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Sustainable Design

Soma: Drink Better Water with a 100% Compostable Filter

By LinYee Yuan - December 18, 2012

I'm sure I'm not the only person who hides the Brita when company comes over and feels terribly guilty tossing those carbon-filled plastic filters every couple of months. In fact, it's always been a bit of a mystery to me why there wasn't a beautiful, more sustainable and affordable alternative on the market.

I clearly wasn't the only one looking for a design solution for a consumer product I interact with on a day-to-day basis: Introducing Soma, a glass carafe and 100% compostable water filter. The filter, designed by David Beeman, is made from all-natural Malaysian coconut shells, vegan silk and food-based PLA plastic. Beeman, with over 30 years of experience creating water formulas for Starbucks, Peet's and other global brands, talks a bit about the design process in the video below:

The glass decanter has a beveled edge which results in drip-free pouring. The product is manufactured in the United States and the subscription-service style of renewing the filter is as good as it gets. The founding team behind Soma comes with their own set of good as it gets credentials: Mike Del Ponte (founder/CEO of Sparkseed, an award-winning social innovation accelerator), Rohan Oza (brand genius behind vitaminwater, smartwater, vitacoco and popchips), Ido Leffler (co-founder of Yes To Carrots, the 2nd largest natural beauty brand in America), and Zach Allia (his apps hit #1 on Facebook, Apple store, and Chrome store). Advisors include Tim Ferriss, and founders and executives from Method, Incase, Warby Parker, Birchbox, TOMS and the UN Foundation.

And while they're in full launch mode for for their product, early adopters can get the Soma carafe + 6-Months worth of filters for $50 (each filter delivered to your door every two months). As of press time, they've blown past their initial $100,000 goal—we're waiting to hear what sort of reach goals they might have and what type of add-ons they might have for their early backers. Get in on the ground and support Soma!

LinYee Yuan

LinYee Yuan is a design editor and writer based in Brooklyn.

3 Comments

dave

6 years ago

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Soma is the name of the drug in Brave New World (Huxley)
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Andrew

6 years ago

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The beautiful option is AquaOvo, rather expensive. The affordable, Santevia.

Some looks interesting and well thought-out. I would hope for a larger capacity carafe, or better yet, a built-in tap.
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Todd

6 years ago

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I much prefer AquaOvo's Ovopur filter. Ceramic, large capacity, forged tap, glass filter that lasts for four months. Quite beautiful.
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