Named One Of The World’s Most Impactful
Innovations
Calling it
an innovation “beyond inspiration,” a panel of global judges named the P&G
Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program one of the world’s most impactful
developments, presenting it with the 2012 Economist
Social Innovation Award.
“As a
Company, we are both honored by the recognition and inspired by our employees
and global partners who have worked to deliver more than 5 billion liters of
clean drinking water to families in developing countries, helping save nearly
30,000 lives,” said P&G CEO, President and Chairman of the Board, Bob
McDonald.
The Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program
works with partners in more than 65 countries to share its P&G Purifier of
Water packets, which contain a patented powdered technology that transforms
dirty and contaminated water into clean, drinkable water.
The award
was presented during The Economist’s 11th Annual Innovation Award
gala at the NAFTA Center in London and attended by global leaders in business,
academia, research and development and government. Winners were named in eight
categories, including bioscience, energy and the environment, social innovation
and computing/telecommunications. The awards celebrated the innovators behind
the scenes: “the dreamers and the doers whose
innovations transform the world we live in.” This year’s winners
included Google, Garmin, GeneTech and MIT. For a full list of winners and
their categories, click here.
Souter, a
P&G Research & Development Section Head with the Company 15 years,
invented the powder technology that when mixed with water removes dirt, cysts
and pollutants, while killing bacteria and viruses. Souter first began working
on the innovation when he was a research scientist, studying the possibility of
recycling laundry water to help with water shortages. At the same time,
personal travels took him to South East Asia where he saw a broader need: clean
drinking water globally. When he changed assignments, Souter took his new
passion with him. And when asked to focus on developing new products, he requested
for and won funding to do still more research on making safe drinking
water. Working alone at first, he went from an idea to a product within
two years.
“I started
to think about whether the bigger opportunity might be to clean up water people
were drinking to make it safe to use. Combining the technical insights from the
wash water recycling with the consumer insights from my travel experiences lead
me to believe that I might have found an opportunity where I could actually
make a difference,” Souter said.
Now called
P&G Purifier of Water, the powder comes in small packets, and when stirred
into 10 liters of dirty water, causes heavy metals, dirt, and parasites to pull
together, then fall to the bottom of the container and can be strained through
a filter cloth. After 20 minutes, the disinfectant in the powder leaves the
water clean enough to drink.
“My work on
this project has been a source of both personal pride and humble understanding,
as I’ve come to realize that every once in a while, life puts us in a position
– opens to us a door -- to make a difference,” Souter said. “Sometimes it’s
luck, sometimes it’s fate that enables us to recognize that opportunity, and
then tap the needed resources and our own skills to find a way through the open
door. I am humbled that our innovation has helped so many. I share the
celebration of this award with countless others who continue to work on the
Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program.”
Allgood, a
26-year P&G employee, has served as Founder and Director of the non-profit
Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program since 2004, helping take Souter’s
innovation to families and children around the world. The Economist called
Allgood’s work the second innovation in the story, creating new distribution
strategies with global organizations to help distribute the packets where they
are needed most and innovating to find ways to scale-up the program, through
partnerships, enabling P&G to deliver more than it could alone.
“This award
recognizes the people behind the innovation, those who implement an idea to
improve the world,” said Economist Editor Tom Standage. “This innovation and
the work of (the Children’s Safe Drinking Water) program is saving lives.”
Asked to
share his “eureka moment” – when he knew that this program had both his
personal and professional commitment, Allgood said: “It was 2004…. I was
sharing our water purification packets with villagers in western Kenya, where
villagers collect drinking water from shallow ponds they share with livestock.
As we were preparing to leave, a woman grabbed my arm and dropped to her knees.
She begged me for more packets for her children, as someone had stolen the
bucket of clean water I’d given her earlier. I knew without a doubt that
I had to find a way to keep the program alive, and growing.”
“This is a
true honor – and one that I accept on behalf of P&G employees and our many
safe drinking water partners around the world who have helped us build and
expand this program. It’s unacceptable that more than 2,000 children die every
day from unclean drinking water,” Allgood said. “P&G is more committed than
ever to scale up the program to reach our goal of saving one live every hour by
providing 2 billion liters of clean drinking water every year by 2020.”
