Innovative Thinking

Be innovative and create innovation

We’re dedicated to thinking about things differently. That’s the innovative part. We ask ourselves about the real problems and the best way to succeed every time we tackle a challenge. And we tackle two of the biggest ones in the world—the 884 million who don’t have safe water and the 2.6 billion who don’t have adequate sanitation.

At the local level, we tackle the problems of “hardware”—boreholes and wells, pumps, pressure tanks, gravity-fed systems, squatting plates, the biochemistry of compost, construction logistics, and government regulations—so that the solutions work.

We also tackle the problems of “software”—figuring out how to make a complex network of people work better together, building a better financial system, creating a culture of maintenance in a village, creating systems to help communities collect tariffs, creating incentives for businesses to engage in solutions, and building local capacity—to fulfill our mission.

We’re convinced that in the water and sanitation crisis, real innovations don’t come from “hardware” or “software” but rather from the people on the ground. It is the problem solving, critical thinking, diagnosing, and testing that ensure the power of innovative thinking goes into every solution.

But thinking alone can’t do it. Action is also necessary to be innovative. We’re creating game-changing, unique, and powerful ways of doing business. We are helping communities to get out of water poverty and creating solutions that build capacity, outcomes, and long-lasting successes. Here are a few examples:

World Water Corps^®
Learning Organization
Leveraging the Private Sector
Data Monitoring Project