Jack Sim’s mind is in the toilet. Or rather on the toilet. In face, he thinks that toilets are not only one of the keys to a global economic recovery, but also to empowering the developing world. Perhaps he’s spent too long on the “seat of wisdom”, or maybe he’s got a damn good idea.

Consider this: worldwide there are 2.5 billion people without access to proper sanitation. This is really bad news as it means that many are left to do “business” in rather uncomfortable and unsanitary conditions. It also means that effluent is not properly treated in many countries, and often winds up contaminating the ecosystems of rivers, lakes, and streams. This of course has knock on effects with drinking water, and that can spell some nasty diseases from contamination. 

Now move from this scene to one of a corporate board room on the other side of the planet: business people are trying to find new markets and new products to make money. The recession has meant belt tightening, and not only that, how many flat screen televisions does the average household really need? 

Well if a 2.5 billion person market doesn’t attract attention, what would?

Problem is, conventional business strategy sees these underprivileged “bottom of the pyramid” people as poor, and therefore, not worthy of much business attention. As with the conventional logic that spurned our recent economic crisis, this notion is worth flushing. 

While the poor might not have heaps of wealth, they are still are promising market for businesses as they represent a volume opportunity. Why not try selling a million useful things to people at a reasonable cost, than a few expensive big ticket items to the really rich?

Telecoms have recognized this opportunity for millions of new customers. Nokia is one such example.   Its introduction of Nokia money (a credit that is swappable between mobile phones) in developing nations has not only meant success for the company, but has also served as a de facto second currency in several African nations. African warlord got you down? National currency a bit deflated? Use your Nokia money to pay for groceries instead this week. Not a bad idea. 

So back to the toilet. How to connect the bottom of the pyramid with the businesses in a position to help?

Jack Sim started the World Toilet Organisation (or WTO) to connect these two seemingly disparate parties in the name of mutual progress. The UN estimates that $1 spent on sanitation yields $9 in economic benefit (think lower disease rates, less trips to the doctor, better environmental quality, better health, which then means higher productivity, and consistent wages).   Good sanitation is therefore one cornerstone of alleviating poverty.   

Breaking down silos, the WTO works to bring governments, aid agencies, community groups, and businesses together to help solve sanitation challenges worldwide. According to Mr. Sim, just throwing money at the problem is not going go solve anything. “Merely throwing aid dollars around only creates a dependency mentality, and incentivizes people not to help themselves,” he says.

The answer lies in treating this new market just as you would with any market. That means involving the customers, respecting them as real people with very real needs, subsidizing the market development instead of hardware costs, developing rural markets for sanitation services, empowering local entrepreneurs, and facilitating links between demand and supply.

“Poor people are intelligent, discerning, brand conscious, and prudent with their money. Quite literally, they cannot afford to make a purchasing mistake,” says Mr. Sim. “Not only that, poor people are highly entrepreneurial out of necessity. They do not want to look poor and have a great amount of pride. Part of the solution is to make toilets a status symbol to help spur demand.   A vision needs to be created in the community that everyone aspires to better health and sanitation.”

The good news is, even in developing nations, there are many low cost fixtures on the market already, some as cheap as US$250-400. There are also many ways to keep the whole process affordable. A village might come together to build a shared toilet block and biogas digester unit, or individuals might get a microfinance loan to have facilities installed in their home. In many countries, distribution networks are largely already in place, with over 4000+ low cost distributors in Bangladesh alone.  

As sanitation becomes community and national priority, it opens up opportunity for new jobs and micro enterprises. Sure there are some gaps to fill along the way, but with some careful planning, coordination, and facilitation of low-cost financing, they’re not impossible to overcome, and certainly worth the results. Healthier people, better environment and water quality, increased economic opportunity, and new business possibilities—it’s a hard bottom line to argue with. And that’s where the WTO comes in to catalyze the process.

From a business point of view, Mr. Sim sees it like this: sanitation and hygiene yield health and optimism. Optimistic healthy people are then better positioned to work and be entrepreneurial, thereby getting a better income and slowly raising themselves out of poverty. As they climb up the ladder, they enjoy better well-being and have more opportunity for the future.

“Sooner or later, if you persist, it will have to happen. By helping the world’s poor, we are really helping ourselves at the same time. It’s a win-win situation,” says Mr. Sim. 

Mr. Sim started the WTO in 2001 and has seen progressive involvement since, with everyone from the UN to the Clinton Global Initiative getting involved. It now has 215 member organizations in 57 countries. Annual conferences have raised attention to sanitation issues on the global stage. While the WTO might seem to have achieved glamorous standings, even for a toilet association, the reality is that it started from a very humble, simple background.

At the age of 25, Mr. Sim started in business and was quite successful. By age 40, he was comfortably wealthy and pondering retirement, or starting a new business. He then had the inkling that perhaps, rather than put his wealth on a roulette wheel once again just to make more money, a change was in order. “I was looking for something meaningful,” he says. “Death is a sure thing and I might as well do something positive. I saw toilets and sanitation as a neglected area, something that in many cultures, people were afraid to talk about. I figured it couldn’t get any worse, so it was time to make a difference.”  

