Social Innovation

What is Social Innovation?

The World Economic Forum describes it as “the application of innovative, practical, sustainable, business-like approaches that achieve positive social and/or environmental change“

Sounds pretty good. I bet we could use a lot more of that

As the world becomes more globalized there is a greater awareness around social and environmental issues. Companies are now being much more socially accountable, whether its just for branding or they actually care is still debatable. However the outcome is essentially the same.

For example, a personal favourite eatery Zambreros donates a meal to someone in need for every burrito you buy, pretty neat. The program is called Plate4Plate and it makes every burrito that little bit more delicious.

What about wastewater innovation?

This is a wastewater blog after all

Maybe you’ve read about the fatbergs in UK, or seen it on social media. Well there’s been a raft of social innovation responses. For example, in New York and Dallas there have been Cease the Grease programs to teach residents and businesses about how to properly discard fats and oils. This is a really fun and interactive site on the same wavelength, bin it don’t block it.

Fatberg is a cool headline and the news is relevant to those in large cities but aside from avoiding a clogged sewer the impacts aren’t exactly world changing.

So what are some serious wastewater issues for social innovators to sink their teeth into? Figuratively speaking of course. Sinking your teeth into wastewater wouldn’t be very sanitary. Nailed that hook.

Sanitation

Sanitation is a HUUUUUUGGGGEEEEEEEEEE issue!

“More than a third of the world’s population (2.4 billion people) lacks access to adequate excreta disposal”

Source: CAIRNCROSS, S. 2003. Sanitation in the developing world: current status and future solutions. International Journal of Environmental Health Research, 13, 123-131.

Most schools in developing countries don’t have toilets. 40 percent of the world’s school-age children have worm infections, predisposing them to cognitive and developmental problems. It is also estimated that 5,000 children die every day from diseases because of lack of safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene.

This is a much more complex problem than it appears and the shear magnitude makes it hard to approach. There is still a lot of work to be done in combating these issues but there has been some headway.

A Program in Bangladesh in 1998 provided micro-credit loans to women which lead to the increased the presence of latrines in their household from 9 to 26 percent over three years; the control group showed a slight decrease in latrine presence during the same time period.
Source: (Husain AM. Poverty Alleviation and Empowerment: The Second Impact Assessment Study of BRAC’s Rural Development Programme. Muzzam, Dhaka, Bangladesh: BRAC; 1998)

This study shows that there is demand for sanitation, especially from women as they are typically more responsible for sanitation of the family.

The graph below depicts % of population with improved sanitation by region in 2002

Coverage with improved sanitation by region in 2002

Source: UNICEF and WHO 2004

From the graph it can be seen that there has been significant improvement, but there’s still a long way to go, especially in Oceania, Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. While there is a need and demand for improvement there isn’t the money, and that’s the bottom line.

We really need the developed world to step in dump a whole bunch of money and innovation on this problem. And to some extent that’s happening.

Bill Gates

Picture source 

The computer guy, richest dude in the world. Luckily also seems to have a soul and does a lot of philanthropy. His foundation the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funds a lot of good work and is the largest private foundation in the world. But they don’t just throw money at problems until they go away, they set up smart and sustainable projects that will make long lasting change by enabling the developing world to look after itself.

My favourite project that the foundation has funded is Janicki Bioenergy’s brainchild, the  Omniprocessor. It basically takes sewerage and turns it into clean water, energy and building materials! AMAZING. It does everything!

I talk more about this amazingness in my vlog here

And definitely check out this video and this video which explains the processor, the situation in Dakar and is where all those great clips came from in my vlog.

As well as the Omniprocessor the foundation is also involved in the “Reinvent the Toilet Challenge”

The aims of the challenge is to bring sustainable sanitation solutions to the 2.4 billion people worldwide who don’t have access to safe, affordable sanitation. The solution has to address these points:

• Removes germs from human waste and recovers valuable resources such as energy, clean water, and nutrients.
• Operates “off the grid” without connections to water, sewer, or electrical lines.
• Costs less than US$.05 cents per user per day.
• Promotes sustainable and financially profitable sanitation services and businesses that operate in poor, urban settings.
• Is a truly aspirational next-generation product that everyone will want to use—in developed as well as developing nations

There has been some really interesting development and ideas. Check them out here!

Another initiative is to eliminate the smell from toilets so that people actually use them! (no one was using them cause they smelt so bad). This video which i’ll embed below is great. The process is surprisingly scientific.

Until next time, cheers!