Dubai Festival City Mall, part of Al-Futtaim Malls, has announced its partnership with PepsiCo to install Aquafina Water Stations throughout the mall, bringing a personalised, refreshing, and sustainable hydration experience to mall visitors.
As part of the partnership, Dubai Festival City Mall has installed five Aquafina Water Stations, in strategic locations across the space, allowing consumers to enjoy an innovative hydration experience while encouraging a culture of reuse and refill. The Aquafina Water Station provides still and sparkling water in unflavoured as well as unsweetened flavoured water, including strawberry, lime, raspberry and lime, and peach. Consumers can customise the carbonation level, temperature, and intensity of each beverage, which will be nano-filtered. Each Aquafina Water Station shows users how many plastic bottles have been saved through the unit, demonstrating that small choices can make a big difference.
For those seeking a refreshingly sustainable hydration experience, mall visitors can enjoy the Aquafina Water Stations by purchasing three or five refills via QR code cards available in vending machines next to each water station. Whether looking to refill their own reusable water bottles or to add to their collection, consumers can also purchase Aquafina reusable bottles from the vending machines.
Hayssam Hajjar, General Manager of Al-Futtaim Malls – UAE, said “We’re delighted to offer this new, upscale hydration option for our mall visitors, which we know will make their experience with us even more memorable. We’re also proud to offer refillable options that will cut down on single-use plastic waste, helping our visitors stay hydrated, and encourage water stewardship. Who said water couldn’t be personalised – I’ve never been so excited to drink my three litres per day!”
Commenting on the strategic partnership, Aamer Sheikh, Chief Executive Officer, PepsiCo Middle East said, “At PepsiCo, we believe that sustainability is everyone’s responsibility, and we know that even small lifestyle changes can lead to a big impact. By installing our Aquafina Water Stations in Dubai Festival City Mall, we are making sustainable options more accessible and more enjoyable to shoppers, which encourages a long-term behaviour shift, into a culture of reuse and refill. We are proud to leverage the power of our brands to inspire people to make more positive choices for themselves and the planet and look forward to future initiatives, in partnership with Al-Futtaim Malls to drive long-lasting change.”
During Expo 2020 Dubai, 28 Aquafina Water Stations helped save more than 500,000 plastic bottles. PepsiCo has committed to install 75 Aquafina Water Stations across the UAE this year, 50 of which are under the Dubai Can initiative, a sustainability initiative led by the Crown Prince of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, to minimise the global environmental impact by reducing the use of single-use plastics. Throughout the partnership with DET on Dubai Can, the Aquafina Water Stations helped save more than 390,000 plastic bottles since March 2022 to date.