Bottled Water Eradication Campaign

Overview

This report comprises of a political action strategy to eradicate plastic bottle water from LUMS. There are 2 plans given in this report. Plan A is the use of a strategy to boycott bottle water on LUMS campus. If Plan A doesn't work, then tactics will be used in Plan B to achieve this objective. The report also includes a communication strategy to get the message across and also on how to deal with people who will resist/oppose this campaign.

Plan A – Implementation Strategy

Vision and Logo

A Vision and logo (Exhibit 1) will be designed in the first phase. This will be the rallying point for the members. The timeline to design this will be one week.

Pledge

A pledge (Exhibit 1) will also be designed. This will be an undertaking and once signed by a student will prohibit him or her from purchasing bottled water from campus. The pledge will be designed with the vision and logo in a week's time.

Team

A core team of 5 individuals will have to be enlisted. These will be some of our close friends. They will be the ones leading this effort on campus. The timeline to select this new team will also be one week. This team will be recruited through a communication strategy, outlined in detail on the next page.

Awareness Campaign

There will be a one hour presence in front of the PDC everyday from 2pm to 3pm. This is the time when most of the students have lunch and there is a lot of traffic in front of the PDC. The 5 team members will hand out pamphlets (Exhibit 2) to students and urge them to take the pledge/ sign the petition. They will also note down the names and contact details of the students who sign the petition. These pamphlets urging that bottled water be banned from campus will also be displayed in front of the PDC, Khoka, Super Store and Academic Block. A mass email will also be sent out to urge students to take the pledge and stop purchasing bottled water on campus. At the end of every week, a documentary will also be shown on campus that shows the harmful impact that has been caused by the corporations that bottle water. This entire awareness campaign will run for at least 1 month and the objective would be to sign up at least 200 students. Of these 200 members, 150 would be undergraduate and 50 would be graduate students. This is a more accurate description of the current student ratio on campus.

Water Testing

PH test kit will also be purchased after asking members to pitch in small amounts. This PH kit will be used to compare water from the drinking fountains on campus and bottled water. It will be shown that bottled water is not always better then tap water and that tap water from the drinking fountains / coolers at LUMS is perfectly safe