Ira Pastor, ideaXme life sciences ambassador and founder of Bioquark, interviews Cheryl D. Hicks, Executive Director and CEO at Toilet Board Coalition.
Ira Pastor comments:
So on the last several shows, as we have spent time on the themes of health, wellness, and aging, we’ve been speaking to a broad range of experts primarily in the fields of therapeutic and preventative interventions as it pertains to the chronic degenerative diseases in the developed world.
And I always find it interesting when you go to conferences nowadays focused on the topics of wellness, longevity or healthspan, somebody will always give a presentation highlighting how improvements in sanitation technically did as much, if not more, for humanity and human lifespan (doubling it), than modern medicine has done over the last century. And that’s why I find it so amazing that in 2020, an estimated 2.4 billion people around the globe, still lack access to the basic tools of improved sanitation (toilets and latrines) That represents 35% of the world’s population!
The Global Sanitation Crisis
One billion people on this planet still have to defecate in the open and at least 10% of the world’s population is thought to consume food irrigated by raw wastewater. An estimated 800,000 children, younger than 5 years of age, perish each year from diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid and polio.
The Toilet Board Coalition (TBC) is a business-led partnership and platform, which has the ambition to address the global sanitation crisis by accelerating the Sanitation Economy, a brand new marketplace for innovation, entrepreneurship and investment, to transform sanitation systems from an unaffordable public cost, to an untapped business opportunity, and deliver significant impact to business and society.
TBC enables private sector engagement, connecting large and small companies, and ensuring close collaboration between private, public and non-profit sectors with the common goal to achieve United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG6), which is “universal access to sanitation.” Partners in the TBC include such entities as Unilever, KimberlyClark, Firmenich, Veolia, Tata, USAID, the World Bank and Unicef. The Toilet Board Coalition also runs the Toilet Accelerator, the world’s first accelerator program dedicated to sanitation entrepreneurs in low-income markets.
Cheryl D. Hicks
Cheryl Hicks, Toilet Board Coalition Executive Director and CEO, is an experienced business, investment and sustainable development professional. Cheryl brings over 20 years of experience developing innovative approaches to responsible business strategies, impact investment strategies, and high performing multi-stakeholder collaborations.
Before joining the TBC, Cheryl was the Sustainability Investment Partner and Head of Impact at Quadia Impact Finance in Geneva. Throughout her career, Cheryl has held several positions with sustainable development platforms, and worked with fortune 500 global companies, investors and start-ups across sectors such as healthcare, consumer goods, food, forestry, chemistry, and renewable energy. Cheryl began her career in corporate sustainability with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) in Geneva, Switzerland.
On this ideaXme episode we will hear from Cheryl:
About her background in the investment industry, and how she got interested in doing something about this major problem known as “the sanitation crisis.” About the background of the Toilet Board Coalition. About the dynamics of the circular, closed loop visions of TBC for the Sanitation Economy. About the Sanitation Economy Accelerator and technologies they invest in. About toilet technologies in space and the TBC collaboration with the European Space Agency Business Applications Group.
This interview is in American English
Credits: Ira Pastor interview video, text, and audio.
Follow Ira Pastor on Twitter: @IraSamuelPastor
If you liked this interview, be sure to check out our interview with Ambassador Juan José Gómez Camacho, Mexico’s current Ambassador to Canada!
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