Summer Schervish

Technology Feature Story

Clean Water Machine

Jaden Smith plans to rid the world of plastic water bottles and he is starting in Flint,

Michigan, with his boxed water technology.

Jaden, 21, is known for his rap music-making and acting abilities, but he says he would

rather be known as an inventor. In 2015, he founded JUST Water with the help of his parents,

Hollywood elite Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith. The company sourced water from upstate

New York and packaged it in bottles made up of 82 percent renewable resources.

Jaden distributed pallets upon pallets of this bottled water for the residents of Flint, who

have been without clean drinking water since 2014 when the city drinking water source was

changed from Lake Huron to the Flint River, resulting in lead-contaminated water.

This worked for a while, but the logistical and financial challenges of a years-long water

giveaway, and the environmental costs from millions of discarded plastic bottles prompted Jaden

to find a better solution.

A Better Solution

“The Water Box was born,” Jaden said. “It’s a mobile filtration system that can quickly

cleanse large volumes of tap water.” The unit was designed by engineer Jaron Rothkop, who was

known for his longtime efforts to use technology to address resource problems around the world.

They set up the first box at the First Trinity Missionary Baptist Church outside of

downtown Flint in March. The church had been hosting water drives and taking in water bottles

since the crisis began.

 “Bottles of water aren’t always the most efficient thing,” Jaden explains. “With this

system, people can come with five- or 10-gallon drums and just fill up for free in 60 seconds.”

He is tracking the progress in Flint, and notes, “Within its first 50 days of operation, some 5,500

gallons had been distributed, preventing the use of more than 43,000 single-use, 16-ounce plastic

bottles.”

Commitment to a Cause

While the Flint crisis was leading the news many actors and politicians showed their

concern, but Jaden has become one of few who’ve remained consistently involved, shares

Catrina Tillman, the wife of First Trinity’s pastor. “Many celebrities have used the Flint crisis for

their own public relations,” she says. “Jaden Smith is serious. It’s not over with him and he

doesn’t see it as about him. He has shown real commitment.”

In August, Jaden donated a second water box, in Ellen DeGeneres’ name, and installed it

at a community center in northern Flint that serves 6,000 people. Each box filtration system costs

$50,000 a year to operate, and that includes the price of the unit, replacement filters, testing, and

the host’s water bill. By the end of the year, thanks to sponsor Apple, more water boxes will be

installed in Flint.

“This has been one of the most rewarding and educational experiences for me

personally,” Jaden says. “Working together with people in the community experiencing the

problems and designing something to help them has been a journey I will never forget.”

JUST Water plans to deploy more water boxes in other communities facing similar

challenges. Rothkop believes that device design changes will lower future initial costs and

ongoing expenses. “It’s made with common commercially available parts,” he said. “Our
objective was to come up with a design where anyone could buy the parts and put it together

themselves.”

“This has been one of the most rewarding and educational experiences for me

personally,” Jaden says. “Working together with people in the community experiencing the

problems and designing something to help them has been a journey I will never forget.”

Today, four years later, JUST Water is valued at $100 million. The company has

pioneered single-use mostly-paper water bottles, opened three bottling facilities in the United

States, United Kingdom, and Australia, and now sells water bottles in 10 countries. JUST

Water Chief Executive Officer Ira Laufer credits the company’s exponential growth to

increased consumer awareness of plastic’s environmental problem, good timing, and a very

aggressive growth strategy.

“We’ve been able to continue making our packaging out of even more and more

material as the lifespan of the company keeps on going,” says Jayden. “It’s like how the

iPhone is updated almost every year, we try to update the packaging almost every year.”

Just the Beginning

Jaden said he plans to spend more of his time finding ways to better the world. On the

eve of his 21 st birthday he conducted a trial run for his I Love You Restaurant concept with a

pop-up food truck on the streets of Skid Row. The truck provided free vegan food for the

needy and homeless. Eventually, he wants to open a restaurant in Los Angeles to do the same.

“Three meals a day, seven days a week, all the time. All free. That's my goal, ” he

said. “That'll change the world. Also, the reason that this is so close to home for me is
because, for The Pursuit of Happyness, I would sleep inside of homeless shelters

sometimes just to shoot a scene,” Jaden said, referring to his first movie role in 2006.

“I want the world to know that I'm switching professions and that I'm becoming a

full-time inventor and that I'm going to spend all of my time inventing new

technologies because I think I’m better at that than making music,” he explains.

If Jaden’s next few years are anything like his past four years, his future path

looks bright.

CAPTIONS:

(photo of Jaden and Jada): Jaden and his mother, Jada Pinkett-Smith, present the first Water Box

filtration system to First Trinity Missionary Baptist Church outside of downtown Flint in March.

(Jaden) Actor, rapper, and inventor Jaden Smith plans to make a difference in the world.

(Water Box) JUST Water’s single-use mostly-paper water bottles now sell in 10 countries.

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