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Code Council and ASPE Present First U.S. World Toilet
Summit

PORT WASHINGTON, NY, 6 July, 2010 -- After nearly a decade of hosting their
annual World Toilet Summit (WTS) mainly in Asia, the World Toilet Organization
(WTO) has instead opted to hold it in the United States for the first time. The 2010
International Code Council World Toilet Summit will be presented by the Code
Council and hosted by the American Society of Plumbing Engineers (ASPE) during
this year’s ASPE Convention and Engineered Plumbing Exposition to be held
October 30 – November 3 in Philadelphia.

This joint ASPE and ICC WTS conference came about as a result of the Code
Council’s strong relationships with both ASPE and the WTO. For the past several
years, the WTO and the Code Council’s Plumbing, Mechanical and Fuel Gas
(PMG) Group have been partnering on various initiatives in an effort to help
improve sanitation conditions worldwide. The Code Council also recently signed
an MOU with ASPE that focuses on collaborating on programs that will advance
the plumbing industry. Bringing all three of these organizations together to promote
plumbing and sanitation innovations and commerce opportunities was a perfect fit.
The theme of the 2010 ICC WTS is “2.6 Billion Sanitation Business Opportunities.”
Holding both the ASPE and ICC WTS events under one roof will dramatically expand
the education, networking and overall business opportunities for ASPE, ICC and
WTO attendees.

The key tracks the World Toilet Summit will feature are Innovations in Global Toilet
Design, Bottom of the Pyramid Market (1.8 billion of the 2.6 billion people without
proper sanitation who have purchasing power) and Micro Financing, Advocacy and
Potty Parity, and the Cleaning and Personal Care Market. This conference will reveal
how to capitalize on these huge markets while helping to solve the sanitation crisis
at the same time. The ICC-focused tracks are Green and Codes & Standards, which
both round out the WTS’s sanitation topics and complement ASPE’s tracks perfectly.
“We are so fortunate to have the right partners for the 2010 World Toilet Summit,”
said Jack Sim, Founder of the World Toilet Organization. “ASPE and the ICC are
such respected and highly professional organizations that are also devoted to
helping to improve sanitation conditions around the world. Partnering with them
to present this important event to U.S. businesses is very exciting.” “We are so
proud to be part of this initiative,” stated Jay Peters, ICC PMG Group Executive
Director. “The attendees and other participants of this powerful conference will
benefit tremendously from the expanded and richer conference and expo offerings,
as well as invaluable networking opportunities for future business ventures that
wouldn’t otherwise be available to them. It will be outstanding for our organizations,
the entire plumbing industry and the businesses that serve them. But, most
importantly, it will undoubtedly go a long way in helping those in need of proper
sanitation worldwide.”

This strategy intends to engage large corporations by demonstrating the staggering
size and profit potential the sanitation market in the developing world offers. The
global sanitation crisis affects 2.6 billion people who still do not have access to
proper sanitation. Diarrhea alone claims two million lives every year. Unfortunately,
most of these victims are children. The sheer volume of demand for sanitation-
related products is mind boggling and the purchasing power and high return on
investment has been proven.

Aside from reaching business decision makers, another objective of bringing the
WTS to the U.S. is to dramatically heighten awareness of the global sanitation crisis
among U.S. policymakers, organizations, and the general public in order to continue
to grow support for this cause, both short- and long-term.

ASPE’s biannual convention attracts thousands of plumbing engineers and other
construction professionals. Their conference tracks focus on the most important
industry topics and their exhibition features over 300 manufacturers, suppliers and
other companies. “We are pleased to be hosting the first U.S. World Toilet Summit
in partnership with the International Code Council that is a result of the culmination
of the strong alliance between ASPE, ICC and the WTO,” added ASPE Executive
Director, Stanley Wolfson. “I and the Society’s 7,000 members are very pleased to
welcome all of their international and domestic attendees. We look forward to seeing
the coming together of engineers, designers, contractors, architects, manufacturers
and all others building professionals to this event that the plumbing industry will
undoubtedly be talking about for the next decade.”

ASPE, ICC and WTO’s collective global plumbing industry cadre of attendees will
have an unparalleled opportunity to meet with and build new peer relationships,
networking alliances, and partnerships, and foster previously unattainable business
opportunities. With the many planned networking and interaction events, coupled
with a dramatically expanded technical and educational program, this event is
shaping up to be the grandest ASPE Convention and Engineered Plumbing
Exposition ever.

For more information about the 2010 ASPE ICC WTS Convention, visit
www.aspe.org, www.iccsafe.org or www.worldtoilet.org. 

Clorox^® “Flushing” Campaign to raise money

for the world toilet organization

Niecy Nash and Clorox  Present “Flushing for a Cause” to  Bring Awareness to

the 2.6 Billion People Without Access to Flushing

Oakland, CA, June 23, 2010 – People taking the subway to Flushing, NY, today, may be in for a free ride and it’s all part of a good cause – access to clean toilets worldwide – that many of us take for granted. 

