Columbia To Match In-Store Customer Donations To Support Clean Water On Earth Day

Columbia Sportswear, hasannounced a new donation program to drive support for Planet Water Foundation, a U.S. non-profit that brings clean water to some of the world’s most disadvantaged communities.

As a way to increase awareness and drive donations, Columbia is giving its customers a way to double their impact on Earth Day. Customers can visit any U.S. Columbia retail store on April 22 to make a donation to Planet Water Foundation at the register, and Columbia will match their contribution. After Earth Day, customers can continue to make donations at Columbia’s retail stores until May 31, 2019.

“Clean water is important for everyone,” said Abel Navarrete, Vice President of Corporate Responsibility for Columbia Sportswear Company. “But it’s particularly important in the communities where our suppliers live and thrive. To help provide a solution, we’re working with Planet Water Foundation and our factory partners to build water towers to provide clean drinking water to those communities in need.”

Each water tower can provide enough clean water for up to 1,000 people per day. Since Columbia’s work with Planet Water Foundation began, the company has funded 9 water towers across Vietnam, India and the Philippines. As the partnership continues, Columbia’s goal is to fund 25 water towers by 2022.

“According to the United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Health Organization, one in ten people across the globe do not have access to clean water. Each tower takes just one day for our employees and factory partners to erect, but the good they bring to the community lasts for years,” said Abel Navarrete.

To join Columbia in supporting Planet Water Foundation, find a Columbia store near you or visit columbia.com/planetwater to learn more.

Planet Water Foundation is a non-profit organization focused on bringing clean water to the world’s most impoverished communities through the installation of community-based water filtration systems and the deployment of hygiene education programs. Planet Water Foundation projects are focused on children, schools and rural/peri-urban communities across Asia and Latin America. Since 2009, Planet Water has deployed more than 1,000 projects that provide clean water access to more than one million people across 13 countries through strategic partnerships with organizations such as Xylem Inc., Coca-Cola, Columbia Sportswear, Starbucks, Watts Water Technologies and Capital One, among others.