Thirsty? Charitable? Talk to Ben Lewis

Wharton freshman Ben Lewis would like nothing more than to walk into any convenience store and see GIVE, his own brand of water, for sale.

That just might become a possibility very soon.

Lewis was 18 years old when he founded his own bottled water company called PurBlu with his cousin and two high school friends, including current Wharton freshman Jesse Rudolph. Today, he runs the company as CEO along with Chief Operating Officer Gary Paparella, a beverage industry expert with 28 years of experience who previously worked at Cadbury Schweppes.

Alongside his classes at Penn, Lewis takes occasional business trips back to his hometown of Pittsburgh to work from the 2,000-square-foot company office on the eighth floor of One Oxford Centre.

Lewis said he sees himself as a "philanthropreneur." Though his company is for-profit and one of hundreds of brands in a $10-billion-a-year industry, what distinguishes PurBlu is the concept behind it: "Drink GIVE. Do good."

"The bottled water industry has been under a lot of scrutiny lately," said Lewis. "What I'm trying to achieve with GIVE is to leverage the rapid growth of bottled water and use it as a vehicle to create social change."

For each "GIVE" bottle purchased, 10 cents will be donated to a charitable cause, which the customer can choose by color-coded bottle labels: a blue label gives "Life" to impoverished children, a pink label gives "Hope" to breast cancer research and a green label gives "Love" to environmental causes.

Consumers can also visit the company's Web site at www.drinkgive.com to suggest specific charities to support.

The philanthropic organizations to which GIVE donates rotate with time and are usually local, such as the Pittsburgh chapter of United Way. Last year, the company donated a total of around $3,000 to $4,000, though it has not turned a profit to date.

GIVE has traveled a long way from being sold out of the back of Lewis' car. The water, which costs between $1 and $1.39 per bottle, is now sold at a Whole Foods Market in Pittsburgh as well as local coffee shops and stores. It will soon be distributed in various Whole Foods in the mid-Atlantic region.

Lewis said he anticipates GIVE to be a national brand by next year and is working to bring the water to Philadelphia and Penn.

Regarding marketing, Lewis said, "we're keeping it very grassroots" - the company has spent hardly any money on advertising.

The company will also come out with a one-liter bottle for high-end restaurants next month and is planning to launch an energy drink soon, the design of which will be painted by Burton Morris, a well-known pop artist.

Rudolph, one of the other co-founders, said part of Lewis' success was due to Lewis' ability to balance the company with his academics.

"It's one of his main focuses, but he enjoys doing it," Rudolph said.

"We would love to encourage him to incorporate his ideas into class somehow," said Emily Cieri, managing director of the Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs.

Integrating business and academics was Lewis' original intention coming into Wharton.

"I do value traditional education," Lewis said, but "it's very fulfilling to see an idea I had become a reality, and that's a lot more than you can learn in a classroom."

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