evian, the Official Water of The Championships, together with Wimbledon, announce its first ever on-court refillable system for players, as a new way to hydrate players during The Championships.
As a long-standing partner since 2008, evian and Wimbledon join forces on this step in the tournament’s sustainability journey for an exciting pilot scheme.
The new refillable system enables refill behaviour on court, whilst continuing to deliver evian natural mineral water from its pristine mountain source, as the brand has done at The Championships for the last 15 years.
The evian refill water system for Wimbledon this year will see players provided with their own reusable bottles that can be refilled with evian natural mineral water, on-court and at designated player areas, including practice courts, dressing rooms and restaurants. Courts 2-18 will see an on-court dispenser positioned beneath the umpire chair during matches for players to refill their bottles themselves, alongside ball boys and girls, who will also be on hand to help refill on behalf of those competing. On Centre Court and No.1 Court, prefilled reusable bottles will be available to supplement the ones supplied to and brought onto court by players.
Off court, amongst the iconic grounds of SW19’s All England Club, spectators can continue to enjoy evian through the brand’s signature 75cl bottles which are made from 100% recycled plastic**, in addition to evian sparkling’s elegant 33cl recyclable aluminium can, as evian continues to hydrate the crowds through its long-standing support of global tennis tournaments.
“We are incredibly proud of our long-standing relationship with one of the world’s most prestigious sporting events,” Sarah Dossett, Vice President, Marketing, Danone UK & Ireland said. “Together through collaboration, we are excited to pilot this new system for 2023. The development of a refill solution to deliver our evian water to players demonstrates evian’s continued commitment to innovate. Together with Wimbledon, we are continuing our journey towards our circularity ambitions.
“Danone UK & Ireland is a health focused company, determined to play a positive role in our communities. Our water brands, like evian, offer consumers a healthy hydration option in a convenient way. It is fantastic to be able to continue to showcase healthy hydration at such an iconic sporting event.
On supporting evian’s ongoing circularity commitments, Sally Bolton, Chief Executive at the All England Club, said: “Wimbledon remains firmly committed to becoming Environment Positive by 2030. We continue to make improvements year-on-year to reach this ambition. Throughout, we have been working together with evian to evolve and move towards delivering evian water in the most sustainable way. We are excited about this next step in our journey together and look forward to seeing how the pilot goes and the impact it could have going forward.”
“Showcasing a reuse and refill model to reduce single-use plastics on one of the world’s most viewed sporting arenas is a great way to make refill the default option, and an active part of our everyday habits,” Jen Emerton, Head of Account Management WRAP, said. “Providing reusable bottles and refill facilities and using bottles in future tournaments will significantly cut the number used by players. This is a great step forward by a UK Plastics Pact member, and we hope to see this idea expanded across the entire tournament at future Wimbledon.”
The pairing of evian bottles made from 100% recycled** plastic available for spectators with the refillable system for players, reflects an exciting step in both brands’ commitment to accelerate recycling and reuse, which is a key focus of evian’s “circular by 2025” ambition.
Wimbledon and evian are also pleased to announce that this long-term partnership, which began in 2008, will continue for a further five years, with evian remaining the Official Water of The Championships, Wimbledon until at least 2027.
The Championships will be staged from Monday 3rd to Sunday 16th July. The refillable solution will be used by players for the first-time during practice week and throughout The Championships. Both evian and Wimbledon hope this will be a successful step in inspiring healthy refillable hydration.
** Excluding caps and bottles
