Sim Jack
Organization: World Toilet Organization Ltd
Year Founded: 2001
Country: Singapore
Website: www.worldtoilet.org
Through a global network and service platform, the World Toilet Organization is committed to improving toilet and sanitation conditions worldwide. Focus: Health, Sanitation Geographic Area of Impact: Global Model: Leveraged Non-Profit Annual Budget: US$ 400,000 (2010) Percentage Earned Revenue: 0% Recognition: Schwab Fellow of the World Economic Forum Background The average person uses the toilet 2,200 times a year, approximately six times a day. In fact, three years of one’s life are spent in the toilet. Toilet infrastructure accounts for about 7% of total construction costs and the maintenance market is even larger. There is, however, another side to the industry where 2.6 billion people have no access to basic sanitation and 1.5 million children die of diarrhea each year unnecessarily. Innovation and Activities Jack Sim created the World Toilet Organization (WTO) to promote sound sanitation and public health policies. The organization envisages itself as a de facto global body that champions better toilet environments. It is one of the few organizations to focus on toilets instead of water issues, which often receives more attention on the international development agenda. WTO was created as a global network and service platform to address the world sanitation crisis. WTO currently has 235 member organizations in 58 countries working towards eliminating the toilet taboo and delivering sustainable sanitation. Its SaniShop franchise trains the poor to become entrepreneurs and sales agents, creating sustainable and scalable solutions to distribute proper sanitation. WTO is the organizer of the World Toilet Summits and World Toilet Expo and Forums. Each summit addresses critical issues of toilet and sanitation, including technologies, development, funding, maintenance, social entrepreneurship, capacity building and research. WTO also declared 19 November World Toilet Day. This day is now being celebrated by people all over the world, thus increasing awareness and generating local action for better sanitation. The Entrepreneur Jack Sim grew up in a slum in the 1950s in Singapore. Not having a university degree did not stop him from starting a series of 16 profitable businesses between age 24 and 40. After seeing the futility of focusing only on financial gain, he left business and ventured into non-profit work, dedicating his time to humanitarian causes. This led him to establish the Restroom Association of Singapore (RAS) in 1998. With a dream to unite various toilet associations, Jack founded the World Toilet Organization in 2001 and the World Toilet College in 2005. In 2004, he was awarded the Singapore Green Plan 2012 Award by Singapore's National Environment Agency. He is also an Ashoka Global Fellow and was named by Time magazine as a Hero of the Environment in 2008.
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