Named
One Of The World’s Most Impactful Innovations
Calling it an innovation “beyond inspiration,” a panel
of global judges named the P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program one
of the world’s most impactful developments, presenting it with the 2012 Economist Social Innovation
Award.
“As a Company, we are both honored by the recognition
and inspired by our employees and global partners who have worked to deliver
more than 5 billion liters of clean drinking water to families in developing
countries, helping save nearly 30,000 lives,” said P&G CEO, President and
Chairman of the Board, Bob McDonald.
The
Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program works with partners in more than 65
countries to share its P&G Purifier of Water packets, which contain a
patented powdered technology that transforms dirty and contaminated water into
clean, drinkable water.
The award was presented during The Economist’s 11th
Annual Innovation Award gala at the NAFTA Center in London and attended by
global leaders in business, academia, research and development and government.
Winners were named in eight categories, including bioscience, energy and the
environment, social innovation and computing/telecommunications. The awards
celebrated the innovators behind the scenes: “the dreamers
and the doers whose innovations transform the world we live in.”
This year’s winners included Google, Garmin, GeneTech and MIT. For a full
list of winners and their categories, click here.
Receiving the award for P&G were Dr.
Phil Souter and Dr. Greg Allgood.
Souter, a P&G Research & Development Section
Head with the Company 15 years, invented the powder technology that when mixed
with water removes dirt, cysts and pollutants, while killing bacteria and
viruses. Souter first began working on the innovation when he was a research
scientist, studying the possibility of recycling laundry water to help with
water shortages. At the same time, personal travels took him to South
East Asia where he saw a broader need: clean drinking water globally. When he
changed assignments, Souter took his new passion with him. And when asked to focus
on developing new products, he requested for and won funding to do still more
research on making safe drinking water. Working alone at first, he went
from an idea to a product within two years.
“I started to think about whether the bigger
opportunity might be to clean up water people were drinking to make it safe to
use. Combining the technical insights from the wash water recycling with the
consumer insights from my travel experiences lead me to believe that I might
have found an opportunity where I could actually make a difference,” Souter
said.
Now called P&G Purifier of Water, the powder comes
in small packets, and when stirred into 10 liters of dirty water, causes heavy
metals, dirt, and parasites to pull together, then fall to the bottom of the
container and can be strained through a filter cloth. After 20 minutes, the
disinfectant in the powder leaves the water clean enough to drink.
“My work on this project has been a source of both
personal pride and humble understanding, as I’ve come to realize that every
once in a while, life puts us in a position – opens to us a door -- to make a
difference,” Souter said. “Sometimes it’s luck, sometimes it’s fate that
enables us to recognize that opportunity, and then tap the needed resources and
our own skills to find a way through the open door. I am humbled that our
innovation has helped so many. I share the celebration of this award with
countless others who continue to work on the Children’s Safe Drinking Water
Program.”
Allgood, a 26-year P&G employee, has served as
Founder and Director of the non-profit Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program
since 2004, helping take Souter’s innovation to families and children around
the world. The Economist called Allgood’s work the second innovation in the
story, creating new distribution strategies with global organizations to help
distribute the packets where they are needed most and innovating to find ways
to scale-up the program, through partnerships, enabling P&G to deliver more
than it could alone.
“This award recognizes the people behind the
innovation, those who implement an idea to improve the world,” said Economist
Editor Tom Standage. “This innovation and the work of (the Children’s Safe
Drinking Water) program is saving lives.”
Asked to share his “eureka moment” – when he knew that
this program had both his personal and professional commitment, Allgood said:
“It was 2004…. I was sharing our water purification packets with villagers in
western Kenya, where villagers collect drinking water from shallow ponds they
share with livestock. As we were preparing to leave, a woman grabbed my arm and
dropped to her knees. She begged me for more packets for her children, as
someone had stolen the bucket of clean water I’d given her earlier. I
knew without a doubt that I had to find a way to keep the program alive, and
growing.”
“This is a true honor – and one that I accept on
behalf of P&G employees and our many safe drinking water partners around
the world who have helped us build and expand this program. It’s unacceptable
that more than 2,000 children die every day from unclean drinking water,”
Allgood said. “P&G is more committed than ever to scale up the program to
reach our goal of saving one live every hour by providing 2 billion liters of
clean drinking water every year by 2020.”
No comments:
Post a Comment