When the government isn’t providing clean sanitation, Sanergy is showing that there’s an opportunity for local entrepreneurs to step in.
Sanergy is a social enterprise that’s building out a sanitation network in Nairobi, Kenya. It designs its own toilets, franchises them out to entrepreneurs (who charge people to use them), then converts the waste into fertilizer that it sells to farmers. Started by MIT graduates, Sanergy takes a business approach, based on the premise that people will pay to use toilets if you make them clean and sturdy enough.