In 2003 Jean-Michel Cousteau, the son of legendary oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, met with his friend, Wendell Adams, founder and inventor of WaterBrick, for breakfast one morning. During their conversation, Jean-Michel challenged Wendell to address the global need for clean water and the recycling of plastic waste worldwide. What started as a casual conversation soon became the catalyst for a major movement. Adams accepted Cousteau’s challenge and became determined to create a plastic water container that could deliver water and food to people living in remote, impoverished parts of the world and also victims of natural disasters like storms, tsunamis and earthquakes. That container, once emptied of its contents, could then be repurposed to build transitional or basic housing.