Innovation

The company’s profit-for-purpose business model aims to satisfy consumer demand of supporting social causes in a fun manner. Their viral news and share-worthy advertising campaigns are contrary to the unpopular conventional philanthropic approach of making consumers feel guilty if they choose not to participate. They have successfully introduced innovative and sustainable uses of bamboo and waste sugarcane to manufacture and sell premium quality everyday products like toilet paper through a fun, well designed and packaged experience to boost consumer-driven philanthropy.

Inspiration

The co-founders learned that 2.3 billion people across the world (around 30% of the global population) don't have access to a toilet, leading to diarrhea-related diseases causing 900 deaths of children under the age of 5 every day. My interviewee stated, "More people have mobile phones than access to toilets in developing countries." Hence, they decided to start a crowd-funding campaign on IndieGoGo to raise $50,000 in pre-orders and begin their business to address this challenge.

Overall impact

The impact on consumer conscience – By offering premium products like forest friendly bamboo toilet paper, which is as soft and strong as conventional rolls, customers are increasingly supporting the company as they prefer to buy products that benefit the world. The customers are kept engaged with the company’s viral news and share-worthy ads to buy their fun, well designed and packaged products which create a positive social impact. This helps fuel a ‘feel-good’ factor amongst consumers, making them spread the word about the product resulting in it maintaining its trendy status. Since the market for toilet paper is huge, a fraction of the numerous sales collectively become large enough to make a difference. Therefore, the increasing number of sales translate into more profit being donated towards the cause, making it a win-win situation.

The impact on people living in unsanitary conditions – The company is striving to provide better sanitation for more than 30% of the world population (2.3 billion) who don’t have access to toilets. It is involved in reducing 900 deaths per day of children under 5 years of age due to diarrhoeal related diseases by bringing in ever increasing donations to help fund a range of high impact sanitation, hygiene and water projects in sub-Saharan Africa. WHO calculates an economic return of $5.50 for every $1 invested into sanitation projects, in the form of lowering health costs and premature deaths while increasing productivity and standard of living. Additionally, the company has calculated that the donation from one roll funds a person’s access to a toilet for 1 week.

The impact on the paper manufacturing process – Using bamboo has reduced the area of land required as compared to trees. It requires far less water than trees and doesn’t require tending, irrigation, and fertilizers, producing less particulate matter and CO2 emissions per ton of paper produced. Other benefits include the lack of inks, dyes, and perfumes in the manufacturing process. The company sources bamboo predominantly grown in remote areas of Sichuan Province, China by local farmers who plant bamboo on the outskirts of their family farms to supplement their income. The bamboo processing is very localized as each village has their own bamboo co-op and after harvesting, it gets chipped and processed in a local pulp factory. Here the waste by-product from the sugarcane industry called ‘Bagasse’ is blended with bamboo fibers to create more durable paper fibers that are as good as conventional products found in supermarkets. All these add up together to reduce the company’s dependency on timber, in turn promoting sustainable use of our terrestrial ecosystems and sustainably managing forest resources.

Business benefit

The business benefit lies in successfully improving the standard of living of people in underdeveloped countries by providing them with infrastructure and resources to access better sanitation. The company’s marketing approach of placing their product as a trendy alternative to the otherwise boring toilet paper has encouraged consumers to participate in innovative ways to promote WGAC products. Trends include people gifting each other ‘Who gives a crap’ toilet paper and subscriptions as they see it as a fun and light-hearted gifting idea which is addressing an important social cause. Social media is filled with consumers posting unique pictures with the product as Christmas gifts, on top of Mt. Kilimanjaro (Highest mountain in Africa) etc. which is helping the company gain more attention of the market. This popularity has enabled WGAC to donate upwards of $1,175,000 towards sanitation projects in sub-Saharan Africa.

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Social and environmental benefit

WGAC has developed a platform where it can focus funds from consumer-driven philanthropy to areas which need it the most. This has enabled WGAC to donate 50% of their profits to fund a range of high impact sanitation, hygiene, and water projects, thereby, supporting Goal 3 of ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all ages as well as Goal 6 of ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

The supply chain developed to manufacture WGAC products ensures there are no forest lands being devastated to supply timber for paper production. Hence, it supports Goal 15, which focuses on protecting, restoring and promoting sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably managing forests, combating desertification and halting and reversing land degradation and biodiversity loss. Unlike over 98% of toilet rolls sold in Australia and closer to 99% in the US which are made from virgin fibers typically from trees, WGAC’s method has helped save an estimate of more than 67,840 trees, 135,584,299 liters of water and 10,802 tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

Interview

De Lara, Customer Happiness Team