Ethos water

Ethos water is a brand of bottled water owned by Starbucks and sold throughout North America. It is known for its campaign to raise ten million dollars by donating between five and ten cents from every sale to a non-governmental organization working to increase access to clean drinking water in the developing world.

Starbucks' critics points out the Ethos brand is primarily commercial, since only tiny fraction ($0.05 to $0.10) of the retail price ($1.80) goes to the charity. While the company raised around four million US dollars for this purpose, the vast remainder of the price ($1.70 - $1.75) is the company's profit (140 million US dollars). This led many Starbucks' customers to suspect that the company is engaged in unethical and unfair market practices. Critics of Ethos cite how the for-profit company selling water detracts from other efforts to provide water to impoverished nations.