IDE News

June 29, 2010

FLUSH WITH SUCCESS: IDE WINS TOP DESIGN AWARD FOR INNOVATIVE LATRINE IN CAMBODIA

Press Release: Winnipeg-based organization celebrates IDEA design award for affordable and effective toilet

A couple outside their new Easy Latrine

[Winnipeg]- Bringing cutting-edge design and business acumen to a critical challenge in rural Cambodia, IDE's "Easy Latrine" has just won Best in Show at the prestigious IDEA International Design Excellence Awards.

The award is welcome recognition for a technology that is having a dramatic impact on villages in rural Cambodia, where poor sanitation kills more people than HIV, malaria and tuberculosis combined.

Cordell Jacks - a Winnipeg native and graduate of the Asper School of Business - manages the innovative program for IDE Cambodia. He explains that, despite the terrible toll of poor sanitation, many villagers view toilets as an unnecessary luxury, partly because of the expense and difficulty of installing traditional latrines.

The Easy Latrine is changing that by offering an affordable and simple design - the product of intense collaboration between IDE and Jeff Chapin - a designer on sabbatical from leading design firm IDEO. Each latrine costs only $25 and can be installed the same day.

"It's really changed how simply people can install a latrine," explains Jacks. "They can do it themselves now. You don't need to pour concrete, and it makes things just that much quicker."

Local entrepreneurs use concrete forms designed by Chapin and IDE to create the basic components of the latrine. With a little bit of pipe - easily available on the local market, villagers can have a safe, clean toilet that - thanks to IDE's creative marketing campaigns - has now become a status symbol in rural areas. Well over 3,000 latrines have already sold since the full launch little more than six months ago - a remarkable achievement for a product and a practice that has been notoriously difficult to promote. It is a credit to the Cambodia team, led by Jacks and his partner Tamara Baker - another Winnipegger - who leads IDE's social marketing efforts in Cambodia.

The IDEA judges appreciated the Easy Latrine's integration of product design, social strategy, and sustainability. In the end, they decided that excellence in affordable technology deserved equal status with the other two winners, the Slingbox 700U and Method Laundry Detergent with Smartclean Technology.™ Industrial Designers Society of America's Chief Executive Clive Roux explained, "Design works across the spectrum of human needs and issues and can produce excellence at both extremes."

For IDE's staff, including Jacks and Baker, the award is an exciting boost, but the real reward is seeing thousands of families investing in a product that promises to dramatically improve their health and wellbeing.