An Overview Of Our Solution
ECOLOO GROUP is a chain of inclusive social impact driven enterprises to address the water and sanitation crisis worldwide and contribute to achieve the SDGs.
ECOLOO is not just about an eco-friendly toilet solution. It is about solving the global pressing issues and changing the behavior of human beings by using the right toilet the sustainable way.
With global presence in 25 countries today and proven success stories, ECOLOO will not only save lives, water, energy and money but also create a better, healthier and greener lifestyle.
The targeted segment would be from public toilets, urban slums, refugee camps, underserved or homeless communities, heritage sites, islands and national parks.
- Population Impacted: 2000000
- Continent: Europe
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Context Analysis
According to research done by World Toilet Organization, there are 2.5 billion people do not have access to proper sanitation and hygiene.
In developing countries such as India and Nigeria, open spaces, riverbanks, roads, street side and the open field are some of the common places to defecate. These practices not only pollute the environment but also contaminate the land and water resources. All these will eventually affect the health.
As per survey, a person living in an open defecation or pit latrine area unknowingly consumes 10 gm of fecal content every day because of the water sources that are badly affected by those practices. This is causing 80% of diseases like Dysentery, Typhoid, Polio, Cholera, Hepatitis A & E, Gastroenteritis, Cysticercoids, Diarrhea, Ascariasis, Trachoma, etc. Just 1 gm of human feces contains 10 million viruses, 1 million bacteria, 1,000 parasite cysts and 100 parasite eggs.
This is the pain we are addressing.
Describe the technical solution you wanted the target audience to adopt
The technical solution is a sustainable toilet, branded as ECOLOO, an on site biological treatment sanitation system that does not require water for flushing, keeping solid waste out of water and sewage creation.
ECOLOO employs a special bacterial culture to treat human waste by breaking it down into tiny particles or ashes, terminating bad odour and transforming urine into natural fertilizer that is odourless, pathogen free, rich with nutrients, perfect for organic farming.
By installing ECOLOO, no digging for septic tank or piping to STP required. Water can still be used for hygiene but no more wasted on flushing.
ECOLOO provides the best solution for remote places and areas that do not have access to sewage treatment plant or face water shortage in any weather condition, including sub zero temperature.
This patented solution is affordable, beneficial, durable, ecological, economical and ergonomically designed for comfort, health and safety.
Describe your behavioral intervention.
Open defecation happens normally when no proper toilets are made available or when toilets are too smelly. The odourless ECOLOO provides comfort for people to relieve themselves.
Because it looks almost similar to WC, it is much easier for people to adopt ECOLOO. And with a simple instruction with the Do's & Don'ts pasted inside every toilet, people will take time to read, follow and get used to it.
We first installed ECOLOO by a lake in Sweden for the visitors to experience our eco toilets. Because the municipality did not want to pollute the lake which water is drinkable, they decided to deploy ECOLOO for public to use. Since 10 years ago, the toilets are still being used by the public and the municipality was happy with the solution as it is easy to maintain whilst the fertilizer is being used on the garden.
The typical portable toilet would provide discomfort to public due to bad odour, and unstable condition as it is made of plastic. ECOLOO on the other hand is odourless, durable, steady and spacious.
In Sierra Leone, girls had to skip classes especially during menstrual period due to lack of toilets in the school. By deploying ECOLOO, the girls' attendance and has improved tremendously.
The deployment of ECOLOO at UNESCO World Heritage sites in Jordan has changed the behavior of the tourists from open defecation due to lack of toilets to queing for the toilets, even when the queue was long enough
Behavioral Levers Utilized
As needed, please explain how you utilized the lever(s) in more detail.
Being an innovative solution, the information on ECOLOO benefits has created impactful awareness and emotional appeals among the users and stakeholders.
Curiosity, desire and serious need were the driving elements for the students to learn more about this new technology they've never seen before. And by engaging them in the process (during the installation or through the reuse of the by-product liquid fertilizer generated from the toilet on the school garden to grow organic fruits and vegetables), they got a belonging and appreciation feeling to the solution and the gained resources. ECOLOO offered them a clean, hygienic, odour free and dignified environment they could not find anywhere else of which had a great influence in their behaviour change improvement.
When the news about this project became viral through social media and local press, the First Lady of Sierra Leone visited the school. Imagine the level of joy and pride the students, the teachers and the whole community shared
Describe your implementation
One of our success stories is the deployment of ECOLOO at girls schools in Sierra Leone, a project by our client, a non-profit-organization called Hope2Overcome. The adoption of ECOLOO has changed the students' behavior through improvement in the performance and attendance and eliminated the risk of Cholera or Covid-19 outbreak caused by poor sanitation and hygiene.
Key success factor: The toilets protects the dignity and ensures safety of the students especially the girls. The girls do not need to hold bladder anymore and could focus in class. And by engaging the students in awareness program and organic farming using the natural fertilizer generated from the toilet, both students and teachers are now able to reap what they sow at the end of the day.
Another success story is the deployment of ECOLOO at UNESCO World Heritage Petra and Wadi Rum in Jordan, a project by our client, UNDP Jordan, which helped the country solve the bio-diversity challenge and boost their tourism industry again after losing substantial number of tourists due to open defecation and lack of toilets and they almost lost the Heritage title due to lack of sustainable practices.
