ADA YIP
CEO, URBAN SPRING
Hong Kong residents buy more than 1.5 million bottles
of water a day. Ada Yip, CEO of the social enterprise
Urban Spring, is curbing that number with an innovative
business solution: the building of a chain of water refilling
stations across the city. “With the amount of water bottles
we consume in a day, we could fill up the IFC building
737 times,” says Ada, who used to work in finance. “We
wanted to change that.”
Part of the problem is the nature of Hong Kong, she
says. It is such a walkable city with so many convenience
stores that it’s easy for residents to buy water bottles
without thinking about the environmental consequences.
Urban Spring’s refilling station, called Well, isn’t
your typical office water dispenser with its plastic tank. It
connects directly to a water pipe through a filter nozzle,
and it collects data like customer usage and possible
filter problems and sends it back to Ada’s team. The Well
also shows customers how much plastic they’ve saved by
bringing their own bottles.
Urban Spring has established more than 200 Wells
in Hong Kong since it was founded in 2017, and Ada
estimates they have saved more than two million bottles
so far. A contributor to Urban Spring’s success is its use of
data to drive consumers to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle,
Ada says. “A single plastic water bottle requires 33 times
more energy to produce than using our product. Being
sustainable is more than just feeling good aboutsaving
the environment. We’re showing customers thatbeing
sustainable benefits them in their daily lives.”