During 2006, 665 million Indians conducted their excretory needs in the open; polluting water bodies near their dwellings. This means that rivers and other water bodies get overfed with pollutants and other pathogens. By multiplying the yearly production of feaces (50 kg) and urine (500 liter) per person the scale of the sanitary waste that reaches rivers and streams is a Himalayan one.

Additionally, the lack of sanitary facilities are particularly acute for women.

Women are a particularly vulnerable group. Due to cultural modesty they are unable to relieve themselves in the open. They can only do so under the cover of darkness - in the early morning or the late night. They suffer the risk of rape due to distant toilet visits, so they hold on all day which also leads to urinary tract infections – which untreated, can reach the kidneys and cause serious illness. This is particularly a problem during pregnancy. A lack of toilet facilities also contributes to not having the possibility to engage in daily work freely. The woman gets dependent on her husband for support – inequality. Equality comes as number three of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. As number seven: “Environmental Sustainability” which again includes sanitation. According to the UN every dollar invested in sanitation generates nine dollars back to the country in the form of increased health, increased education, increased working capability among the citizens and better economical development. But among all a better water quality will be achieved.

Ecoloove believes that through its mobile toilet innovation it is able to address (1) the sanitary needs of women and (2) transform the captured waste into viable ecological and renewable business that will emancipate India’s rural women twice over.

As of today, a urine separating toilet is the cheapest, most hygienically and most environmentally friendly sanitation solution, because what usually is considered waste can be used as fertilizer in farming. Farming families who invest in a urine separating toilet can get that investment back through not having to buy fertilizer. In this way a local circulation is set. We have visited farming families both in Gujarat and in Maharashtra with urine separating toilets.

The city scenario looks a little bit different. The farms that could have use for fertilizer from ecological toilets are situated far away from the city. In cities the need for both private and common toilets is huge, especially in slum areas. Additionally, in many cities in India, e.g. Ahmedabad, there are many examples of mobile small business which are collecting paper, plastic and other things for transport and recycling outside the city. The idea of Ecoloove is the combination of these two concepts, a small mobile business with sanitation products representing the economic part. The concept of motivating farms to buy fertilizer from urine and feces will be evaluated & created during the tests in February. One clearly conceivable way is to compete on pricing and a culturally sensitive branding strategy.

The idea of Ecoloove is simple: the ones who are mostly affected by the problem of not having a toilet – women – are offered to start a business financed with microloans to start renting out toilet visits and collecting the sanitation waste. The financing of the Ecoloove toilet business run by women needs to be specified in detail during the business concept phase. The goal is that financing shall come from women or a group of women, with microcredit.

First functional prototype of Ecoloove: three wheeler bicycle in Bamboo and welded steel.

Ecoloove has completed most of the research, got initial feedback from target users & areas and have finished the first ready-to-use prototype. They have tested the prototype in a slum area in Ahmedabad, Bareja. Necessary contacts to production facilities, supporting organizations and the initial target market – slum area in Ahmedabad – have been established already. Ecoloove do have important voluntary support for marketing (reporting), teaching about the problem in target areas, getting tests done with regards to a roll out in a slum area & evaluation of cultural & social acceptance, as well as usage to assess viable business propositions. – Feedback is still extremely enthusiastic & positive.

Some months ago, I drowned into the toughest buying decision: Where to live. My budget was enough for a tiny apartment in the center or one somewhat bigger in the outskirts. Greater size meant also bigger surfaces to be cleaned and greater spaces to warm up as well as longer everyday commutes. The tiny option offered a convenient subway station nearby, sunny days through its one and only window and bike rides to get around. So I went for the small spot in the heart of town, without realizing the one-shared-closet nightmare I’d started.

Not enough room makes your choices smarter. While sorting the garments, I easily realized that a vast majority of them were almost unworn while the rest, smaller in number though more special, those pieces I really felt comfy in, would easily fit in the half-closet which was assigned to me. Almost ashamed, I packed the rest and gave it to the charity while promising to change my consumption habits.

Summertime. What are the season’s musts? - who cares at all? I know myself. I love moving under the warmth but have extremely sensitive feet that end up wounded, covered in blisters if I dared to sport plastic sandals during a 20km walk. So I decided to put all my pennies in the one and only purchase of the season, the Acne sandals. Top-notch materials, improved design for an even better fit, felt comfy immediately and could report the success to the hand behind it as they employ local designers. One pair for a whole season and the ones to come: That’s what lacking space made with this once renown fast-fashion junkie.

While on vacation, I got sick. Neither stomach flu, nor traveler’s diarrhea but IBS was my diagnosis. No longer can I eat as much as others so, I never throw away anything but treat myself with finer specialties to enjoy slower, while spending the same bucks. Less fruit but organic, less meat but fresh, less fish but from the shore nearby. Same fight in a whole different arena, take less but the best.

Bored of dump files and lost calls, I really needed to change my phone. I know how my life is. I do not drive as often as I get to walk in strange places. I listen to music daily and check the mail on the way home, without mentioning my marathon training. Obviously, I needed an iPhone. Leaving buzz aside, it suits my everyday better than any other device, crystallizing all my needs in one. Not cheap at first sight, while worth each penny on the long run.

