Top Up Tap was a youth-lead initiative which aimed to reduce water waste and plastic pollution.
Myself and 14 other young people from ages 15 to 16 created the initiative in 2019.
By law, any shop that has access to water has to allow members of the public to fill their water bottles on request. We wanted people to know this so that they didn't buy water in single-use plastic bottles instead. So we came up with a plan. I designed and produced stickers that we encouraged local businesses to display in their windows. We also produced water bottles and T-shirts and planned the installation of water fountains.
Overall we got 40 businesses involved, achieved planning permission to install a drinking fountain in the city of Exeter, won a National Citizens Service Dragon's Den competition, presented our idea to industry professionals and got investment to produce the stickers and make our idea a reality.
All in 2 weeks.
Promotinal Poster
Sticker in Exeter Library
Sticker in The Ship Inn
Sticker in Exeter Quay
We went door-to-door, pitching our idea to businesses and handing out free stickers for them to display in their windows. 27 businesses agreed to display our Top Up Tap sticker in their shops. I created all branding material and graphic designs.
Preparing to pitch our idea to Industry professionals at Air Marketing's Head-quarters, adorning our custom T-shirts.
Some members of the team handing out leaflets to the public at Princesshay Exeter.
We were lucky enough to have a meeting with a company that owned most of the shopping centres in the United Kingdom. We were discussing the possibility of installing Top up Tap drinking fountains in their malls.
