What would you say if two out of five people in your town had to defecate in the street? Where would you hide if you had to relieve yourself and there was no bathroom available? Embarrassing maybe, but this is not the only issue... INDEX: AND WORLD TOILET ORGANIZATION TOILET AND SANITATION DESIGN LAB MONDAY SEPTEMBER 6, 2010, 9:30 – 17:00 THE DANISH MUSEUM OF ART AND DESIGN
Photo by Thomas Larsen
“It is a problem that has been neglected for a long time. And it is a problem that is unsolvable for just one person – we have to convince groups worldwide to join hands and create solutions. It is good fortune that INDEX: is making an effort to gather passionate and enthusiastic people via this workshop.” / Jack Sim Founder World Toilet Organization (SG)
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DESIGNERS TALK SH** What would you say if two out of five people in your town had to defecate in the street? Where would you hide if you had to relieve yourself and there was no bathroom available? Embarrassing maybe, but this is not the only issue...
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), eight out of ten diseases and one in four deaths in developing countries can be attributed to polluted water. 2.6 billion people in the world are in need of basic sanitation. That is two out of five people. If the trend continues, experts forecast that it will be impossible to achieve the UN’s Millennium Development Goal concerning access to basic sanitation. If we are to reach that goal, one billion people must gain access to improved sanitation over the next five years. Workshop on human waste Therefore, designing optimum solutions to meet the specific needs of developing countries has to be a major concern. This is not just a matter of focusing on health issues; it is also a matter of human dignity. Furthermore, continued use of water-based toilets does not seem to be sustainable, since a shortage of fresh water is a rapidly growing issue in the developing and the developed world.
INDEX: Design to Improve Life would like to contribute to meeting this challenge of providing the world with better access to basic sanitation, and therefore, in collaboration with World Toilet Organization and the Technical University of Denmark, we invited designers to participate in our Toilet and Sanitation Designlab on September 6, 2010. The workshop was a springboard for a concept called SaniShop, a vision developed by the World Toilet Organization for a sanitation franchise model that can be established as a status symbol brand. A flush of creativity INDEX: brought in experts from abroad to host the workshop. One of them is Jack Sim, the founder of the World Toilet Organization, who is happy to see so many people serious about getting to work and coming up with ideas to solve one of the world’s biggest problems — the lack of sanitation for more than 2.6 billion people. The Designlab’s three workshops included very diverse concepts, and the solutions are all dependant upon and related to each other. There is still work to be
done, but the discussions and promising concepts explored the issues of sanitation in new ways: .................................
“This is a problem of extreme dimensions, and it has an everyday effect on billions of people. It is important to pay attention to the fact that problems of this size actually can be solved by designers. It is not about designing yet another domestic product but about designing to improve life in a greater sense and cast light on the issue addressed.” / Kigge Hvid CEO INDEX: Design to Improve Life (DK) .................................
Results of the three workshops Monday September 6, 2010: The Designlab was divided into three main focus areas: Branding design, business model design and product design. The results can be seen on the following pages. In order to illustrate the concepts, a fictitious community, Bhundaheda, has been created. Enjoy.
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Designers’ innovative approach to problems and challenges results in concepts where previous solutions have been explored and future solutions tested. Their creative mindsets highlight new concepts and address challenges in ways one could never imagine.
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NGOs provide years of knowledge and know-how to designers that they would never themselves be able to obtain. Furthermore, the NGOs can contribute extensive cultural insight which often helps the process of implementing the design in environments foreign to the designers and entrepreneurs.
Photo by Thomas Larsen
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BRANDING DESIGN Chaired by: Kim Fridbjørg Creative director Built Identity (DK) / Pia Betton Strategic partner Built Identity (DK)
This workshop focused on the branding aspects of establishing SaniShop as a trusted brand that is easily recognized.
