About Us - Our Story

WHO WE ARE

Blue Planet Network is a group of passionate people, working with a global network of experienced water groups, to bring sustainable safe drinking water to people in rural communities around the world. 

Our goal is to enable safe drinking water for 200,000,000 people in the next 20 years.

We celebrate every life transformed by safe drinking water, every child who can go to school instead of lugging water all day, every woman freed from menial labor and able to build a new future, every person freed from waterborne diseases and able to improve their lives and those of their community.

We know that we cannot do this on our own. But we do know that, working together with experienced water project implementers, committed local community members, expert water authorities, advocates, philanthropies, businesses and an informed and committed public, we can make permanent progress in the battle for safe drinking water for all. 

That is why we created our online Network to connect and unlock the global capacity and creativity of all those committed to eliminating the global safe drinking water crisis forever.

The Network connects Funders, Implementers, Monitors, The Public and Local Communities through our online platform, “supercharging” the abilities of these groups to cost-effectively and sustainably transform lives with safe drinking water and the development it fosters. More Details >>

WHY DID WE CHANGE OUR NAME TO BLUE PLANET NETWORK?

When we began, our main focus was holding a global event to raise awareness and funds for safe drinking water.  We did that with our global relay run, Blue Planet Run 2007. Thus our original name…Blue Planet Run Foundation.

The Run was a great success (read more about it below) and we were thrilled by all the support we received.  We realized, however, that we could make a more lasting contribution to solving the global safe drinking water crisis with the technology solution we created to power our Network, the Peer Water Exchange (PWX). 

PWX is an innovative platform that deals with the massive challenge of scale in the water and sanitation sector, i.e. how can you effectively find, review, select, fund, manage and monitor the hundreds of thousands of projects necessary to eradicate the safe drinking water crisis?  By decentralizing all tasks, from proposal submission to peer review to management and monitoring, and involving our members in all aspects of the process, the more members and projects we have, the more experienced resources we have to scale to solve the crisis. PWX powers our cooperative Network, lets us build an ever-growing source of real-life data about the outcome of water and sanitation projects projects, and what lessons were learned that others could benefit from.  The Network is alive with collaboration between members, consulting with each other, to do smarter, more sustainable work. This gives funders, be they foundations, companies or individuals, stronger investment opportunities and the chance to see the real impact of their support.

Our growth and impact is due to the passion and capabilities of our Network members.  We learn from each other, and each of us is more capable because of this connection.  So we decided we should change our name to Blue Planet Network to reflect this.  Using “Network” in our name goes right to the heart of what we’re all about, and the value we hope to create... in our common mission to eradicate the global safe drinking water crisis.

BLUE PLANET NETWORK'S HISTORY

Blue Planet Network was founded in 2002 with the initial goal of raising money and awareness for the safe drinking water cause through the production of a round-the-world running relay (thus our initial name of Blue Planet Run Foundation).  In June 2007, the Blue Planet Run 2007 began at the United Nations in New York City with 20 elite runners of 13 nationalities.  Covering 15,200 miles over 95 days, the Run traversed 16 countries while generating over 600 million media impressions and nearly 1,200 news stories around the globe, including appearances on The Today Show, Good Morning America, ABC Evening News, ESPN, and the BBC.  We believe that the Run generated more awareness of the global water crisis than any other single event in US history. [view media reel]

At the end of 2007, we published a major book on the water crisis.  Created by Rick Smolan, the best-selling creator of the Day in the Life book series, Blue Planet Run covers the many facets of the global water crisis.  Popular response to the book has been strong, with prominent placement at Barnes and Noble and other booksellers.  Amazon.com has offered its customers a free digital download of the electronic edition, and Time.com has featured an online excerpt from the book.  Beyond traditional sales, we have distributed the book to such influential groups as the attendees of the annual TED and EG conferences and The President’s Council of The National Academies.  The Blue Planet Run book has proven to be the first creative work that can bring the water issue to life for the general public. [more about the book]

We developed our technology platform, the Peer Water Exchange in 2006, initially with five implementing NGO members and funding from Blue Planet Run.  Today, we partner with 68 members (e.g. implementer, funders, analysts), working in 22 countries.  We showcase $25+ million of water and sanitation projects on behalf of our members and have directly funded nearly $1.5 million of projects.  Please visit our Projects Section to learn more.