Take Back the Tap at Colby-Sawyer College
Colby-Sawyer Administration
Water is one of our most important resources. It should be safe, clean, and affordable for everyone. Simply put, tap water is a better choice than bottled—for our health, our environment, and our wallets.
As members of the Colby-Sawyer community, we ask that you join us in taking back the tap by:
1. No longer buying bottled water for personal use and reducing the use of bottled water during campus events,
2. Supporting the investment of water filling stations in every Residence Hall, and
3. Supporting policies that promote and maintain public water systems and accessibility of water on campus and in our country.
Sponsored by
To:
Colby-Sawyer Administration
From:
[Your Name]
Bottled water is unnecessary, less regulated than tap water, bad for the environment, and expensive. Therefore, we respectfully request that bottled water be phased off our campus and no longer provided or used at campus events. As an alternative we ask for free, clean, drinkable water, via water filling stations in residence halls and administrative buildings.
The changes outlined in this petition are in alignment with Colby-Sawyer’s own Strategic Themes. It is through Engaged Learning that we foster close relationships between students, faculty, and staff—and encourage students to take responsibility for their own education. As a community we are united in our desire to eliminate bottled water, and this student-driven petition is an example of us all being the change we want to see in the world.
The college has earned a strong reputation for its programs and practices related to Living Sustainably. And, eliminating bottled water use on campus would allow us to continue to walk our talk by reducing waste, improving health and well-being, and decreasing unnecessary spending. We know that bottled water creates issues around the globe, contributing to negative politics of water ownership and distribution—and when we start Linking to the World we commit ourselves to making positive contributions to those global problems.
Through a Dynamic Devotion to Excellence, we hope to express our capacity for adaptation and innovation, and to become a model for other campuses to follow. Colby-Sawyer expresses its Dynamic Devotion to Excellence by joining other forward-thinking colleges and municipalities who are seeking alternatives to bottled water, demonstrating its capacity for adaptation and innovation, and becoming a model for others to follow.
We, as the signers of this petition, ask for a campus that is engaged, sustainable, responsible, and innovative—and therefore free of bottled water.