The Ölfus Spring

Icelandic Glacial’s water source is Iceland’s Hlíðarendi Spring, part of the Ölfus Spring System, a catchment zone formed during a massive volcanic eruption more than 4,500 years ago. Ölfus Spring is a renewable resource, replenished annually by infiltration of rainfall and snow melt over uninhabited lava fields. Ninety-nine percent of the Ölfus flow releases to the sea below mean sea level. The only outflow to surface water is at Hlíðarendi, where a pond collects spring discharges which then flow for two kilometres before disappearing underground. It is from this system that the Icelandic Glacial water is taken.

Source illustration:
The Ölfus Spring is fed from high in the mountains by gradual filter of rainfall, snow and ice melt.

Glacially Inspired
Icelandic Glacial is proud of its green credentials and is clear that the water is in no way connected or fed from actual melted or melting glaciers. The 'Glacial' in the Icelandic Glacial brand name is derived from landscapes and scenery that are automatically conjured when one thinks of Iceland, and is also a reference to the peak design of the Icelandic Glacial bottle, rather than the source of its contents.

Protected Source
The local government is particularly appreciative of the need to protect this valuable resource and has applied a 128,000 acre exclusion zone around the spring. No farming, animals, or buildings are permitted in the surrounding area.

A Naturally Replenished, Certifiably Sustainable Resource
Naturally occurring pure drinking water is a precious commodity in most countries and water bottling companies are sometimes criticised for draining aquifers and groundwater reserves to the detriment of local communities.

Icelandic Glacial is particularly mindful of this fact, and its extraction operations account for a minor percentage of the Ölfus Spring's daily outflow to the ocean, which is more than double the world's bottled water consumption.

Icelandic Glacial has been declared by Zenith International, Europe’s leading food and drinks consultancy, as truly sustainable because it doesn’t deplete or permanently damage the source from which it’s abstracted. Icelandic Glacial does not pump water from the spring, but collects what flows naturally to the ground surface, using an estimated 0.1% of the total spring flow annually.

To view a copy of the Source Sustainability certificate:
Zenith International Source Sustainability Report

For more information on Zenith International:
http://www.zenithinternational.com/sustainability_consulting/