LIXIL Corporation announced its SATO toilets have been selected as a finalist for Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards in the Health and the general World Changing Idea categories. Fast Company is a business media focused on innovation in leadership, design, technology and world-changing ideas, and its World Changing Ideas Awards recognize companies for creating new concepts, products and projects that can potentially transform people’s lives and improve the world.

“Receiving this prestigious recognition for our SATO products, and their role in improving health around the globe, is a sincere honor. We are deeply committed to improving sanitation and hygiene conditions globally by increasing access to these innovative products in developing countries,” said Jim McHale, Ph.D., vice president and general manager of LIXIL’s SATO business unit, and co-inventor of the SATO toilets.

McHale added: “The original SATO toilet was the first step in developing a full-line brand of bathroom products created for people living without access to clean sanitation facilities.”

SATO toilets are designed to provide a sanitation solution that does not require water and sewer infrastructure. Created to improve the user experience and safety of open-pit latrines in developing countries, SATO toilets utilize a counterweighted trap-door to minimize odors and the transmission of disease. The first hygienic SATO toilet was developed by American Standard, part of LIXIL, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2012. More than one million units are currently in use in over 14 countries, starting with Bangladesh and now including the Philippines, India, Uganda, Kenya and Haiti. They are available in a number of variations that take into account local needs.

LIXIL has set a target of improving access to sanitation and hygiene for 100 million people by the year 2020.

Launched this year, the World Changing Ideas Awards showcase 12 winners and nearly 200 finalists from a pool of more than 1,200 entries in categories ranging from Food to Energy to Developing World Technology. A panel of eminent judges selected winners and finalists from entries hailing from across the globe, from Pakistan to Brazil to Kenya to the United States.

The winners and finalists in the 2017 World Changing Ideas Awards program will be highlighted in the April 2017 issue of Fast Company magazine.