Introducing our Innovator of the Week – Duncan Goose, the founder of Global Ethics and driving force behind ‘One’ brand – the organisation which ploughs 100% of its profits into projects in developing countries. I’m really excited to tell you about the cause and Duncan himself, so let’s get cracking…

Duncan Goose founded the ‘One’ brand back in 2003. The company was born out of a revolutionary retail concept; the notion that you could use profits from bottled water to fund life-changing projects in developing countries. ‘One Water’ was the first product to be developed by Duncan after a friend in marketing advised him that there were approximately 1 billion people without access to drinking water in the world.

Before the very first product even reached the end of the production line it was announced as the official water for the Live 8 concerts by Bob Geldof (spin through to 2:20 if you want to hear how):

via 1difference

Duncan added more products to the companies range after the success of One Water . He now has One Eggs, One Supersofty toilet tissue, One Helping Handwash, One Condoms and One Careplast plasters.

All of the profits from the products contribute to like-for-like projects in the developing world. As you can see above the egg sales support chicken and egg farm projects, the toilet tissue sales support sanitation projects and so on and so forth.

Duncan has made it easier for ordinary members of the public to help improve someone else’s life, all you need to do is change one of the products in your shopping basket to a One product. All of the items above are regular shopping trip purchases.

So far the organisation has:

– Raised £6.9m in total, changing the lives of well over a million and a half people

– Installed 700+ water solutions, giving free, clean water to over a million African school children

– Benefited 4,000+ people from its vegetable gardens

– Counselled or tested 12,000+ people for HIV 

– Improved sanitation for 1,000+ children in Malawi 

Finally, here is a fantastic video highlighting some of the great work Duncan has been doing in Africa with charitable organisations on the ground:

via 1difference

If you’ve not bought any One products before then let me know what you think about the organisation based on the information above.

If you have purchased some products then it would be great to know how the packaging actually informs you about the great work they have been doing. Do they tell you how to increase your involvement in the charitable work outside of your purchase? Let me know below or on Twitter if you get the chance.

Duncan has highlighted how a simple idea in a pub has grown into a global business that helps the lives of many – 1.5 million+ people to be exact!