Plumbing Africa February 2018 | Page 29

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY 27 Skipping Rocks has received multiple awards for its efforts, taking home the 2014 Lexus Design Award; the 2014 World Technology Award (Environment) held in association with Fortune and Time Magazine; and the 2016 UK Energy Globe Award.  The reaction was “incredible,” he said, and YouTube was soon flooded with people making their own and sharing their variations on the recipe. “It was kind of just like a big global innovation lab, where people tried things, and we learned so much from this,” Paslier said. “We got in touch with a lot of companies, and that was kind of a good starting point for us because it showed us that people were really excited about this; they were really excited about having an alternative to plastic bottles, and a lot of people feel guilty about the amount of material that we use, so we felt that we had to take this a bit further than just sharing the beginning of a recipe online.”  Rather than create its own water brand, Paslier said Skipping Rocks hopes to provide the technology for different beverage companies that can use the material. Plans are also in the works for a mobile unit that can tap into a municipality’s water supply and produce Oohos on demand at large events. After initially being funded through grants and awards, Skipping Rocks earlier this year raised more than USD1-million from 1 000 investors in three days through Crowdcube. Team members have been working hard to get the word out about Ooho by handing them out at events in London and San Francisco. “It is something that can happen right now, and what is interesting is that we can provide something that has a really big impact,” he said. PA Skipping Rocks Lab is developing Ooho water balls that are assorted in size and in colour. February 2018 Volume 23 I Number 12