86 results for tag: ecosan

How Ecological Sanitation Can Promote Food Security

SOIL team member planting with Konpós Lakay Here at SOIL, we’re dedicated to basing our strategic objectives and design iterations on careful research and data. We’re also committed to sharing our lessons learned, and progress with the global ecological sanitation community. We’re pleased to share a recent publication in partnership with the University of California, the University of Hawaii, and the University of Vermont in the Frontiers Sustainable Food Systems Journal. “Toward Zero Hunger Through Coupled Ecological Sanitation-Agriculture Systems” explores the potential of ecological sanitation (EcoSan) systems to transform nutrient ...

Video: Sasha Kramer Talks Sustainable Sanitation with IWA

SOIL Co-Founder and Executive Director Dr. Sasha Kramer recently presented on SOIL's work and alternatives to water-based sewage at the first IWA-IDB Innovation Conference on Sustainable Use of Water 2019 in Ecuador. Watch the video see what Sasha had to say about why it's important to think outside the sewer. Sustainable alternatives to water-based sewage from IWA on Vimeo. Support SOIL SOIL depends on individual donations from people like you to fund our work in Haiti. Please consider supporting SOIL today. Other Recent SOIL Coverage VIDEOS Want to keep watching? Scroll through below to see other videos about SOIL's ...

Showcasing Possibility at COP24

Earlier this month, SOIL was honored to receive the United Nations' Momentum for Change Award in Planetary Health at COP24 in Katowice, Poland. Momentum for Change honors innovative and transformative solutions that address both climate change and wider economic, social and environmental challenges. Recognized as a Lighthouse Activity, SOIL’s work is honored for being a practical, scalable and replicable example of a groundbreaking intervention to tackle climate change. Check out this video showcasing the Planetary Health award winners (narrated by Sir David Attenborough!): Planetary Health: Narrated Sir David Attenborough from Momentum ...

How We Perceive Waste Is Dependent Upon Our Mindsets

We often ask our visitors to guest write a blog post for the SOIL website to give our readers a chance to see how SOIL’s work looks from different perspectives. After spending a day dumping poop buckets, recent SOIL visitor, Benjamin Swift, had a lot to say about the concept of waste! I visited Haiti for the first time this spring and I am just beginning to get my feet wet in the ocean of complex issues that the country faces. Therefore getting a chance to stop by SOIL and see their work in action was a fascinating experience! I spent the first morning of my SOIL visit volunteering at SOIL’s composting waste treatment facility near Cap-Haitien. ...

Increasing Frugality in an Already Frugal Organization

It’s only May, but SOIL is already planning out the strategy for the 2017-2018 fiscal year, which starts August 1st. As the Marketing and Sales Advisor in SOIL, I’ve been involved in the strategy planning for EkoLakay (SOIL’s household toilet service), EkoMobil (SOIL’s mobile toilet service), and SOIL’s waste treatment and compost production. It’s been exciting to see our team’s progress from the past two years that I’ve been participating in these strategy planning meetings. A new customer on SOIL's growing EkoLakay service, April 2017. The biggest difference is this year’s unanimous focus on business principles that will ...

An Optimal Flush

Faithful readers of the SOIL blog will know that we spend a lot of time thinking about cover material at SOIL. Cover material is basically the “flush” that keeps the toilet from getting gross as covering the waste with some kind of dry material prevents it from smelling and deters flies from visiting. Here at SOIL, we call it bonzodè (pronounced bon-zo-deh, literally “good smell” in Haitian Creole), and it’s a crucial piece of the SOIL business model. With thousands of customers each using a handful every time they poo in a SOIL toilet, we need a whole lot of it – and our demand will only increase as SOIL expands its services. J...

EkoLakay reaches the 1000th Toilet Milestone!

Today is a day of celebration for SOIL - we just installed our 1,000th EkoLakay household toilet! EkoLakay would not exist without our clients, who pay for the service every month and in doing so, prove that ecological sanitation is a working alternative to other sanitation options like flush toilets or pit latrines. We want to thank each and every one of them. We are also so thankful for all of our friends and supporters, whose contributions subsidize the waste treatment component of the EkoLakay program. Our 1,000th client's name is Jean Nelson Arnoux. He lives in Port-au-Prince in a quiet neighborhood tucked behind a church and a ...

Guest Post: The EcoSan Frontier

The following guest post is by Tucker Cahill Chambers, who took the above photo of SOIL's waste treatment site in northern Haiti, where Tucker spent time with SOIL last week. Here is what Tucker has to say about the experience: I first encountered ecological sanitation in a little town in the south of France, where I lived on a ecological family farm for a year. An off-the-grid cattle and mule farm atop a windswept and water-scarce plateau, the family made every effort to consume conscientiously and close resource loops wherever possible. Naturally, we used dry toilets and composted the humanure. The more I learned about the ecological benefits of ...

Disinfecting Urine and Being “Claire Twa”

Hello! My name is Claire or, as I was known around the office, “Claire Twa” (meaning Claire Three), since there were two other women named Claire working there at the time. I am a Master of Public Health student in Environmental Health at Emory University, and I worked with SOIL this summer to study various inexpensive and easy ways to disinfect urine before disposal. I tested the addition of different levels of ashes, vinegar, and Clorox since these three materials are accessible and inexpensive. SOIL’s style of Ecological Sanitation (the safe re-use of the nutrients in human waste) utilizes a urine diversion toilet which separates the ...

National Geographic: Transforming Haiti With An Endless Local Resource

"Everyone poops. But not many people really think about what happens to it. We flush the toilet and it is out of sight and out of mind. Sasha Kramer, on the other hand, has poop on her mind all the time. She is a sanitation revolutionary helping to transform human waste into fertile organic compost for agriculture and reforestation in Haiti. “Arguably,” Kramer says, “the most important thing in nature is soil, that’s where all life comes from.” Kramer is an ecologist, human rights advocate, National Geographic emerging explorer, and the executive director of Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL). SOIL primarily focuses on ...