#mindthetap

MindTheTap: Fast Growing Social Enterprise on a mission to keep Londoners beat the heat on the Tube.

This summer, to combat the dangers of heat on the Underground, and reduce the 750 annual faintings, GiveMeTap has launched its own London hydration campaign called MindTheTap. Building on the TFL’s recent ‘Beat the Heat’ programme, GiveMeTap are creating a network of cafes and restaurants around major tube stations, where commuters and travellers can get free refills of tap water, on the go, with their stainless steel GiveMeTap bottle.

Faintings often occur due to lack of water facilities near the underground leaving commuters with the burden of splashing out on expensive bottled water or going without. Having access to free flowing tap water is a sure-fire way to help Londoners beat the heat and keep the underground running smoothly. 

When moving to London after University, GiveMeTap’s founder, Edwin Broni-Mensah, experienced first hand the difficulties with water accessibility on the underground and felt that something needed to be done to tackle dehydration. 

Edwin says “London is in the middle of a much-anticipated heatwave and we think it’s time people on the underground had better access to water, in a more sustainable way. At the same time, we're helping thousands of people across Africa get access to clean drinking water.”

 As the Mayor of London tackles the issue of ventilation on trains, GiveMeTap aims to improve the possibilities for the public to make their own difference through a simple purchase. Water refill points, which GiveMeTap call ‘Taps’, can be found outside each of the stations, including the busy Victoria Line. Already, they’ve partnered with 150 taps across Central London who will happily refill GiveMeTap water bottles for free.

Over the coming weeks, GiveMeTap will be visible along the escalator panels in the hottest stations and the company states that it aims to have refills point within 400 meters from each Zone 1 station.  Finding your nearest Tap can be done with a few finger taps using their new App available on iOS & Android.

As a social enterprise, GiveMeTap’s social agenda does not stop at tackling heat exhaustion in the UK. For every GiveMeTap bottle purchased, GiveMeTap can provide clean water to a person in Africa. To date, GiveMeTap has completed 8 water projects in across the continent, providing over 4000 people with clean drinking water. Thousands of Londoner’s have already helped save lives by joining the movement including large corporates such as Deloitte, HSBC & Pizza Hut.

Tube journeys can be boring, so GiveMeTap are determined to add a bit of spice to the daily grind...

Last time, we brought you some afrobeats from Edwin's list. In this week's edition, I'm going to share with you a handful of my favourite tracks to listen to on the tube. Since I travel a lot, whether it be plane or train, I listen to a huge variety of music, so hopefully there will be something here for everybody!

You can access the playlist below via Spotify or youtube playlist.

You can find out which Taps are nearest to your local tube station HERE. 

HEY THERE TAPPERS, Since GiveMeTap's launch we've only had our shiny blue bottles available and this was a great way for our bottles to remain easily recognisable on the streets and in stores. But we realised that our bottle was feeling a bit blue... and a bit lonely... it wanted a friend!

The time has now finally come, for GiveMeTap bottles to move past their blue colour origins. 

To celebrate us launching our #MindTheTap campaign and already signing up 42 new cafes, we created our super hot, Metropolitan Line-inpsired and (extremely) limited edition bottle: The Hot Pink GiveMeTap bottle! There are just 20 available of these so we wanted to share this opportunity to purchase this new bottle with our faithful GiveMeTappers first. You can get your bottle for just £12 at http://www.givemetap.co.uk/hot-pink

Travel in style and show off your bottle with pride. Let the world know that you're committed to being more sustainable by drinking tap water and you look good at the same time.

Remember, every bottle you purchase from us, provides one person in Africa with access to clean drinking water. Help us hydrate the world!

Water for You, Water for Everyone.

Mucho Amor,

Sanum x

BOOM!

We're all systems go at GiveMeTap. Our MindTheTap campaign has reached another important milestone of THREE COMPLETED LINES! The Metropolitan Line is one of the busiest inner-city commuter routes in London. We've tapped it up so that you can top up on the way to that meeting, appointment or big event!

Download your updated FREE Drinking Water Map, suggest a tap near you and get 10% of your bottle for a limited time only!

Hi, I’m Jess and I work in Canary Wharf! I recently got my GiveMeTap water bottle as I’ve been appalled by the amount of plastic waste I’ve been seeing this Summer. All the parks and bins are over flowing and so I thought it was time to switch to tap.

This bottle is perfect to take to work. I always struggle to find things in my bag when on a packed tube, but the GiveMeTap bottle attaches to my bag and saves the hassle. It is a lifesaver as the tube is so stuffy during rush hour!

Sometimes, I end up working until quite late and have to get dinner on the way to the station. Organic Chickpea is a food stall on the way to the station and is part of GiveMeTap's free water scheme. This means I can grab some dinner and refill my bottle for the long commute back to West London.

Cheers, GiveMeTap! Jess xx ------------------------------------------

You can get your bottle at a 10% discount on our MINDTHETAP WEBSITE and see what taps are near you by using the FREE WATER MAP.

Meet FlatPlanet - our first Tap of the Week. Situated on Great Marlborough Street, it is the perfect tap to refill when travelling to or from Oxford Circus station. We met with Karen for a little chinwag.

Sanum: Hey Karen, thanks for meeting with us today and for agreeing to let the BBC film here! FlatPlanet have been great supporters of GiveMeTap and you signed up yourself so it would be great to know how you found out about us!

 Karen: Well it all started on twitter when we started following each other. We found out about what GiveMeTap do and I guess it was because we loved what you were doing that we signed up.

 Sanum: That’s great! What was it about GMT that encouraged you to sign up?

 Karen: We do all sorts of projects that promote water and we like that the donations from your bottles go to water projects in Africa. At FlatPlanet, we believe that good businesses can do good things and so we are happy to get involved with great projects like GiveMeTap. We have so many water jugs upstairs so joining GiveMeTap doesn’t even affect our daily routine – one thing we’ll never do is let customers go without water.

Sanum: That’s very important! So how is your time on our scheme going?

Karen: Well we’re quite new to the scheme so far and we know that you guys are up and coming. When GiveMeTap get bigger in London, I’m sure we’ll start seeing the benefits. We’ve had a few people come in and post on social media so that’s a brilliant start.

Sanum: Well we just put our sticker in your door so now we’ll start seeing more footfall!

Karen: Definitely, the sticker will make a difference. The bottles are great and we are happy to stock them at FlatPlanet aswell.

Sanum: Thanks Karen! We can’t wait to touch base with you soon. In the meantime, how about a New Mushroom flatbread?!

You can purchase your stainless steal bottle at FlatPlanet, Great Marlborough St and refill there to stay hydrated! You might as well try one of their delicious flatbreads as well. And they mean it when they say they don’t let customers go without water. Our jug was filled up regularly without having to ask! Really tasty, wholesome food and wholesome people serving it!

Watch out for details on when you can see the GiveMeTap team and FlatPlanet on the BBC!

'Til next week, Tappers...