a special webinar exploring how organisations can break the bias of gender inequality.
