--- title: Starbucks Moves Bottled Water Brand Out of Drought-Stricken California description: After coming under fire for using water from drought-plagued California for its trendy bottled water brand Ethos, Starbucks is shifting operations to Pennsylvania. authors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Business - Banking - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2015-05-08T15:46:08.000Z' modified: '2024-04-16T05:48:50.000Z' section: Business tags: - Brands - Coffee - fast casual - Food & Drink - marketing word_count: 274 canonical: https://money.com/starbucks-bottled-water-california-drought/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![The dry bed of Lake Mendocino, a key Mendocino County reservoir, in Ukiah, California.](https://img.money.com/2015/05/150508_em_ethoswater.jpg?crop=0px%2C14px%2C2100px%2C1182px&quality=85) *The dry bed of Lake Mendocino, a key Mendocino County reservoir, in Ukiah, California.* In the midst of a [severe drought](https://time.com/3848895/california-drought-photos/), California has imposed strict, sweeping regulations to conserve water. Homeowners are being encouraged to let their lawns turn brown, or simply [replace grass](http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_27947080/drought-restrictions-may-end-era-bye-bye-front) with landscaping that needs little or no watering, while some communities have engaged in witch hunts—or rather, water hunts—to expose and possibly fine property owners who are breaking the rules and [wasting water](http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/apr/20/on-the-hunt-for-water-wasters/). [*Mother Jones*](http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/04/starbucks-making-bank-californias-disappearing-water) recently published a story pointing out the curious state of affairs of [Ethos Water](http://www.starbucks.com/responsibility/community/ethos-water-fund), a bottled water operation owned by Starbucks that was founded with the goal of addressing the global water crisis. And where is the water inside Ethos bottles taken from? Yep, it originates and is bottled in Merced County, one of the state's driest and hardest-hit drought areas. After receiving much grief over the past week for its bottled water operations, [Starbucks just announced](https://news.starbucks.com/news/starbucks-finds-a-new-source-for-ethos-water-outside-california?hootPostID=0ab1a5fa4db91917a865f6c4fab036f9) that it is immediately shifting operations from California over to Pennsylvania. "Beginning the first week of May and over the next six months, Starbucks plans to move production to its Pennsylvania supplier, while simultaneously exploring alternatives to transition to a new source and supplier to serve the company’s West Coast distribution," a Starbucks statement explained. “The decision to move our Ethos water sourcing from California and reduce our in-store water reductions by more than 25 percent are steps we are taking in partnership with state and local governments to accelerate water conservation,” Starbucks executive John Kelly said in the press release. As [BuzzFeed](http://www.buzzfeed.com/jimdalrympleii/starbucks-ends-water-bottling-operations-in-california-citin#.cjMQ6BKN9) noted, even as Starbucks is ceasing bottled water production in California, other bottled water brands—including those from Nestle, Coca-Cola, and PepsiCo—continue to operate in the parched Golden State. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/starbucks-bottled-water-california-drought/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Business", "item": "https://money.com/business/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Customer Relations", "item": "https://money.com/customer-relations/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Starbucks Moves Bottled Water Brand Out of Drought-Stricken California" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/starbucks-bottled-water-california-drought/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/starbucks-bottled-water-california-drought/", "name": "Starbucks Moves Bottled Water Brand Out of Drought-Stricken California", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2015-05-08T15:46:08.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/starbucks-bottled-water-california-drought/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/starbucks-bottled-water-california-drought/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-16T05:48:50.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Starbucks Moves Bottled Water Brand Out of Drought-Stricken California", "articleSection": "Business", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2015/05/150508_em_ethoswater.jpg?crop=0px%2C14px%2C2100px%2C1182px&quality=85", "width": 1012, "height": 569, "caption": "150508_EM_EthosWater" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brad Tuttle", "url": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/#author", "description": "Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.\r\n\r\n", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/01/Brad-Tuttle.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1", "alumniOf": "Columbia University School of Journalism, MS", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle", "https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2015-05-08T15:46:08.000Z", "description": "After coming under fire for using water from drought-plagued California for its trendy bottled water brand Ethos, Starbucks is shifting operations to Pennsylvania.", "abstract": "After coming under fire for using water from drought-plagued California for its trendy bottled water brand Ethos, Starbucks is shifting operations to Pennsylvania.", "@id": "https://money.com/starbucks-bottled-water-california-drought/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-16T05:48:50.000Z", "wordCount": 274, "keywords": [ "Brands", "Coffee", "fast casual", "Food & Drink", "marketing" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Business", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Customer relationship management", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_relationship_management" ] } ] } ] } ```