The Sanitation Economy in the Tea Sector

THE SANITATION ECONOMY IN THE TEA SECTOR

Camellia Plc joins the Toilet Board Coalition as a project member, collaborating with Unilever, Tata Global Beverages, and the Ethical Tea Partnership on new approaches to sanitation in tea plantations.

Camellia Plc is an international group – a global family of diverse companies with a 130-year heritage employing approximately 78,000 people worldwide. The Group works in Agriculture, Food Service and Engineering with operations spanning India, Bangladesh, Africa, Europe and the Americas.

The Toilet Board Coalition (TBC), the world’s first business-led platform focused on accelerating the Sanitation Economy, and the Ethical Tea Partnership, with joint members, Unilever and Tata Global Beverages, are proud to welcome Camellia to the Sanitation in Agriculture project to develop new approaches to sanitation in tea plantations.

“We are delighted to be joining the coalition.  The provision of sanitation is a key element of the health and wellbeing of any worker on a tea estate but this provision needs to be made in a way that is environmentally sustainable.  We hope that by joining the expertise of the TBC with our practical on the ground experience we can achieve this objective”

– Tom Frank, CEO of Camellia Plc

The project’s primary objective is to understand and build evidence of the benefits of a Sanitation Economy in rural communities, in order to accelerate the much-needed implementation of sanitation in rural areas. In 2018, the Toilet Board Coalition released a report, “The Sanitation Economy in Agriculture” detailing the initial findings of the economic, environmental and social benefits of a Circular Sanitation Economy in agricultural plantations.

In 2019, in partnership with the Ethical Tea Partnership and a group of major growers and brand owners in tea and other agricultural sectors, the Toilet Board Coalition will continue to build, demonstrate and understand the Circular Sanitation Economy in agricultural settings – enhancing the biological resource flows that benefit both the community and company (and potentially the whole sector) – economically, environmentally and socially. The development and new insights will be showcased at the Sanitation Economy Summit in November 2019.

The project is supported by an international group of expert partners, including Unilever (United Kingdom), Borda (Germany), Cranfield University (United Kingdom), EAWAG (Switzerland), Sanergy (Kenya), Tata Global Institute for Social Sciences (India), and the University of KwazuluNatal (South Africa).

 “We’re delighted to welcome Camellia to the project. Their great practical knowledge of agriculture, in multiple crops and locations, means we should be able to collaborate to develop robust solutions which are sustainable in real operating conditions, and which make good business sense. The Circular Sanitation Economy only works if the whole cycle works, including toilets, collection, treatment, and re-use, so we’re looking for the compounding effect, where the circular approach facilitates widespread sustained provision of toilets, and so both the plantation and its residents’ benefit. “

-Sandy Rodger, COO of Toilet Board Coalition

The Toilet Board Coalition brings pioneering business solutions to one of the world’s most pressing health crises. More than half of the world’s population remain without safe sanitation, because sanitation is seen as an unaffordable public cost, instead of an untapped business opportunity. The Toilet Board Coalition is building the Sanitation Economy – a brand new marketplace for innovation, entrepreneurship and investment – making sanitation self-sustaining and resilient, by bringing new value to the resources that lie within sanitation systems such as biological resources and information about human health and behaviour.

 

For Toilet Board Coalition inquiries, please contact: knezovich@toiletboard.org

About Toilet Board Coalition (TBC)

The TBC is a business-led public-private partnership. Its members are multinational corporations, development expert NGOs / IGOs and social investors?- ?all dedicated to enabling smart, sustainable sanitation systems for the future that deliver sanitation to all. In 2016 the TBC launched the Toilet Accelerator, the first accelerator program dedicated to supporting sanitation economy entrepreneurs in low-income markets to help catalyse new business solutions and innovations.

In 2017, the Toilet Board Coalition introduced the opportunity of the Sanitation Economy, a future marketplace of significant business potential and new opportunities to address the global sanitation crisis.  There is now growing evidence of significant new benefits for business and society across sectors – an estimated $62 billion opportunity by 2021 in India alone.

The Toilet Board Coalition’s thought leadership reports are available at https://www.toiletboard.org/resources.

About Camellia Plc

Camellia Plc is an international group – a global family of diverse companies with a 130-year heritage employing approximately 80,000 people worldwide. From the start, Camellia’s ethos has been based on the highest moral and professional integrity, and a commitment to doing the right thing – ethically and commercially, globally and locally.

Subscribe to our newsletter