With over 600 sites and a bulging pipeline, it’s time to expand. Dawn O’Neil AM, the former CEO of Lifeline and Beyond Blue, is taking the helm at eWater Systems.

An experienced change advocate for mental health, Dawn has taken on difficult issues and systems change before. She attributes her decision to step into this role to the urgent need for action on the elimination of toxic chemicals from our daily lives.

This follows a sobering study(1) released last month that concluded, ‘chemical pollution has crossed a “planetary boundary”, the point at which human-made changes to the Earth push it outside the stable environment of the last 10,000 years.’

“Our generation has made a mess of the earth with a proliferation of the use of toxic chemicals, often unconscious of the impact on our children and grandchildren’s health or the planet’s health.  The good news is that this is changing. Awareness is growing and people are looking for alternatives to toxic chemicals and will take action when presented with cleaner, safer, effective options such as eWater. Toxic chemicals in the workplace – especially for cleaning and sanitising is something we can easily do something about”, says Dawn O’Neil.

A recent report (2) from WECF states, “Along with the climate crisis and biodiversity loss, the United Nations calls pollution, including exposure to toxic chemicals, the third major environmental crisis of our time. … Chemical pollution, however, receives far less attention in the public arena than climate catastrophe or the destruction of biodiversity.”

The founder of eWater, Phil Gregory, identified the opportunity in 2007 to offer a sustainable hygiene system to mitigate the damage being done to people and the environment from the growing consumption of toxic chemicals.

Businesses at this time had few alternatives to packaged synthetic chemicals. Since then, eWater has introduced the new technology of electrolysed water and on-site generation as a credible, cost-effective, highly sustainable, clean, and safe alternative.  eWater is installed in over 600 sites in Australia, NZ & the Pacific Islands. Many of these are blue-chip Corporate offices and prestige restaurants as well as Hospitals, Child Care, Aged Care, Government Buildings, Prisons, and large Hotels.

In October last year, the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) recognised for the first time that having a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment is a human right.[3]

A proud B Corporation and finalist in the 2020 Banksia Foundation Awards for both the Small Business and Ministers award plus previous winner of the Victorian Premiers Sustainability Award, eWater’s impact so far has been to replace over 264 million litres of synthetic chemicals, reduce around 60 million plastic containers from the waste stream and saved their customers over $25m.

eWater is the most sustainable TGA listed disinfectant available, replacing packaged synthetic chemicals with a disruptive on-site generator to create an endless stream of commercial grade disinfectant, sanitiser, and multi-purpose cleaning solutions – at the turn of a tap.

It’s an elegant circular economy solution that uses the power of nature – water and salt – combined with clever technology to create organic safe hygiene products that protects the planet and people.

With Dawn at the helm alongside our General Manager John Archer, we have a formidable and highly regarded growing team in place to take the eWater business forward. I am certain her business smarts, her passion for the cause, her "cred" and her calmness as a leader will see the company rapidly scale to take advantage of large-scale tailwinds.

Phil will continue working with key eWater client and supplier relationships and within the product development area.

Contact information:

Dawn O’Neil AM – 0419 462 218

Phil Gregory - 0400 181 182

[1]Outside the Safe Operating Space of the Planetary Boundary for Novel Entities; Linn Persson, Bethanie M. Carney Almroth, Christopher D. Collins, et al;  Environmental Science & Technology Publisher: American Chemical Society Date:  Jan 1, 2022 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.1c04158?fig=tgr1&ref=pdf

[2] https://www.wecf.org/de/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Gender-and-Chemicals-Backgroundpaper-_11.21.pdf

Quote from “GENDER JUST CHEMICALS POLICY” WECF, ISSUED 2021 SUMMARY - PAGE 2

[3] https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/landmark-un-resolution-confirms-healthy-environment-human-right