The craze about “the last, the new, this season’s” ended. Feels too 90s, too unsustainable, too unconscious, too out, whereas my mother’s after-war scarcity learnt care about quality, endurance and dread of the throw-even-when-functioning-to-buy-a-new-‘cause-it’s-cheaper business model (i.e. printers and ink) is cooler and aligned to the transformation we need.

Some might argue that, without consumption, there’s no way to economic recovery. However, I keep wondering about the recovery we’d like to have. The news recently reported Japan, Germany and France as countries exiting recession: Is this governmental aid based fast sortie supposed to handle the erosion of time? Not at all, this looks like a mirage to me.

This is not a hopeless message but a patient one. Like a marathon, the sustainable recovery goes through inside-out change of all of us, as individuals, in the same direction: Isolated dots joining together, drawing an arrow to success.

The crunch proved that our choices as small consumers count more than what we ever imagined. Just as a simultaneous sea of defaults on subprime mortgages triggered this nightmare, just as we went from consumers to predators armed with limitless credit cards, it’s in our hands to pave the way to recovery.

Step by step, small changes can, like snowflakes, be packed into a huge ball to throw downhill, that grows while rolling and smashes, filling everything with a new clear reality: A world full of nothing but conscious- and happiness.

Let’s less best.

This is a post by the David Report contributor Claudia Muñiz García.

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INDEX:Award 2009 People’s Choice Voting opens worldwide at 13:00 GMT Thursday August 20.

· When a voter arrives, she or he should hit the “Connect with Facebook” button on the INDEX:Award site so the vote “goes viral”.

· Then join Index for their live-stream of the the awards show on the 28^th (starting 18:00 GMT).  You’ll be able to watch in real time and chat simultaneously about it with your Facebook friends.

Swedish experimental design group APOCALYPSE presented four new products made from materials with history at the DMY design festival in Berlin last week.

The Pot and Shelf Torso uses a few of the 360 million tires consumed yearly in the EU. As pots and shelves, the tires get a new life.  The material is made by granulated tires ground into a powder which is mixed with recycled plastic. The binding is reinforced with a patented molecule. More than 95 % of the content is made from recycled materials and it can be recycled over and over.

The Lamp Blob is made from start clumps from the plastic industry. In order to adjust the the machinery some of the melted plastic becomes waste and is by APOCALYPSE given a second life as lamps.

The Parquet Multicolour Herringbone is also made from recycled car tires and plastic packages. This new version comes in five different colours.

The Soap Original and Perfume is made of reused cooking oil from falafel kitchens. The Soap is redefining the concept of luxury and questioning animal and other dubious cosmetic ingredients. The Soap Original is neither perfumed nor coloured and has a light old-fashioned soap scent thanks to the saponification process. The Soap Perfume is scented with our own organic perfume Ultra Fresh Bakery Bouquet.

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UFO  (Unidentified Feeding Object) is a mono-use disposable plate designed by Andrea Ruggiero for InDisposed – an exhibition which invited designers to address notions of disposability in everyday products. Lightweight and rigid, UFO is designed to to be used at picnics, garden parties, beach parties or barbeques and disposed of by launching it into the bushes – exactly like a frisbee. Upon impact, the plates break into smaller pieces and then serve to feed birds, squirrels or rodents, referencing the waste=food principle. The very act of launching the plate makes its disposal shameless and fun (a cross between an olympic discus event and a Greek wedding) and the impact of the plate becomes a necessary component of the process. In Italian, such mono-use objects are referred to as “usa e getta” or literally, “use and throw” in English. Though semantically disturbing, this was the inspiration behind the UFO concept. UFO is made of a unique composite of blended bird seed, potato starch, guar gum, and a seaweed-like binding agent. The plates are highly resistant to wet foods, vinegars and sauces, yet completely biodegradable, non-toxic, and vegan. 

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Above is another filmed interview by Designboost from the MiniBoost at Milan Desgin Week. This time you can listen to designer Tom Dixon and his thoughts about sustainability and city development.

Listen to designer Ross Lovegrove talk about his philosophy of sustainable cities.

My company Designboost went to Milan and made thirteen filmed interviews on the topic of sustainable cities. We met up with some of the worlds most acknowledged designers. This week the interviews with Ilse Crawford, Tom Dixon, Konstantin Grcic, Arik Levy, Ross Lovegrove, Katrin Olina and Satyendra Pakhale are released. Next week we will release six more interviews with Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Kristina Dryza, Richard Hutten, James Irvine, Tim Power and Patricia Urquiola.

Stay tuned for more videos!

The Knowledge company Designboost is interested to explore the personal viewpoint of sustainable cities of some of the worlds most acknowledged designers. To find out Designboost went to Milan Design Week and made a MiniBoost. The MiniBoost resulted in thirteen unique interviews. The seven first interviews are released today and include personalities like Ilse Crawford, Tom Dixon, Konstantin Grcic, Arik Levy, Ross Lovegrove, Katrin Olina and Satyendra Pakhale.

The questions asked look at sustainable cities from a holistic point of view and touch among other subjects sustainability according to cultural life, emotional amplification and the personal stories of the inhabitants. The questions are written by different Boosters at the DesignBoost 2008 key event “Long Live the City” in Malmö, Sweden. One may say that the MiniBoost is like a relay race with questions as batons passed on to new Boosters.

Next week Designboost will release six more interviews from the Milan Design Week MiniBoost including Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Kristina Dryza, Richard Hutten, James Irvine, Tim Power and Patricia Urquiola.

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