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The New York Launch of WHOLE WORLD Water

Where: TAO Asian Bistro Who was there: Guests included  Marc Packer, Rich Wolf, Graham Hill, Jason Silva, Kim Martin, Don MacKinnon, Marisa Ricciardi, Tiki Barber, Tommy Bennett, Rona Berg, Deb Berlin, Ted Brumleve, Christoph Gorder, Kristy Caylor, Dinda Elliot and Jennifer Ferrin. Other details: Friday, March 22, saw the launch of WHOLE WORLD Water – the global initiative designed to unite the hospitality and tourism industry to collectively address one of the world’s most pressing issues - access to safe and clean water. Partnering with Quintessentially Events, the global launch began in Mumbai, traveled to Soneva Fushi in the Maldives, the Ulusaba Game Reserve in South Africa, The Savoy in London, TAO Asian Bistro in New York and Parallel 37 at The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco. [Photo: Graham Hill, Jenifer Willig, Rich Wolf] [Chris Santos, Rich Wolf, Graham Hill, Jenifer Willig, Ted Brumleve, Drew Hamilton] Guests were treated to specialty cocktails, prosecco and canapés while learning more about the WHOLE WORLD Water Campaign from Rich Wolf, host of the New York launch event, Graham Hill, chairman of the New York launch event, and WHOLE WORLD Water co-founder Jenifer Willig.

Check out our interview with Jenifer Willig, Co-founder of WHOLE WORLD Water below.

Tell us a little bit about the campaign, what was your inspiration? My passion has always been the private sector, getting involved in social issues and my partner, Karina is a documentary film maker and she experienced this idea first hand at an Eco-symposium in the Maldives called the slow life symposium hosted by Sono Shivdasani, one of our trustees. Sono had been filtering and bottling his own water since 2007 and giving 50 percent of proceeds to the Plain water initiatives in the Maldives and local communities. Karina's idea was very simple, why not take this idea to the industry - the hotel and tourism industry is a 6 trillion dollar industry, we could raise a lot of money by doing something that is really simple and economically viable. I had previously run the (RED) organization and it was really the perfect storm. [Photo: Graham Hill, Jenifer Willig] So it was a very organic process. I'm sure lot of what you did at (RED) helped you take on this endeavor. Absolutely! It helped me in understanding that it's not going to be sustainable unless it's a viable business model-- something they could make money out of. I think driving the bottom line is the best incentive to change the world. The fact that we can see the bottom line increase as a result of being a part of this is absolutely incredible, I think that's where the sustainability is going to come from. Have you been to visit some of the organizations you are helping out? I've been on three goggle hangouts today! We have been really good friends with everyone doing the work on the ground. We won't be doing the work on the ground but helping them fund the very diverse solutions are needed. There is not one solution, that's the key, it's not about drilling a well but about the diversity of being able to attack this issue. Whats your ultimate goal for the campaign? We'd like to get a thousand hotels on board by the end of the year. I think the critical piece to all of this is scale, in order for the fund to deliver really significant results. The size of this industry is 9% of the global GDP, so the sky is the limit. [Photos via Busacca/GettyImages for WHOLE WORLD Water]