SATO Pans and Stools
MLC VANGUARD | Created by SATO
SATO, an award-winning social business, is working towards transforming 100 million lives by 2025 through access to improved sanitation and hygiene, directly impacting SDG 6.2. Consumer centric, we are an affordable, innovative, and aspirational sanitation and hygiene brand that empowers underserved communities across the world.
12,500,000 Lives Impacted
SATO is working meticulously to offer a better life and a brighter future, through innovative sanitation and hygiene solutions, for people living in rural and peri-urban areas. By adapting and designing for the target markets, we aim to increase the uptake of sanitation products and ensure consistent use, creating local sanitation economies. Catering to customers already facing challenges accessing water for their daily needs, we have developed innovative water-saving products. This means they can spend less time fetching water and keep up with sanitation and hygiene in water-stressed locations.
Our toilet solutions feature an innovative trap door technology that saves 80% water compared to conventional flush toilets, blocks smell and flies, and also increases safety for children from falling into a pit latrine, or from exposure to animals and matter. We also establish a local Make, Sell, Use cycle in the community—creating jobs and allowing local manufacturers and stakeholders to continue the business independently. SATO invests in training masons and plumbers to build capacity in local markets and increase awareness of the benefits of improved sanitation.
The Innovation
Our toilet solutions, which range from toilet pans and stool to connection systems, are durable, easy to install and simple to use. The signature SATO toilet, first launched in Bangladesh in 2013, features an automatically closing trap door that blocks odors and insects. A small amount of water (0.2 to 1 litre) opens the trap door to eliminate waste, which shuts itself tightly after use. The SATO pan was evolved to include a raised stool, providing the same benefits of the SATO pan product, but with a higher seat for easier use by the elderly, or for those preferring to use a "pedestal" style toilet over a squat pan. To increase the reach and improve sanitation globally, we have established last-longing partnerships with local manufacturers, NGOs and inter-governmental organisations such as UNICEF and USAID.
About SATO
Created in 2012 with the aim of tackling the global sanitation challenge, SATO is an award-winning social business which aims to empower underserved communities so they can live safer and more confident lives. We offer innovative, aspirational yet affordable sanitation and hygiene solutions for a better toilet experience.
Consumer-centric, our products have been developed based on our customers’ needs and wants. Ranging from toilet pans and connection systems to taps for handwashing, our solutions are durable, water-saving, easy to install and simple to use. A part of LIXIL, maker of pioneering water and housing products, SATO has impacted more than 25 million lives, having produced and shipped over 5.1 million units across 41 countries.
Implemented in
SATO’s innovation has been implemented in 22 countries across Africa, 11 in Asia, 6 in North & South America and 2 in Oceania.
