The United Nations General Assembly officially designated World Toilet Day in 2013 to raise awareness and inspire efforts to tackle the global sanitation crisis. A lack of basic sanitation affects more than 2.4 billion people around the world, making “access to water and sanitation for all” an important platform for the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

"Access to safe, clean, sanitation facilities should be a basic, human right," said Mauricio Troncoso, Vice President and Managing Director for Western Europe for Kimberly-Clark Corporation. "The nature of our business gives us a unique understanding of sanitation and toilets, and the opportunity to improve and change lives for the better."

Toilet Board Coalition

One of the tools to solving the crisis is the Toilet Board Coalition, a business led public-private partnership co-founded by Kimberly-Clark. Now in its fourth year, its members are multinational corporations, development experts, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations and social investors, who share a joint vision and mission to support and accelerate commercially sustainable business models dedicated to building smart, sustainable sanitation systems for the future. 

With the help of Kimberly-Clark leaders with a wide variety of skills from marketing, sales, finance, research, logistics and human resources, the Toilet Board Coalition is providing access to innovation and support for business processes that help entrepreneurs focus on providing sustainable access to a proper toilet.

"This model works because it's about mutual benefit. Kimberly-Clark can gain so much from working with entrepreneurial young businesses," added Troncoso, who also was recently named chairman for the Toilet Board Coalition. "Thus far, we've been given direct insight into consumer behavior and we've been greatly inspired by the enthusiasm and drive of our mentees. And at the same time, we can help provide the expertise that will get growing businesses over the start line, to start solving the issue for good."

Toilets Change Lives

In addition, Kimberly-Clark is rallying employees, customers and consumers behind a large-scale multi-national programme titled Toilets Change Lives. It brings the global sanitation crisis to the forefront through its well-known global brands to help fund potentially life-saving programmes.

Since its inception in 2014, the Toilets Change Lives programme has helped improve access to sanitation to approximately 300,000 people in need. Several Kimberly-Clark brands, including Andrex, Scott and Neve, have partnered with key retailers in 10 countries to sell special promotional packs that help support potentially life-saving programs through donations to NGOs such as UNICEF, Water for People and WaterAid.

In India, for example, Kimberly-Clark has partnered with Charities Aid Foundation India to address the issue of open defecation through work to provide clean, safe toilets in schools and early child development centres. Additionally, the company is creating a sustainable market-driven model in partnership with the Toilet Board Coalition and Svadha, a sanitation focused social enterprise. The programme trains villagers to become Sani-preneurs who can build and sell toilets.

www.kimberly-clark.com