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Duncan Goose's ethical career really took hold when, as an advertising and marketing executive, he decided to go on a six-month sabbatical and motorbiking trip, selling up his home and possessions to do so. Six months turned into two years, and a hurricane and several life-changing experiences later, he returned to the UK a changed man.
Though it was less well-known then, he moved into corporate social responsibility (CSR) but with a longer-term vision, to found a company, sell bottled water for good causes and use the profits on projects to bring clean water to the one billion people worldwide who lived without access to it.
Since his vision preceded the CSR statements so many organisations make now, the private equity funders Duncan originally approached still wanted significant financial returns, while charities wouldn't get on board with a business model that handed over profits. Undeterred by their doubts, Duncan remortgaged his flat and with a goodwill army of 78 people he ploughed all he had into making one small change, one new standpipe, one day at a time. Global Ethics became a company and One Water was born.
A breakthrough came when retailer the Coop got on board with Duncan's vision, and World Duty Free and Starbucks. Since then, One has grown and at the time of the podcast (April 2024), Duncan was celebrating having raised more than £30million to improve living conditions for over 5 million people through One's clean water programmes.
In this episode of ProGRESS Duncan explains:
He also discusses:
One Water
B Corporations
The Co-op water security programmes
World Duty Free
One Water and Starbucks
Polytag packaging tracing technology
Jupiter's Travels by Ted Simon
Season 1 Episode 4: Sarah Kessell, CEO of The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales, who also had a careers lightbulb moment when reading a book.
Season 1 Episode 9: Sanjukta Jitendhar, architect at Mikhail Riches
Season 1 Episode 11: Sarah Ashworth, researcher developer at University of Manchester, whose early career included testing water quality
