I published a post a while ago about a manufacturer of paint who was supplying additive free paints, but also supplying them in dry powder form so you mix them with water on-site. This really captured my imagination because it ticked so many boxes – little water used in the manufacture, not spending resources transporting lots of bulky, heavy water in the paint, using less fuel and less pollution – the list goes on.
That started me thinking how much other stuff do we consume that is for the large part water, and if we could use dry ingredients and mix them ourselves would that not be infinitely more sensible? Continuing on the DIY theme, I was in my local B&Q and spotted many ‘ready mixed’ products that were just exploiting our pursuit of convenience – ready-mixed filler (what’s wrong with powder filler), even ready mixed plaster.
Many drinks are over 90% water: I cycle a lot and use isotonic and hi-carb drinks most of which are available in powder form, yet shelves are full of ready mixed sports drinks – mainly water.
There would seem to be a big product development opportunity here. Not only could we make a contribution in not shipping vast quantities of water around, but transport costs could be cut dramatically.
Water will become an increasingly valuable commodity: already water companies are planning for the future and looking to sophisticated demand management schemes.
Let’s start thinking dry technologies… I’ll drink to that!
The sustainable marketing blog 