gobi

The Gobi: a new way to drink water

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Gobilab was created in June 2010 by Florence, Samuel and Xavier to launch Gobi, the alternative to disposable cups and bottles. Gobi is both a product innovation, the first reusable and customizable bottle specifically designed for the office and everyday life, and a community of users, www.begobi.com and a non-profit initiative to reference and multiply water points in the city, called Eaupen, www.eaupen.net. 

This is Gobilab's first project whose mission is to question other modes of consumption in order to propose more efficient alternatives from a societal and environmental point of view. 

To hydrate oneself, schematically, there is the glass at the table, the gourd in the mountains and the disposable cups and bottles for all other needs: office, cinema, train, ... and we all know it, the water bottle is the least ecological container in the world because of its large number but especially its composition.

These other needs are so numerous and growing that 2 billion cups are thrown away each year and about 7 kilograms of bottles per person per year, including 20% in small and medium formats. An economic windfall as important as the environmental nuisances generated...

What is the alternative to this waste? 

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Starting from the idea that the disposable is a 'yesterday's', obsolete solution, innovation had to emerge from the use and ecosystem of these users. The objective was to bring about a change in consumption patterns, a new way of drinking water. 

In order to contribute to the waste prevention policy, a priority of theAdeme in application of the Grenelle guidelines and European waste policy, it was necessary to fit in with the local prevention plans currently being drawn up by local authorities, to contribute to eco-neighbourhood and eco-city projects and, above all, to create a community of users and a network of partners that was as vast and varied as possible. Today, we must succeed in reducing impacts by inventing creative and community-based solutions before thinking about recycling or "biodegradable": change rather than correction.

The Gobi has been thought out from the point of view of usage and to address as many people as possible.

It is by being used every day that the Gobi will reduce waste and by being used by the greatest number that it will have a significant impact.

Gobi is more than just an eco-designed bottle. Thanks to a smarphone application, it allows you to locate the nearest water point: you insert your Gobicard into the fire hydrant and this triggers the filling process.

By observing the habits, those of colleagues, families and people around them to identify all the uses of disposable cups and bottles, the Gobi "s designers asked themselves if they had ever used water bottles, why, which ones, their feedback and expectations.

They worked with a sociologist who is an expert in consumer behaviour on the referents (the bottle, the carafe, the glass, etc.) in the world of water consumption and all the images and connotations attached to it. Cédric Ragot, the designer, and his team worked on the basis of uses and expectations in terms of form, hygiene and functionality. Their proposals were submitted to a group of 100 people who volunteered to act as guinea pigs and refine the directions.

The Gobi is the first reusable bottle suitable for the office, travel and everyday activities. This translates into the following features:

- it is transparent because it is important for users to see the water and make sure it is clean

- weighs less than 100 grams and measures 21 cm to fit easily in a bag or satchel while offering 40 cl which corresponds to the average consumption for a morning or an afternoon.

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- it has a simple, slightly wide neck because everyone "knows" to drink from a simple neck, it is easy to fill and clean.

- it has a patented personalization system that allows you to recognize your Gobi among hundreds of others at school or at the office (without altering the design) and to appropriate your Gobi

- it has a small drop-shaped handle that allows you to grab it, hold it or hang a strap on it.

Its design breaks with the codes of sport and hiking to fit well in an office and in urban environments.

The Gobi is a textbook case of eco-design.

Above all, it has been designed to last for years, to be reused, to be machine washed, without releasing any harmful components in the liquid it carries. And this is a real step forward in terms of public health compared to the disposable plastic water bottle.

A 4-month research and testing programme was necessary to identify environmental and health issues: work with the Mu cooperative society to evaluate upstream the environmental impacts associated with the Gobi's life cycle, which has made it possible to validate that it is indeed a high-performance solution on all indicators (resource depletion, emissions to air, water and soil) except on water use, since it must be washed rather than thrown away.

In order to guarantee hygiene while avoiding over-consumption of water, further work has been carried out on the maintenance recommendations with Water projectorA specialist in hygiene and the environment and analytical laboratories. Finally, preventive eco-design has made it possible to identify avenues for optimising packaging: it will be minimal for Internet purchases and "massified" for B2B deliveries. The Gobi is BPA-free and can be safely reused for several years.

The question of the material was paramount and led to large investments because the designers had two major requirements:

- health safety: BPA, phthalates, ... the most widespread plastics have recently raised concerns and have led to the abandonment of polycarbonate (BPA) and PET - and therefore rPET, the most common recycled plastic (due to questions about antimony, formaldehyde and endocrine disruptors) and the search for innovative alternatives.

- the lifespan: the longer a Gobi is used, the more waste is avoided. A solid material was therefore needed that would withstand daily use and repeated washing. The Gobi had to prove that plastic doesn't necessarily mean cheap!

The research program consisted in establishing a panel of materials that meet these 2 constraints and then basing the choice on the environmental analysis of the selected materials. This was another collaborative work with 3 types of experts: engineers from the R&D department of the European Plastics Industry ClusterA doctor of pharmacy specialising in the health safety of plastic materials and a test laboratory specialising in the health issues of water in relation to a container. The whole analyzed and coordinated by Mu and Proj&eau.

This research programme led to the abandonment of agro-sourced materials (i.e. those derived from plants) because none of them, to date, met both the resistance criteria and the requirements in environmental terms (plants that do not require a lot of water, non-GMO, leading to too much use of agricultural land, ...) but the development of agro-materials has been followed with great care to be validated for food contact and adapted to a reusable bottle. It seems indeed counter-productive to suggest that a material could be thrown into nature and biodegrade by itself...

But the most important thing with Gobi is not in the material that was used to build it, but in the new habits that he will try to put in place: drinking water from the tap, at the tap or elsewhere. A real change in mentalities, which is hard to get across, thanks in particular to all the misinformation work carried out by the major players in bottled water.

Gobilab pushes especially for public fountains to be more accessible to people. Today, apart from in offices, drinking water fountains are still too rare to be found in the city. Gobilab has set up a social networking principle on its website in order to campaign for the opening of these fountains in greater numbers. And here for once, Paris is the good pupil. Not only do Parisians regularly come across the world-famous Wallace fountains, but our capital city has just inaugurated the first public sparkling water fountain in France. It is called the Sparkling Fountain and it is located in the Reuilly garden, near the town hall of the 12th arrondissement of Paris. To drink without moderation, in a nice Gobi of course!

{Jacuzzi on}

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