Key sucess factor: As the lost city was developed in mountainous yet deserted areas with no access to water, no suitable toilets could be deployed or built. ECOLOO could be easily carried up to the higher ground and installed within less than 1 hour. ECOLOO also requires less maintenance, making the job for the caretaker much easier, especially in such remote areas. Now with ECOLOO, the tourists will retain much longer and enjoy the breathtaking journey more. And because ECOLOO is odourless and easy to use, people do not mind queuing to relieve themselves while enjoying breathtaking Petra.
Describe the leadership for your solution. Who is leading the implementation?
Our leadership team involves diverse set of people from the key management leaders of ECOLOO Group to the technical team and the production team whereas at the project site, the project leader or the CEO will implement the project with his team players together with the key partners that is in collaboration and work closely with the local community to make the project a success once the shipment of our technical solution has arrived at the destination.
Every team player would be assigned his/her duty within project timeline. The project leader would make sure that all team players work in timely manner, harmony and yet lots of fun.
Share some of the key partners or stakeholders engaged in your solution development and implementation.
The key partners and stakeholders that we have worked with in the past include:
- Distributors such as .. from Chile for public toilet project by the beach in Chile, whom we met through close contact in Peru that shows interest to become our distribution partner
- NGOs such as Help2Overcome (H2O) from Canada for school toilet project in Sierra Leone, whom we met at an DIHAD Exhibition in Dubai in 2015 and connect whenever there are toilet projects involved
- UN Bodies such as UNDP Jordan together with UNESCO for heritage site toilet project in Jordan, whom we met in 2015 during a high level meeting with UN in Amman, Jordan, organized by Business Sweden
- Governmental Body such as Ministry of Sports & Youth Minister for sustainable SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, whom we met through our close contact in Malaysia
- Corporate Client such as .. from Ethiopia for various projects for public toilets in collaboration with the Government of Senegal, Kenya, Rwanda, etc., whom we met through Head of UN in Rwanda
All projects were implemented successfully upon collaboration with key partners, stakeholders, Governmental bodies, UN bodies and the local community
Who adopted the desired behavior(s) and to what degree? Include an explanation of how you measured a change in behavior.
ECOLOO has changed so many people's behavior ever since it was developed 10 years ago. The impact driven on the society, health, economy and environment has made ECOLOO won many awards globally.
The most obvious change in behavior is in the students' performances in the rural of Sierra Leone who have adopted ECOLOO and their joy and success shared among the neighbouring schools and it all began to viral from one school to another.
The change in behavior is obviously measured from the performance in their studies and attendance that have increased by 35% according to their teachers.
How did you impact water pollution? Please be specific and include measurement methodology where relevant.
With ECOLOO, there will be no more septic tank or piping to STP required. It just needs to be assembled, plugged and used. Since the 'tank' is right under the toilet bowl, it does not require water for flushing anymore. The excreta will be dropped down and broken down by the bacterial culture.
With less water, and the water for hygiene would be sent down to the lower compartment together with the urine that will be converted into fertilizer, there will be no sewage created. By decentralizing this solution, there will be no more contamination or pollution in the water underground. Everything will be recycled and fertilizer will be used again for the agriculture purpose.
How has your solution impacted equity challenges (including race, gender, ethnicity, social class/income, or others)?
ECOLOO has not impacted equity challenges so far. The only impact we have was a positive one on girls/students and women of which made a big difference and improvements on their lives and health.
What were some environmental co-benefits?
Among the environmental co-benefits are:
- by using ECOLOO, there will be less water wasted on flushing and so less and less sewage created and therefore, less energy and less money required by the Government to treat the sewage at the Sewage Treatment Plant
- the by product is a natural fertilizer that can substitute the chemical fertilizer that is costly and become extinct sooner or later, and it can be applied on non-crop plantation in return so no waste is wasted
What were some sustainable development co-benefits?
Some of the sustainable development co-benefits are:
- implementation of toilets for rural development can be turned into a sustainable development project that would benefit the local community through inclusive social business which local production can create business and job opportunities within the local community
- implementation of toilets in rural areas or villages can be turned into sustainable CSR project for big corporations who wish to utilize their CSR fund in a sustainable way
Sustainability: Describe the economic sustainability of your solution.
Production of ECOLOO and its training within the rural community may require the grant funding;
The implementation of ECOLOO and the distribution of by product for non crop plantation may require government subsidies should it be for the underserved community or schools especially in the remote areas.
Return on investment: How much did it cost to implement these activities? How do your results above compare to this investment?
Each project may cost USD50,000-500,000 depending on the size of the project and ROI can be USD1-5 million within 1-2 years.
How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?
Yes, it has been done before at a smaller scale i.e. 10 units of ECOLOO for a school in the remote area, which total cost is approximately USD50,000 including training, materials and shipment of goods.
The key stakeholder/partner would be Help2Overcome (H2O) and the local authority.
Because our success stories in Sierra Leone, we were informed that there are many schools with similar toilet issues in Africa that are in dire needs for our ECOLOO solution. Therefore, we humbly wish to replicate this solution in Africa by providing toilets for schools, one school at a time, and providing business and job opportunities for the underserved community in the country.