If you’ve ever worked in Corporate America, you’ve probably spent some time gathering around the water cooler trading the latest gossip or talking about last night’s television shows. While the water cooler is a busybody’s best friend, it’s original purpose was for replenishing the body. How else are we going to make sure we get in at least eight glasses of water a day?

With the rise in popularity of bottled water over the past two decades, marketers have done a great job convincing consumers that tap water is inferior in purity and taste. According to the World Wildlife Fund, "Bottled water may be no safer, or healthier, than tap water in many countries while selling for up to 1,000 times the price."

To satisfy employees aversion to tap water, employers have turned to water delivery services as a healthy alternative. From a cost standpoint, bottled water services for a 5 gallon jug are about $0.76 per gallon. However, tap water remains the most economical, coming in at less than a penny a gallon.

Unfortunately, in addition to the elevated cost, these services carry their own environmental burdens, including transportation of the containers to and from the water bottle provider, along with sanitizing and sterilizing the containers for reuse, as well as the production of packaging used for shipment of refilled containers, and finally, end-of-life management of containers and associated packaging components.

So what can a company do to provide drinking water that ensures healthy, pure water that is economical, and helps reduce its carbon footprint?

Installing a water filtration system is the most logical, economical, convenient and healthiest alternative to tap or bottled water. One such technology solution is Reverse Osmosis, which strains out virtually all particulate matter, turbidity, bacteria, microorganisms, asbestos - even single molecules of the heavier organics. Reverse Osmosis membranes remove dissolved impurities (e.g. mineral salts, toxic metals) - those even smaller than the water molecules themselves. Reverse Osmosis Systems maximize recovery and optimize water quality while minimizing capital and operating costs.