“It is all about communicating visually and creating images so the toilets sell. We have to remember that there are many people in India who cannot read and we have to speak to their pride, sense of dignity, responsibility and to their common sense.” / Pia Betton Strategic partner Built Identity (DK)
Focus
The Door to Dreams
The branding team addressed the issue of making improved sanitation attractive by focusing on the following four key points:
Imagine the following video being displayed on your cell phone: The CO-TO established in the fictitious community of Bhundaheda and at the CO-TO the villagers have the opportunity to buy a little private time to dream away. Sani is one of them. He uses the toilet everyday when he needs to and he is happy about it. Around his neck, dangles a key on a chain — the “CO-TO Status Key”. Everybody in the village knows what the key means. It means that Sani is a member of the CO-TO and that he uses a real toilet. That makes him clever and respected in the eyes of the community. Sani almost never becomes ill after he started using the CO-TO, which has really helped him in his cricket training. Sani is on the cricket team and his health is important to him. Making the cricket team has been Sani’s dream for many years. The community looks at him as the example of how you can benefit from using the CO-TO.
1. Status Everybody wants to appear wealthy, intelligent and trendsetting. 2. Lifestyle Everybody wants to be modern and smart and appear “macho”. 3. Responsibility Everybody wants to feel pride in how they take care of their family, thus feeling dignified and earning respect. 4. Common sense Everybody is able to see the benefits of safe, comfortable, clean and convenient sanitation. It is all about making it attractive to have and to use improved sanitation — it must be associated with status, health and intelligence. Therefore, brand image is the key — the key to privacy, to dreams, to prosperity and to health. T-shirts, signs, a statuskey to the toilet, etc. could be used to advertise these concepts. Sanitation could be a cooperation of toilets — the CO-TO — to which the community can buy access. It should be seen as: “The Door to Dreams”.
Open defecation is still an everyday scenario...
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BUSINESS MODEL DESIGN Chaired by: Jack Sim Founder World Toilet Organization (SG)
This workshop looked into how the business model of SaniShop can be established in a way that allows for global scaling and a sound basis for all partners.
FOCUS
The business team began with the SaniShop concept, a vision developed by the World Toilet Organization for a sanitation franchise model that can be established as a status symbol brand. The business team also focused on the opportunity to sell human manure as fertilizer. The team addressed the following three essential points concerning improved sanitation: 1. Economic sustainability Related to the maintenance and service of the shelter, the seating and the sewer tank. These categories are held up against three fictitious personas, who all have different interests in the toilets: ∙ The user ∙ The leaser ∙ The leasing company 2. Service and distribution Concerned with emptying the toilets and the required financing.
Did you know...
3. Quality and franchising Concerned with the maintenance and quality of the sanitation.
...that 2.6 billion people do not use improved sanitation. 72% of them live in Asia?
These key points were addressed individually.
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Did you know that 80% of diseases and 25% of deaths in developing countries are due to polluted water, partly a result of poor sanitation?
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Economic sustainability
Service and distribution
Quality and franchising
In the fictitious community of Bhundaheda, the toilet is leased by Banga, and every week, Banga collects money from the toilet’s users. In return, Banga ensures that the toilets are clean and intact and that the leasing company gets their rent. Each month, there is a gathering at the community school, where the local health clinics educate the community on why the toilets are good to use and how to use them. This is included in the leasing contract.
Example 1: Every day, the school in Bhundaheda collects the contents from the school toilets. Over time, human waste degrades to a fertilizer and the manure is then used to fertilize the school’s fields and crops. Consequently, in the end, the school children contribute to growing their own food, thereby earning themselves a free lunch. There is much talk at dinner time about who contributed the most to the harvest that year — the Bhundaheda kids find it amusing.
To secure maintenance and high quality, the community of Bhundaheda has to elect a person or organization from the village to be responsible for the franchising. It is always exciting when a new franchiser is elected. It is a great honor to be elected, since the whole village relies on this person to maintain and be responsible of the communal toilets. This year, it is Banga, and he is proud to be elected. Included in the franchising package is education and training in maintenance and set-up of the toilets, so Banga is aware of all services required. To be elected franchiser is a big responsibility, and with the election comes a rating system. On World Toilet Day, November 19, the different community toilets are rated, and Banga is nervous, since he gains or loses respect in the community based on the rating of the toilets. Therefore, Banga does a good job every day.
