Water, Water Everywhere at Minneapolis-St. Paul Int’l, and It’s Free

As sustainability manager for the Metropolitan Airports Commission, Emmy Waldhart spends a lot of time and effort thinking about decreasing waste, including how to help guests and airport staff fill their reusable water bottles at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP).

For instance, Waldhart knows that approximately 7 million water bottles were filled there last year through the use of 80 various water dispensing units installed over the course of several years. And while that tally is impressive, it’s logical to expect even more bottles will be filled at MSP in 2024, thanks to 10 eye-catching refill stations subbed in earlier this year through a new partnership with a locally founded company.

“Obviously with sustainability, it is all about reuse and recycle. So refill stations are a big priority for us in making sure that passengers are aware of them, have access to ‘em and have a positive experience with ‘em,” she says with spirit and pluck.

Sustainable Synergies

Anne Saxton, interim director of Concessions and Business Development for the Metropolitan Airports Commission, shares Waldhart’s enthusiasm for the topic. Saxton advanced the commercial side of the MSP’s environmental efforts by striking up a strategic partnership program with Pentair, a global business
with its main U.S. office in a nearby Minneapolis suburb.

The company creates products that help people move, improve and enjoy water—from pool pumps and residential water softeners to agricultural irrigation equipment and equipment for industrial water management. Its Everpure filtration products, for residential and commercial use, stood out to Saxton as a great product to showcase at MSP.

“Our overarching goal is to partner with hometown leaders and work with them to elevate our passenger experience and highlight our region as an exceptional place to live, work and visit,” Saxton explains.

Not only does Pentair fit that bill, its filtration system could help achieve the Metropolitan Airports Commission goal of diverting 75% of materials from the airport’s current waste stream by 2030. Given the volume of single-use plastic water bottles that ends up in recycle and trash bins, adding more water refilling stations was an attractive option.

“Bringing our companies together, we just saw that this was a perfect opportunity to motivate new behaviors around water consumption, conservation and waste,” Saxton summarizes.

Hope in a Bottle

While MSP saw the benefits of using Pentair’s Everpure technology, filtration systems are generally veiled behind dispensing units. The project team wanted a vehicle to highlight the company and the benefits of the carbon-filtered, UV-stabilized chilled water its equipment would deliver.

“Once we established that we had something here that both groups were interested in, we looked at what this partnership would really look like inside of MSP,” Saxton explains.

To bring its brand to life at the airport and achieve the goals of both organizations, Pentair suggested looping in HOPE Hydration, a company that is B Corp-certified for its positive social impact, that provides “modern water fountains.” Its standalone units combine water bottle filling stations with 55-inch screens that deliver marketing messages or paid advertising. The business model is offering free water for everyone, with zero plastic waste, sponsored by entities that want to communicate with consumers during the 12.8 or so seconds it takes them to refill their water bottles. HOPE Hydration has a high-profile unit in Times Square (with rotating ad sponsors) and places temporary stations at events such Coachella, Formula 1 races, the Wellington Equestrian Festival and various industry conferences. The recent installations at MSP are the company’s first at an airport.

Pentair fostered the relationship by facilitating several exploratory conversations with Saxton and Waldhart, who ultimately determined that HOPE’s eye-catching 80-by-48-inch HydroStations would be a good fit at MSP. Pentair also paid for the installation of 10 units in high-traffic locations throughout both terminals and committed to servicing them for three years. In return, it receives marketing exposure as the Official Water Sponsor of MSP.

“In addition to providing free, filtered water to passengers, the cutting-edge HydroStations provide an interactive experience for users with educational information about water-related issues and the positive impact they can make by bringing and filling a reusable water bottle while traveling,” says Adrian Chiu, executive vice president and president of Pentair Water Solutions.

The company worked with MSP to develop a marketing campaign that showcases the partnership and the airport’s overall sustainability efforts. In addition to running on HydroStation screens, materials appear on the MSP website, terminal directories, social media posts and electronic newsletters delivered during peak travel periods.

“With MSP ranking as the 19th busiest airport in North America and named the top airport in the United States in 2024 by Travel + Leisure, this partnership provides an amazing opportunity for us to showcase our mission to help the world sustainably move, improve and enjoy water, life’s most essential resource,” says Chiu. “One of the ways we aim to advance a more sustainable world is through innovative solutions that help our customers reduce their environmental impact, including reducing the need for single-use plastic water bottles.”

As the average weight of an empty 20-ounce polyethylene terephthalate bottle is about 24 grams, it is estimated that MSP’s water bottle refill network eliminates an estimated 600 pounds of waste from single-use water bottles every day.

“The goal of the strategic partnership is to enhance the passenger experience, provide solutions in response to a desire for sustainable practices, and drive innovation,” Chiu adds. “Through this partnership, we are making it easy for passengers to choose reusable options over single-use plastic by delivering free, chilled and filtered water while also providing an interactive experience that highlights how they are making a positive impact each time they fill their reusable
water bottle.”

The new stations dispense carbon-filtered, UV-stabilized chilled water.

Keeping Count

HOPE Hydration Founder and Chief Executive Officer Jorge Richardson notes that access to water at airports such as MSP is crucial.

“One of HOPE’s key target markets is travel, given that travelers can lose up to 1.5 liters of water on a three-hour flight,” shares Richardson. “Additionally, with many airports implementing plastic bans, sustainable solutions have become a priority.”

The technology behind the company’s bottle filling kiosks helps airports measure the results of their sustainability efforts and routine over-the-air updates help improve the overall passenger experience.

“The HydroStations provide real-time monitoring, which focuses on consistently providing a well-maintained unit dispensing high-quality water,” Richardson says. “The integrated Everpure filtration systems plus real-time monitoring capabilities ensure that filtered water is always accessible to MSP passengers for free, which many traditional airport water fountains do not effectively address.”

With the combination of increased passenger throughput and the implementation of the new HOPE HydroStations featuring better analytics, airport leaders are optimistic that many more people will fill water bottles at MSP this year than last.

“That is the hope with HOPE Hydration, no pun intended,” Waldhart concludes.