The Clorox^® Family of Toilet Products has partnered with actress and host Niecy Nash and the World Toilet Organization (WTO) to launch “Flushing for a Cause,” a campaign to help increase awareness of those with access to “flushing” and those without. The goal is to bring attention to the issue that nearly 40 percent of the world that does not have access to toilets[1] and to raise money for the WTO to aid its mission of making toilets accessible and affordable throughout the world.

Nash will launch the campaign today with an event at Grand Central Station where she will help distribute free subway passes to commuters heading to and from Flushing, NY. For every commuter ticket distributed, Clorox will contribute a like-for-like subway fare donation to the WTO, providing approximately 10,000 free rides and a donation of $22,500.  

Those outside of New York, can get involved in the campaign by visiting OdeToTheCommode.com and flushing the virtual toilet. For every flush, Clorox will make a donation to the WTO, up to $10,000*.

“I am joining Clorox toilets and the World Toilet Organization because as a mother of three, it is shocking to me that every day water-related diseases claim the lives of 5,000 children under the age of five. That is roughly one child’s death every 15 seconds[2].  By using a little humor and giving free rides to Flushing, we can help remove the taboo of the toilet and do something to help change this,” said Nash.

Taking Away the Taboo of the Toilet and Flushing to Save Lives

“We are celebrating everything about the toilet including highlighting the basic human right to have one. When we learned that 2.6 billion people worldwide didn’t even have access to a toilet and that 2.2 million people die of water-borne disease each year[3] - we knew we had to fight for people’s right to potty,” said Alice Warren, brand manager for the Clorox Family of Toilet Products. “We are honored to have Niecy and the World Toilet Organization as partners in raising awareness of this important issue.”

The WTO is a global, non-profit organization committed to bringing health and dignity to everyone through clean toilets and sanitation.  The WTO works to advance sanitation through advocacy for the ‘toiletless’, through sanitation education and training, and building capacity within communities in need to construct, sell and install safe, affordable latrines.

“People dislike talking about toilets, and what we do not discuss, we cannot improve.  Projects that include some potty-humor like the ‘Flushing for a Cause’ campaign help the WTO to open a dialogue about sanitation and the devastating truth that billions of people around the world are living and dying without toilets,” said Jack Sim, founder of the WTO. “We know in India people have more cell phones than toilets[4].  It’s a scary statistic when you think about the health implications and the fact that toilets affect every part of our lives. Sanitation keeps kids healthy and in school, it reduces adult illnesses and improves work productivity, and it can spur tourism and development. Toilets have a far greater payoff for a household than cell phone ownership, but we have to be as clever as cell phone companies when it comes to assisting communities in the developing world to market and distribute toilets.”

For more information on the WTO, visit WorldToilet.org.  For more information on the “Flushing for a Cause” campaign or the Clorox Family of Toilet Products and to join the effort by flushing the virtual toilet, visit OdeToTheCommode.com. 

### 

February 2010

World Toilet Organization Receives Urban Innovation Grant to Help Solve Global Sanitation Problems

NGO Encourages Business Models that Facilitate Entrepreneurial Solutions for the Poor

SINGAPORE, February 12, 2010 -- The Rockefeller Foundation of New York has awarded a Networks for Urban Innovation grant of US $140,150 [196,769 SGD] to Singapore-based non-profit, World Toilet Organization [WTO], to expand its mission and capacity to help solve the catastrophic sanitation problems of the world's poor. With this support, WTO is expanding its advocacy and research into finding broad, market-based solutions to address the needs of an estimated 2.5 billion people who do not have access to adequate sanitation in the world.

Since 2001, WTO has been raising awareness about the health risks of living without proper sanitation. Where toilets are not available, people often defecate in the open, in rivers or near areas where children play or food is prepared. This greatly increases the risk of transmission of diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and hepatitis A. According to the World Health Organization, diarrhea kills 1.5 million children every year, and studies show that improved sanitation reduces diarrhea death rates by a third.

Entrepreneurial Solutions
To solve the sanitation deficit, the team at World Toilet Organization wants to do more than provide toilets. In their work, they have found that toilets donated through the traditional charity model often go unused by the communities for whom they are intended, or they fall into disrepair.

"The donor model doesn't work on a large scale," asserts Jack Sim, entrepreneur, Ashoka fellow, and founder of the World Toilet Organization. "It lacks the sustainability and continuity that comes from mobilizing a community to produce, market, sell, distribute and maintain their own sanitation products."

The 2.5 billion of the world's inhabitants who live without the benefit of proper sanitation are a part of the base of the global economic pyramid. As a consumer group, this market is called the "bottom/base of the pyramid" or BOP. This term was coined by management guru CK Prahalad to describe the 40% of the world's population who live on less than $2 USD per day.

WTO has embraced Prahalad's market philosophy -- that great progress can be made in alleviating poverty by inviting the poor into the formal economy. In terms of sanitation, that means providing the poor with access to quality toilets at affordable prices, often facilitated through private-public sector partnership models. On-going success in this market strategy has demonstrated that this approach can outpace charity alone in elevating hygiene standards worldwide.

