When was the moment you decided to start Join the Pipe?
It was in 2005, when I was living in Barcelona and working in advertising. I was asked to create a campaign to help stop plastic soup by promoting drinking tap water in Barcelona. We developed a campaign which included cities installing public water taps for free drinking water, and we created a line of City Bottles to be sold filled with tap water- the first tap water brand to be sold in supermarkets. Join the Pipe City Water became the first tap water brand to be sold in every major city in the world.

Join the Pipe has a lot of popular city branded bottles. Why did you want Marlies to design a reusable bottle?
Major Spring water brands like EVIAN have bottles designed by Christian Lacroix, KENZO and Virgil Abloh. So why not have designer bottles for tap water, too? We thought it would be amazing to have the famous Dutch designer Marlies Dekkers work on one of our bottles and make a statement.

With the proceeds of the bottles, you continue to set up projects in developing countries. What has been your favorite project so far?
We’ve won several awards with our Water kiosk at school, which I’m very proud of. It works like this: often, girls in third world countries have to fetch water before or after they go to school. That means long walks and missing a lot of school hours. By opening a Water kiosk at their school, they can combine going to school and fetching water without any extra walking. Most of the time, the girls sell the water to create an income for their schools and as a way to lower tuition costs for children that come from low-income households. Very empowering!

You started with bottles and water taps, what is the next goal of Join the Pipe?
By now we have introduced the Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao Island bottles to create the first group of waste-free islands. We hope this will set an example for other islands to join us, to eventually create a world without plastic and with free drinking water for everyone.

Choosing tap water can have a huge impact on the environment; a small life adjustment with a big effect. What advice would you give to people who find it hard to live more sustainably?
Take small steps: take shorter showers, choose a vegetarian meal, and use your bike more, or even walk! The city or the beach is so beautiful when you are outside, it’s a win-win really.