Case Name :      Good Water and Good Plastic?

Authors :           Stephen Bowden, Kate Kearins, Eva Collins, Helen Tregidga

Source :             North American Case Research Association (NACRA)

Case ID :            NA0142

Discipline :        Entrepreneurship

Case Length :    11 pages

Solution sample availability : YES

Plagiarism : NO (100% Original work)

In June 2010, New Zealand “ecopreneur” Grant Hall needed to make some hard decisions regarding the future of his company, Good Water. He had started the company with the vision of wanting to sell water in bottles made from local biomass, with the used bottle waste separated, recycled, and transformed into plant containers. These would biodegrade to support new plant-life and eventually local biomass for further production of water bottles. A number of key partners had come together in the wider Good Water Project to develop a revolutionary square, biodegradable, plant-based plastic PLA bottle. These included an environmental trust, the Sir Peter Blake Trust, to which Good Water donated a small percentage of the sales revenue from each bottle. The Good Water Company, selling water in these bottles, had started making a small profit. Grant believed a tenfold increase in PLA bottle sales volume would result in PLA making up the required level of 3-4% of plastic bottles recycled. That level would mean PLA was likely to be separated in the waste stream in New Zealand, and allow his vision to become a reality. Grant had convinced one competitor to adopt the PLA bottle, but overall, PLA volume was still way too low. Grant had also just been told that the Good Water Company’s own sales volume did not justify shelf preference at a major supermarket chain – and he knew the business was not well-capitalized to take on a further investment in the bottled water industry that was dominated by two big players. He had called a meeting of his staff to discuss with them how to reconcile his environmental vision with a viable business model.