Hold the bottled water -- eco-friendly turn on the tap

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One of the more popular stops at the University of Redlands food court in Redlands, Calif., these days is the dispenser for filtered tap water -- free for customers with a reusable cup or bottle.Those who forget their container can borrow one from the cafeteria, or buy a Nalgene sports bottle there for a discount.More than 30 U.S. cities, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, now prohibit spending public money on bottled water, as does the Berkeley, Calif. school district. And eco-minded groups have launched Internet-based campaigns dubbed Think Outside the Bottle and Tappening."It's important that there's an option that maybe steers more people away from the bottled water," said Brett Martin, who runs the college's food service program.His company, Bon Appetit Management Co., is among a growing number of restaurants, schools and cities promoting tap water over bottled, or eliminating it altogether, because of economic and environmental concerns.The Pacific Institute, an environmental group based in Oakland, Calif., estimates that producing bottled water for Americans used the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of oil and produced more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2006.Yet bottled water still sells, said Tom Lauria, vice president of the International Bottled Water Association, which sets quality standards for 280 bottlers. Consumers concerned about health and convenience drive the demand, he said.Americans consumed 8.8 billion gallons of bottled water last year -- 29 gallons per person, or the equivalent of about 185 20-ounce bottles -- more than double the amount from a decade before, according to the Beverage Marketing Corp.Bon Appetit's move is part of a campaign to lower the carbon footprint at the 400 private colleges and businesses it serves nationwide. That includes buying 25 percent less meat and cheese over the next year because those items are among the foods with the highest impact on climate change, company officials said."There are some problems with bottled water, but those problems are really exacerbated when you fly it halfway around the world to get it," Martin said.(E-mail Janet Zimmerman at jzimmerman(at)PE.com)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)