"By using creative social marketing messages, innovating cheaper toilet designs and assisting local suppliers, WTO can help create demand for toilets, and work with local enterprises to grow their businesses while meeting this demand," says Danielle Pedi, who manages WTO's base-of-the-pyramid market development project in Cambodia. "Many people believe they cannot afford a toilet because the few available products are out of their price range. However, when we can help businesses supply products and services that are desirable and affordable for households, and easily purchased locally, demand for toilets increases exponentially."

Scaling Up the Market Response
Jack Sim believes it's time to build on the success of base-of-the-pyramid sanitation marketing operations like the one headed by Pedi in Cambodia. Capitalizing on the growing global interest in enterprise-based strategies for serving the BOP, Sim has been bringing together leading business managers, social entrepreneurs, academics, design and marketing teams as well as non-profit leaders to help WTO create an appealing, easily replicable franchise model for sanitation retail catering to BOP consumers.

Referring to the classic Chinese proverb, Sim states, "You can give a man a fish and feed him for a day, or teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime. We want to do more than this. We need to revolutionize the fishing industry! By helping establish complete supply chains in sanitation for the poor, we can generate jobs with sustainability in production, installation, distribution, maintenance and sales."

With the largest segment of the global BOP market living in Asia, the team at WTO thinks Singapore is an ideal hub for design, marketing and distribution of goods catering to this largely ignored consumer group. As a by-product of their work to provide toilets for those in need, WTO has become an advocate of economic outreach to the poor that is more than mere charity, and is leading the way in creating business models that incorporate the voices of those at the base of the pyramid.

Released March 2, 2010

World Toilet Organization Says: "Plight of 2.5 Billion People Is Not a Frivolous Issue"

Dear Governor Perry,

In your recently-released ad entitled "The Queen (of Earmarks)", you imply that "billions" of US taxpayer dollars were spent on frivolous-sounding projects—the first of which, as your ad's dramatic voiceover and blood-red font explain with little sense of subtlety, is the World Toilet Summit.

As the organizers of the World Toilet Summit, we at the World Toilet Organization take strong issue with both of your misleading implications. And while the Associated Press has already called your claim "a distortion" and detailed the misleading path your advertising consultants used to connect our organization with your political opponent (see the AP's quote below), we want to set the record straight on your lack of awareness into one of the world's most critical public health issues.

You see, Governor Perry, 2.5 billion people – roughly half of our world's population – have no access to safe, hygienic sanitation facilities. For the past 10 years, the annual World Toilet Summit has served as the only global platform to focus solely on the issue of sanitation. Hardly frivolous, in other words.

This basic deficiency has a catastrophic effect on public health. Where toilets are not available, people often defecate in the open, in rivers, or near areas where children play or food is prepared. This greatly increases the risk of transmission of diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and Hepatitis A. As a result, about two million people die from water-borne diseases each year.

And most of the victims of water-borne illness are young children. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), diarrhea kills 1.5 million children every year. These children silently disappear from the world at a rate of 4,000 each day. According to United Nations data, more children die from water-borne illness than from HIV/AIDS, malaria and measles combined. What's more, WHO studies show that improved sanitation reduces diarrhea death rates by a third.

Governor Perry, do you really stand behind an ad that implies the United States shouldn't support efforts to save children's lives? (Even though, as the AP points out, your opponent had no role in any such support?)

Since 2001, the World Toilet Organization has been working to improve global sanitation on three fronts: fieldwork, education and training, and advocacy and outreach. Which is why we gave our organization and our yearly gathering the name that your attack ad so creatively punctuated with the sound of a flushing toilet. Because the need for advocacy is vital, our founder—social entrepreneur and Ashoka fellow Jack Sim—chose to give his organization a memorable name and brand. He used humor and media appeal to break down the taboo of talking about toilets in order to get key players engaged in solving the lack of sanitation in the world and the resulting crisis of disease and death.

Held in ten global cities over the last ten years, The World Toilet Summit provides the opportunity for the world's leaders, policy makers and members of civil society to dialogue and debate on current sanitation issues confronting the sector. Such dignitaries as the Crown Prince of Holland/Prince of Orange Alexander Williams, President Abdul Kalam of India, and the mayors of Belfast, Moscow and Suwon City, Korea have all recognized the importance of the work this Summit does every year. As do representatives from the World Bank Water and Sanitation Program, UNICEF, the Gates Foundation, the Asian Development Bank, USAID, as well as researchers and sanitation activists from around the world.

Governor Perry, we believe that your efforts to smear your opponent are misinformed and misleading; worse, though, they distract from a serious issue that kills millions of people every year. We invite you to attend our next World Toilet Summit so you can join world leaders in recognizing the vital importance of improving sanitation.

Because the 4,000 children who die from preventable diarrheal diseases every day deserve genuine help—not deceptive and witless political opportunism.

Sincerely,
The World Toilet Organization

Singapore

AP story: Perry hits Hutchison on pork spending "...To say [that congress] spent money on the World Toilet Summit is a distortion. Hutchison voted in favor of a foreign aid bill which included $13.5 million to be set aside for a contribution to the International Fund for Ireland, an organization created to advance economic and social conditions in Ireland. The IFI helped to finance the World Toilet Summit in Belfast in September 2005 - two months before the Senate gave unanimous final approval to the measure."

-- April Castro, Associated Press Writer

Released