“It is really a crime how we use toilets in the Western world. We defecate and pee directly into clean drinking water!” / Eskild Højland Architect MAA and Industriel designer (DK)
Example 2: There is a phone near the toilet facilities in Bhundaheda. Every time the toilets are emptied, the driver fills up the credit in the phone corresponding to the quantity of manure collected from the toilets. The more manure the villagers left in the toilets, the more money they can spend on the phone. This is a reoccurring weekly event, and the villagers love it, since it buys them the opportunity to call distant relatives. Example 3: In a village near Bhundaheda, the local community is exchanging human manure for clean drinking water. Sometimes, when the water supply of the nearby village is not needed, the Bhundaheda community can choose to have a health inspection, a movie night or other entertainment instead of the water.
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17% of the world’s population still defecated in the open in 2008, compared to 25% in 1990?
The SaniShop shareholders should always: ∙ Communicate that they are in it for the greater cause. ∙ Supply ONE free prototype to the community. ∙ Represent the SaniShop brand. ∙ Comply with the given standards. ∙ Give back 5% of profits to the community. ∙ Distribute and provide easy-to- understand directions for use. ∙ Provide a fixed, recommended price. ∙ Stay up-to-date with new instructions from SaniShop.
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“It is all about telling a story where shit becomes flowers! Many of these people do not even have homes. They need accessible sanitation where they spend their time – in the community! ” / Jette Banke Industrial designer Knud Holscher Design (DK)
“I myself have had a dry non-flushing toilet in my house. It was really no problem. And the kids loved it — they were really exploring!” / Ralf Otterpohl Univ. Prof. Dr.-Ing. TUHH Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg (D)
PRODUCT DESIGN Chaired by: Torben Lenau Associate professor The Technical University of Denmark (DK) / Ralf Otterpohl Univ. Prof. Dr.-Ing. TUHH Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg (D)
This workshop looked into possible design solutions and considered various technologies.
FOCUS
The product design team began with four essential situations related to using the toilet and the feelings associated with the following situations: 1. The urge We want our toilet to be private, accessible and safe. 2. The first impression We want our toilet to be safe, dry, private and odorless. 3. The act We want our toilet to be sound free, comfortable, dry flushing, clean and hygienic. 4. After the act We want our visit to the toilet to be relieving, dry, clean and dignifying. The product design team was inspired by biomimetics. The theory of biomimetics is based on gathering inspiration from nature and among animals. An example is how the lion rolls around in other animal’s feces to cover up their own smell. Likewise, cats cover up their waste to hide the smell.
80-90% of India’s surface water is contaminated by human waste pollution. If we cannot solve the sanitation issue, we cannot solve water issues.
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toilet #1:
toilet #2:
Transportation:
It is important that there is no smell or flies and that the toilet is clean, easy to handle and has a simple collection system. The toilet should also be flexible:
Another toilet in Bhundaheda is created based on inspiration from birds. Banga has noticed that birds wrap their waste when they defecate. Therefore there is a membrane in the toilet in which the waste of the villagers ends up. The membrane naturally bends down from the weight of the waste. Mechanically, the membrane is closed by the toilet and each deposit becomes an eco-pouch. The waste gets wrapped in the same way as Banga once saw in a Western world bucket used for diapers. The wrapping bags are a little expensive, but Banga knows which of the villagers can afford them and which cannot. The smell is enclosed and there is no visual contact with the waste. Banga knows how to cover the eco-pouches with lactose bacteria to speed up the fertilizing process.
The focus on speeding up the degrading process of human waste makes the manure from Banga’s toilets attractive among the big farmers near Bhundaheda. They drive to the village with sealed containers to maintain a high level of safety and hygiene. It works like a return-bag system. The waste is deposited in a container with dirt to speed up the degrading process. When ready, the waste is spread on fields as fertilizer.
∙ In terms of distributing the waste where there are moun tains, sometimes no roads, big cities with tall buildings and narrow streets. ∙ In terms of cultural differences, possible add-ons are needed, such toilet seats, Western world style toilets, squatting toilets or a pedal toilet. The fictitious community of Bhundaheda has a dry toilet, where the waste easily gets to the bottom of the bucket due to the shape of the toilet. There is no water in the toilet, but the waste doesn’t hit the sides, so it is no problem. The lid opens mechanically when a user sits down and it closes when he/she leaves the toilet seat again, covering the bucket of the toilet, keeping the flies away and blocking off the smell. The bucket is replaced by Banga every day. The unused bucket has a little soil and lactose bacteria in the bottom to speed up the degrading processes and turning the human waste into efficient fertilizers.
