by Alicia MacLeay
Look around Outdoor Retailer and you'll see company after company hawking water bottles. But amid the racks of stainless steel and BPA-free plastics, here's one that stood out from the crowd for me.
Sovereign Earth displayed its 27oz Filtration Bottle and Guardian filtration unit at OR's Open Air Demo.
Sovereign Earth started out making water filtration products for use in developing countries. Now its "portable water filtration" is available to all consumers, sales of which help support the company's efforts overseas.
This year Sovereign Earth launched its Guardian Advanced Water Filtration System in a stainless steel bottle. The Guardian is designed to provide clean, filtered drinking water from any running fresh water source.
Fill the bottle from a lake, river, or foreign municipal tap, and the filtration removes 99.9999% of water-borne pathogens, including virus, bacteria, and protozoa (like giardia and cryptosporidium). It will produce more than 100 gallons of filtered water.
Sovereign Earth is a founder of the World Water Relief Project, which brings clean water to the developing world. Did you know water related diseases are responsible for nearly 80 percent of all illness and death in the developing world? And that more than 4,000 children die every day from poor sanitation and water contamination? Sovereign Earth raises funds for long-term, sustainable clean water wells and the distribution of water filtration technology in emergency relief situations (such as in Haiti and Chile after the earthquakes).
Video: Sovereign Earth's Guardian Bottle Filter
Scott Moore of Sovereign Earth demonstrated the company's Guardian in-bottle water filter at Outdoor Retailer's Open Air Demo earlier this week.
