Will Smith is known to be a philanthropist as he constantly donates to various charities. He is also very outspoken about causes he believes in like single-use plastic ruining the environment and speaking out about Black Lives Matter. Due to this, his fans have been wondering if he owns the environmentally-friendly water company, Just Water.
Will co-owns Just water with his son, Jaden Smith. When Jaden was young, he realized that the ocean was full of plastic and wanted to do something about it. So, Will helped Jaden start Just Water, an eco-friendly water bottle company.
Continue reading to find out more about Just Water and how the company is helping the environment.
Just Water’s Origins
When Jaden Smith was ten, he went surfing and saw plastic in the ocean. At school, he then learned about how much plastic is really in the ocean and went home to tell his parents they had to do something about it.
So two years later in 2015, Jaden and Will Smith started the company Just Water. When they first started the company though, they did not tell the public that they owned it.
Will says, “I wanted to wait until it gained momentum on its own merits before revealing the brand had celebrity backing.”
Though Will did help Jaden start the company, it is more of Jaden’s passionate project than his father’s. Will even said, “This was a company born out of a child’s love for the ocean.”
The company sells responsibly sourced water from upstate New York. It is packaged in a bottle that is made up of 82% renewable resources and is 100% recyclable as the Smiths recognized the harm single-use plastic is doing to our environment.
Not only is the packaging helping our environment, so is how the water is sourced. It comes from Glens Falls in New York where 3 billion gallons of water is produced from the snow and rain every year.
The city uses half of that water and then Just Water takes a fraction of what is left. They also pay 6 times more than the normal rate for the water to give the city a new source of income.
Just Water’s Other Work
Not only does Just Water source their water ethically and give back to the community they get it from, the company also seeks to give back to other communities.
The company has a mission: “We want to inspire people to do good and feel good through conscious choices that help the community and the planet”.
They follow that mission by doing things like helping the community in Flint, Michigan. Flint. Michigan has not had clean water in their city since 2014.
To help, the Smiths have sent water filtration systems called “The Water Box” that can clean up to 10 gallons of water per family. The filtration system filters out lead and additional contaminants.
Just Water has also been donating drinking water each month. The Governor of Michigan stated that they were not getting enough water donations to continue giving out free water, so Just Water stepped in and donated.
The company has also teamed up with a sustainable shoe company called Allbirds to create their own shoe line. One hundred percent of the proceeds go towards Leonardo DiCaprio’s Amazon Forest Fund.
Likely due to their mission, the company has been doing very well. Just Water has expanded into the United Kingdom and Australia.
Similarly, as of 2019, Just Water is valued at $100 million with no stop in sight. In 2018, they expanded their line to also include infused water.
The line is a collection of three, organic and unsweetened flavored water. The three flavors are organic apple cinnamon, organic tangerine, and organic lemon.
Will Smith and Jaden Smith’s company, Just Water, is not only successful in terms of profit but successful in helping the environment and their community.