With that very simple motivation, he got things flowing. “The more difficult the challenge, the more kick you get from solving it,” he says. “For me, it was about becoming an ordinary human being again, and just feeling happy.”

The National Museum of Singapore was graced last night with some of Southeast Asia’s leading innovators.  Both native talent and international experts were showcased in an event hosted by Qi Global.  The event themed Human Progress in Harmony with Nature was incredibly significant, not only for the speakers, but for the fact that it sought to connect people with the ability to create change. 

“When you ask someone if they think that climate change is happening, they say yes.  When you ask them if they are doing anything about it, they say no.  Where did that disconnect happen?” questioned Paul Coleman, director of Qi Global.  “We want to inspire people to think about the long term, and simply put, care about the future.”

The evening was full of people who did exactly that, many starting out from extremely humble means and little money.  Dr. Willie Smits, founder of the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation was one such example.  He arrived in Indonesia from the Netherlands and became smitten with the local wildlife.  Very quickly he realized the large scale destruction that plagues rainforests in Indonesia, with poor farmers clashing and burning in order to open up areas to agricultural land.  In 1998 alone, over 5.5 million hectares were lost to fires set by locals, which were exasperated by layers of coal near the surface.  For roughly 3 months, only minor sunlight could get through the thick haze of smoke.

Under such conditions, the native orangutans are frequently driven from their habitat, often turning up in villages where they quickly become food for impoverished locals.  Dr. Smits sought to change all that, and starting only with small donations bought up incremental parcels of land.  Using mixed agriculture techniques, he slowly transformed acres of landscape from agricultural plain back to rainforest.  “Interaction lead to innovation,” he said.  “We used over 1232 different species of plants to regenerate the area, not just for nature, but for human well-being also.” 

In this mix was bamboo that could be harvested for a number of uses, as well as the highly valuable sugar palms.  Far different than oil palms, sugar palms provide 20 times more jobs, and also have an extremely high sugar component making them valuable as an ethanol biofuel source. 

People in the area were taught these farming techniques and recruited for the replanting efforts that have reclaimed an every growing area of land each year.  Dr. Smits used diversity of plants and their purposes to fulfill not only ecological roles, but also to help create livelihoods for locals so they could step beyond their traditional slash and burn methods.  The evening’s raffle went to benefit the project. 

Also in Indonesia, designer and entrepreneur Singgih Susilo Karotono helped transform his village of Kandangan in Central Java.  He developed a high quality process for manufacturing a wide range of handcrafted wooden pieces, from chopsticks to radios.  Working alongside European buyers, he created a market for his products and grown his business to the point that it now employs 30 locals.  Like Dr. Smits, Singgih had more than just ecological outcomes in mind.  He wanted the products to redefine how people viewed with and interacted with nature.  “A product is part of our life and people often have a strong connection with what they own.  We need to have a similar relationship with the environment as we are all a part of nature,” he said.  “Beyond reduce, reuse, and recycle that everyone knows, we need to redefine what our lives and products are like in the first place.”

His formula was simple: use small amounts of wood to craft high quality, high value products that are beautiful and sell for a fair price point.  Teach the local craftspeople how to manufacture at this level and help them learn business skills to regenerate the local economy.  Use profits from the business to regenerate local environment and encourage the planting of new trees, not only for future material, but for ecological benefit. 

A Thai based designer took a different approach.  Dr. Singh Intrachooto (centre right) the design principal at Osisu was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of agricultural waste Thailand produced annually.  “Right now, we focus too much on the product, not on the process,” he said.  “Often something we make creates as much as 32x the waste as the final product we use.”

Some 38 million tons of waste emerges from farming everything from rice to oranges every year in Thailand, not to mention the waste that comes from manufacturing processes that produce everything from buttons to foam for sofas.  Dr. Singh set about experimenting with the different materials, seeing how they could be given new life.  One by one, new products took shape.  Old steel pipes were reborn as park benches, pop tops as stylish handbags, plastic waste as chic modern seating.  His solutions were genius in how they used waste streams as primary materials, and how they challenged what we think of as conventionally designed products.  His designs are in hot demand with audiences across Asia and as far away as Europe. 

The evening’s events also included presentations from Filipino designer Kenneth Cobonpue (above image, left), world-renowned Danish conservationist Lone Droscher Nielsen (above image, right) and acclaimed jewelry designer John Hardy who founded the Green School in Bali.  What all these stories had in common was the ability for every day people to transform our world for the better, starting in their own “backyard” and often by trying to tackle a single problem.  The innovation demonstrated in all of these stories was extremely inspiring. 

Beyond the luminaries presenting on stage, there was plenty of local talent on hand at the event, including the controversial Ivy Singh-Lim (image right, centre) of Bollywood Organics, model and presenter Nadya Hutagulang, and fashionable green scenester Olivia Choong. 

While interest in sustainability issues in Asia might be a slow process, it seems likely that the tide is shifting.  The room was packed with everyone from gallery owners to product designers and bankers; over 200 people attended on the evening.  With interest and enthusiasm we look forward to upcoming events.