Did you know...
...that human waste as fertilizer increases growth in crops by a minimum of 50%?
Did you know...
...that 80% of diseases and 25% of deaths in developing countries can be traced to polluted water, which is partly a result of poor sanitation?
It is not only the physical lack of sanitation that is challenging. Mindsets must also be changed, both in the Western and in the third world.
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COOPERATION BETWEEN DESIGNERS AND NGOs
Close cooperation between designers and social entrepreneurs like the World Toilet Organization is not a new discovery. Yet cooperation of this nature could help solve some of the world’s problems. Innovation and know-how Cooperation between NGOs and designers makes it possible to secure long term solutions that are not only driven by profit, but also by the wish to improve the lives of those in need. This is done through a triple-bottom-line sustainable design where every link in the chain has been considered without short term quick fixes.
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The advantage of pairing up designers and NGOs lies in the expertise of the following two parts: 1
Designers’ innovative approach to problems and challenges results in concepts where previous solutions have been explored and future solutions tested. Their creative mindsets highlight new concepts and address challenges in ways one could never imagine.
2 NGOs provide years of knowl edge and know-how to desig ners that they would never themselves be able to obtain. Furthermore, the NGOs can contribute extensive cultural insight which often helps the process of implementing the design in environments foreign to the designers and entrepreneurs.
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A Rewarding Relationship The benefits of cooperation between NGOs and designers are obvious — at least on paper: .................................
“We need many more examples of these kinds of collaborations between non-profit, idealistic organizations and innovative and creative designers. It is collaborations like these that are able to change the world and improve life for the people who need it.” / Kigge Hvid CEO INDEX: Design to Improve Life (DK) .................................
INDEX: Design to Improve Life and the World Toilet Organization seek to further develop improved sanitation in developing countries.
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Close cooperation between designers and social entrepreneurs like the World Toilet Organization is not a new discovery. Yet cooperation of this nature could help solve some of the world’s problems.
Š www.istockphoto.com/ hadynyah
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FUTURE PERSPECTIVE
The results of the first Designlab are promising and show a great deal of potential. There is still work to be done, but the founder of the World Toilet Organization, Jack Sim, is pleased with the results of the INDEX: Designlab: .................................
“It was a great step forward for World Toilet Organization’s SaniShop project, and the enthusiastic response was really encouraging.” / Jack Sim Founder World Toilet Organisation (SG) .................................
It is important that the final solution creates a franchise that can go fast and far, that the majority will like, and of course, that functions really well. Communities need to be loyal to the franchising concept, which – according to Jack Sim – must be a direct consequence of ongoing quality control. Not just the developing countries According to associate professor Torben Lenau, we need to implement sanitation solutions at such a high quality that Western countries would want to implement them as well:
Next step
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“We need to think of solutions that are more sustainable to the environment and do not include water. Think of the Danish sewer system that has reached its limit, resulting in flooding. What would you rather do? Pay a lot of money to improve the sewer system or create a solution where the sewers are no longer needed? We need long-term solutions, applicable to India as well as the West.” / Torben Lenau Associate professor The Technical University of Denmark (DK) .................................
It is not only the physical lack of sanitation that is challenging. Mindsets must also be changed, both in the Western and in the third world. But that already seems to be occurring. When visiting India, local men and fathers approached Jack Sim, founder of the World Toilet Organization, with the following statement: “We do not want our daughters to marry men who do not have a proper toilet!”
These concepts will be further evolved at a three day workshop in Bremen, Germany, hosted by Ralf Otterpohl, Univ. Prof. Dr.-Ing. TUHH Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg. Furthermore, INDEX: will contribute with two lectures based on the Designlab at the World Toilet Summit, which takes place in Philadelphia, United States, between October 31 and November 3, 2010. At INDEX:, we hope that many of you designers and NGOs out there will illuminate the challenges of improved sanitation for the third world in order to reach the UN Millennium Development Goal for 2015!
Photo by Thomas Larsen
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INDEX: 2011 is under the patronage of HRH the Crown Prince of Denmark. INDEX: is supported by:
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KLIMA-NEUTRAL TRYKSAG