The Guardian has launched a scathing attack on the BBC after it was revealed that £406,000 was spent on providing their premises with bottled water. The article, although very harsh on the BBC, does raise some interesting points about what larger corporations should be doing in relation to their water coolers.
It’s very easy these days to jump on the bandwagon of blasting every single business (particularly those that are publically funded) for spending unneccesarily. It does seem that the poor old Beeb has taken a battering in the press during the past few months, sometimes for perfectly valid reasons, but calling for one of the most popular websites to be shut down seems a tad silly…
Here at the Water Cooler Company we like to take a bit of a calmer attitude to the whole fiasco, yes it is does seem like a huge figure tobe spending on water that is no better than the stuff that comes out of our taps, but some of the comments on the article are a slightly over the top.
What is often the case is that a company doesn’t realise how simple it is to switch to a plumbed in water cooler system, people think it take a long time to have all their coolers replaced and have new ones installed. If the BBC were to switch to mainly plumbed in water coolers they could save money and help the environment (as well as get the Guardian/Telegraph/Daily Mail/Sun/Tories/etc off their back).
Alongside the comments against the BBC spending, there were also alot attacking the Guardian for what some described as ‘lazy journalism’. Saying it’s far too easy to call for a Freedom of Information Act and then writing a short sensationalized article with a big number in the headline. Now the cost per employee for the water that the BBC is receiving is actually a fairly normal rate for bottled water coolers, so the numbers aren’t too staggering. But the Guardian do have a very good point saying that the environmental impact is a lot larger than having plumbed in water coolers.
Even if you do not fully trust what comes out of yout tap, a plumbed in water cooler filters all the water, making sure it is very clean and completely safe to drink. We’ve also read that the BBC are in fact starting to roll out plumbed in water coolers across the offices where they are able to be installed.
If you have any questions about plumbed in water coolers, or any other queries please email us at [email protected] or call on 0845 500 4455.
