Nick Friedman (left) and Colby classmate Brandon Pollock, co-founders of Blue Reserve.
R E G T U A Y W E H Nick Friedman ’06 T 32
During his junior year abroad at Hertford College of Oxford University, NICK FRIEDMAN ’06 , a philosophy and economics major at Colby College, figured out how to meld the two disciplines. He was listening to a talk on entrepreneurship when the speaker urged the audience to “choose something that aligns with your values.” Nick’s number-one value was, and is, the environment, and in June 2009 he became co-founder of Blue Reserve, a Portland, Maine, company offering “bottleless” water systems coolers to commercial and residential customers. Today the company numbers over 50 clients, from the huge CB Richard Ellis—the state of Maine’s largest commercial real estate company—to tiny Wells, Maine, High School. Blue Reserve’s premise is simple: for a monthly lease ranging from 25 to 50 dollars, customers get an unlimited amount of chilled and hot distilled or mineral water without the cost and hassle of bottled water delivery. Blue Reserve’s water comes from the nearest cold water line in a building, which then passes through a commercial grade filtration system into stainless steel reservoirs, sealed inside the bottle-less water coolers. The company’s Web site claims that its water is less expensive—installation and maintenance are free—and healthier than bottled water from five-gallon jugs. Then comes the indisputable environmental advantage: Nick claims that last year alone, the production of bottled water required 17 million barrels of oil, or enough fuel to power one million
BERKSHIRE SCHOOL • 2010 YEAR IN REVIEW
cars for a year, and that 50 billion plastic water bottles are taken to landfills on an annual basis. Nick says that a sense of environmental responsibility was stressed at home growing up, and reaffirmed at Berkshire School, via Peter Kinne’s environmental science class. Taking that class this year is Nick’s brother, Theo Friedman ’11, whose campaign to eliminate the purchase and discourage the use of plastic water bottles at Berkshire has been endorsed by the administration and is well underway. Today, three months out of college, Nick finds his company growing at two to three customers per week, with a network of dealers in most major Northeastern cities and interest from people who want to franchise the business. While there are a handful of other vendors who offer a similar service as an addon to another product, Nick says that his company is the only one devoted exclusively to bottle-less water cooler service. One of two full-time employees, Nick says he looks forward to Blue Reserve becoming the “point of industry leader” in providing bottle-less water systems for homes and businesses. But he insists that if it comes to profit or principal, he will always opt for the latter. “We come from the earth, and should live here in a sustainable manner,” Nick says. “It is my belief that we have done serious damage, and that if we don’t change our ways, we won’t be here for long.”
The company’s stainless steel reservoir for chilled and hot water.