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Advocacy, Business, Innovation and Opportunity Highlight World Toilet Summit


	From left, Jay Peters, Code Council Executive Director of the PMG Group; U.S. Ambassador (retired) John McDonald; and Jack Sim, WTO Founder.

From a U.S. Ambassador to a South African activist for children and clean toilets, the caliber of speakers was of the highest level and the topics were as diverse as micro-financing for individual toilets to issues associated with open defecation—all meshed perfectly to represent a true picture of the issue at hand, a child disappearing from this Earth every 15 seconds due to sanitation-related issues.

"This is truly a proud moment for the International Code Council and the World Toilet Organization," said Jay Peters, Executive Director with the ICC. "We will all look back at these three days as the pinnacle moment when the sanitation crisis was introduced to the American stakeholders, and they responded with fervor. We have now opened the door for many more like-events and discussions to take place to progress the safe sanitation movement."

The first two days of the International Code Council World Toilet Summit 2010 (WTS) were filled with important networking discussions and other meetings in addition to a massive exhibition. The primary reason speakers and attendees traveled from all points of the globe was to share their knowledge and gain insights from other industry professionals about advancing solutions to the global sanitation crisis.

"The World Toilet Summit is always an excellent event that attracts some of the best and brightest minds in global sanitation," said Jack Sim, founder of the World Toilet Organization. "Having it in the United States provided an extraordinary opportunity to share this knowledge and passion with a broader group of liked-minded professionals. We thank the American Society of Plumbing Engineers for hosting our Summit and the International Code Council for working so hard to present it on our behalf."

The ICC/WTS tracks and topics focused on the following key issues in the global sanitation arena: Innovations in Global Toilet Design & Applications; Bottom of the Pyramid Market & Micro Financing; Advocacy & Potty Parity; and Cleaning & Personal Care. There were also six technical sessions presented by the Code Council on several topics, including resource-conservation and other code-related topics, including the panel discussion on the "Global Guideline for Practical Public Toilet Design".

Although all of the speakers and topics were on point, some of the highlights included:

• U.S. Ambassador (retired) John McDonald, founder of the Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy, who spoke about international advocacy efforts in support of various global sanitation;
• Jack Sim, WTO founder, and Mike Kerlin with McKinsey, whose presentation on Sanitation and Creative Capitalism focused on the trillion-dollar global sanitation business opportunity that exists;
• Panel discussion consisting of the Code Council's Lee Clifton, Jay Peters, and Sylvana Ricciarini and WTO's Jack Sim who spoke about the "Global Guideline for Practical Public Toilet Design". This document provides comprehensive, yet straightforward standardized guidelines for any country to adopt and install public restrooms efficiently;
• American Restroom Association's Kathryn Anthony, Mary Coakley, Carol McCreary, Steve Soifer and Walter Munk, who discussed the myriad issues surrounding public restrooms in the United States about which many Americans are unaware;
• Imai Shigeo with INAX in Japan, Jim McHale with American Standards Brands in the U.S., and Jukka Lindroos with Pikku Vihrea, Ltd in Sweden, all of who shared the latest innovations in ecological toilet design.

On November 2, there was a break in the sessions so attendees could visit the ASPE exposition, which included hundreds of exhibitors presenting plumbing-related products and services. The Code Council booths featured its broad product line, including ICC Evaluation Services, a subsidiary of ICC, with their industry leading and innovative product evaluation programs and PMG Listing services. The Code Council booth also featured a variety of literature and other materials on behalf of the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance.

"Both the Summit sessions and ASPE's show provided such a diverse range of topics, networking and plumbing engineering products," said Shahin Moinian, Executive Director of the ICC ES-PMG Listing Program. "The contacts we have made here will undoubtedly generate a good deal of business and outstanding future business relationships."

Between the two days of sessions was an ASPE banquet, which provided additional networking opportunities and presentations, including one by the Code Council. Accompanied by Code Council Board members John LaTorra and Guy Tomberlin, Jay Peters, Code Council Executive Director of Plumbing, Mechanical and Fuel Gas group presented an award of appreciation to ASPE naming them a Global Partner in Safe Sanitation. They are only the third recipient in history to receive this prestigious award.

The International Code Council and World Toilet Organization thanked ASPE for hosting the WTS, in addition to American Standard Brands and the International Code Council's Evaluation Services (ICC-ES) and the International Accreditation Service (IAS) for sponsoring the WTS International Breakfast.

If you are interested in learning more about what the International Code Council and World Toilet Organization are doing to combat the global sanitation crisis, contact the PMG Resource Center at 1-888-ICC-SAFE, x4PMG or PMGresourcecenter@iccsafe.org, or visit www.worldtoilet.org.