September 2019

Toilet Board Coalition Announces New Chair & Vice-Chairs

The Steering Committee of the Toilet Board Coalition (TBC), has voted in its new leadership for a two year term commencing 1 September 2019. Erin McCusker, Chief Strategy Officer SATO, LIXIL Corporation has become the Chair of the Toilet Board Coalition. Eric Lesueur, CEO of 2EI, Veolia and Pascale Guiffant, Founder of Vetea, associate in Open Lande and Toilet Board Coalition Independent Director have become Vice-Chairs.

The Toilet Board Coalition is a business led public-private partnership. Its members are multinational corporations, development expert NGOs / IGOs and social investors?—?all dedicated to ensuring smart, sustainable sanitation systems for the future while delivering sanitation to all.

Speaking after her appointment as Chair, Ms. McCusker said, ‘The Toilet Board Coalition is uniquely positioned to amplify the importance of sanitation and the private sector in achieving all of our global goals across multiple issues and sectors, well beyond SDG6.  I am eager to build on the tremendous work of the past Chairs and the momentum in the sector by showcasing the value of the Sanitation Economy and the role of all actors through our projects, growing Accelerator cohort, and the global Sanitation Economy Summit.’

Ms. McCusker serves as the Chief Strategy Officer for SATO, a part of LIXIL, maker of pioneering water and housing products that solve everyday challenges and make better homes a reality for everyone, everywhere. In her current role with SATO, Ms. McCusker is orienting the business for the next phase of growth, aiming to bring innovative and affordable solutions to the over 2 billion people across the world without access to basic sanitation. Previously collaborating with social enterprises, philanthropists, and other bilateral and multilateral organizations, Erin will bring not only her passion for the role of the private sector in solving our global challenges, but also her rigor and commitment to creating value for the members to her appointment at the Toilet Board Coalition.

‘To scale up sustainable sanitation solutions for all requires us to change our mindset and explore disruptive smart or circular economy, water and waste management solutions while leveraging local entrepreneurs. Innovative financing and new relationships between the public and private sectors are also clearly part of the game. TBC already provides strong help to all its stakeholders to implement projects in this field in order to achieve this SDG. I fully commit to support our new Chair and all our members to carry on this incredible adventure and hit the target.’- Eric Lesueur

Eric Lesueur is an expert in circular economy waste management, and smart cities. Eric leads 2EI, a consultancy and innovation subsidiary of VEOLIA, dedicated to circular economy. VEOLIA has brought sophisticated waste management solutions to the world’s cities for over 160 years and has been a pioneer in the global business movement towards a circular economy. Eric has lead Veolia’s area of smart waste management for smart cities design. VEOLIA has been helping to accelerate innovative circular sanitation and decentralised business models by partnering with entrepreneurs via the TBC’s Toilet Accelerator Programme.

‘Bridging the gap of access to sanitation, changing our way to deliver and valorize this service through circular economy and user centric approaches are challenges that the Toilet Board Coalition and all its members want to contribute to. I am very proud to continue the great work achieved and support our new Chair to develop further our impact.’ – Pascale Guiffant

Pascale Guiffant is an expert in urban services access for the poorest, sustainable development strategy and innovation and is the CEO of Vetea and associate in Open Lande, and has been an Independent Director at the TBC since 2017, bringing circular sanitation expertise to the Board. Previously Pascale was the Vice President of Sustainable Development for SUEZ, where she partnered with numerous municipalities in emerging markets to develop safely managed waste management with community led approaches. At the Toilet Board Coalition Pascale has been an advisor to the Toilet Accelerator Programme. Her strong advocacy for the role of entrepreneurship in bringing new business solutions for sanitation in emerging markets has led small business and emerging market municipalities to partner in new ways to bring safely managed sanitation to millions of people off the grid.

‘We are delighted to welcome this strong new leadership at the Toilet Board Coalition who bring expertise across the Sanitation Economy – from the Toilet Economy, to the Circular Sanitation Economy and Smart Sanitation Economies. The bold leadership of these individuals and their companies should signal to the broader business community the shifts occurring in the sanitation sector — that business has a new role to play in bringing safely managed sanitation to the billions currently underserved and leading businesses are investing in new solutions for sanitation. And in doing so, are un-locking benefits for business and society.’ — Cheryl Hicks

Initiated in 2014 and formalised in 2015 as a business-led partnership and platform, the Toilet Board Coalition (TBC) has the ambition to address the global sanitation crisis by accelerating the Sanitation Economy. The TBC is enabling 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 Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG6), universal access to sanitation. The Sanitation Economy is a robust marketplace of products and services, renewable resource flows, data and information that could transform future cities, communities, and businesses. The Sanitation Economy is smart, sustainable, innovative, revenue and resource generating.

The Toilet Board Coalition would like to thank out-going Chair, Charlie Beevor and Vice-Chairs Bérangère Magarinos-Ruchat and Jon Lane for their pioneering leadership during their two year terms 2017-2019. Under their leadership the Toilet Board Coalition has developed into the business platform for companies who are identifying new business opportunity in sanitation systems for the future. Their strong business voice has developed vision for a Sanitation Economy which has the potential to transform the economics of sanitation from unaffordable public costs to sustainable business opportunities.

This November the Toilet Board Coalition and its network of businesses and investors will come together to showcase global business best practice at the Sanitation Economy Summit in Pune India 18-21 November. You can learn more at: www.SanitationEconomy.com

For Toilet Board Coalition inquiries, please contact:

Alexandra Knezovich: knezovich@toiletboard.org or +41 79 454 54 25 in Geneva.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Henry Kirby, Mullenlowe Salt, +44 (0) 7714 471152 in London.