Episode 036: Building Equity Through Sanitation Innovation with Jasmine Burton

Jasmine Burton is a social inclusion and design specialist who is passionate about building a more inclusive world through sanitation innovation. She is the founder and CEO of Wish for WASH, a social impact organization that addresses equity gaps in the WASH sector through human-centered design thinking and research.

In this episode, Jasmine shares her journey as a toilet design specialist striving to improve outcomes for the 4.2 billion people who lack access to safely managed sanitation. Join us as we dive into the challenges of global toilet inequity; exciting innovations in the WASH sector today; and the relationship between sanitation innovation, menstrual health and the empowerment of women and girls. 

Highlights

• What it means to be a social inclusion and design specialist
• How Jasmine utilizes the concept of empathy in an iterative framework to drive innovation, sustainability and impact
• What inspired her to go into toilet innovation at a young age
• The founding story of Wish for Wash, which she started as an undergrad at Georgia Tech to improve global sanitation infrastructure through human-centered design 
• “Flying toilets,” and other hazards prompted by widespread lack of access to safely managed sanitation 
• Notable innovations in the sanitation space today, including:
  • Development of toilet systems that can easily be tailored to different sets of needs 
  • The “circular sanitation economy” turning human waste into a renewable resource
  • The “smart sanitation economy” using wastewater technology as a preventative public health tool
  • How the COVID-19 has impacted Wish for Wash, and what the future holds
• Jasmine’s future endeavors in impact investing and sustainable financing 

Connect

Website: jasminekburton.com | wishforwash.org  | periodfutures.org | toiletboard.org

IG/FB/Twitter: @jasminekburton | @wishforwash | @periodfutures 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasminekburton/

Bio

Jasmine (Jaz) is a social inclusion and design specialist with a focus on gender equity, meaningful youth engagement, and innovation in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and global health sectors. She is trained in product design and public health, and is passionate about social justice and human rights. She has led iterative toilet innovation pilots and research across Sub-Saharan Africa with a design thinking lens and in resettled refugee communities as the founder of Wish for WASH, a social impact organization that seeks to bring innovation to sanitation. 

Jasmine has served as the Toilet Accelerator Manager and Innovation Lab Lead at the Toilet Board Coalition, Technical Advisor for the gender equity startup Equilo, on the Board of Directors for Planet Indonesia in order to help lead their WASH and gender strategies, a Design/Communications Associate for Women in Global Health, and a former consultant for gender and women's health research organizations Atethemis and International Planned Parenthood Federation. 

As a 2018-2019 Women Deliver Young Leader, she spoke at the 2019 WD conference about her work and vision for gender equity in the WASH sector. Jasmine identifies as a social impact designer who seeks to utilize design thinking, evidence-based research, and business acumen to build a more inclusive world. 

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