It was just a matter of when. That is my take on this past week’s announcement that Clean the World and Global Soap have combined their operations and charitable efforts. It did not make a lot of sense for two organizations to be competing for donor dollars and basically doing the same thing: collecting, processing and distributing soap and other amenities. While separately the two organizations were making a huge difference, together the two will have an even larger impact on improving hygiene and reducing the number of children dying daily from diarrheal disease.
Going forward, Global Soap will be a division—a brand—of Clean the World. (Clean the World considers its ONE Project another brand.) Clean the World will manage all soap and bottle collection and recycling in North America. Clean the World Asia will oversee soap recycling in the Asia-Pacific region. Global Soap will concentrate on soap distribution, hygiene education programs, and expand upon its micro-enterprise and micro-lending initiatives. Global Soap is now out of the business of collecting and processing soap.
“Where we were strong, they were weak,” said Shawn Seipler, founder and CEO of Clean the World. “Where we were weak, they were strong.”
Flow of Product, in Some Cases, Will Change
This marriage of nonprofits will have an impact on many Green Lodging News readers. Folks previously sending soap to Global Soap will now send it to Clean the World locations for processing. In some cases participants will pay more; in other cases participants will pay less. There will be a 90-day transition period during which Global Soap donors will make the switch.
Shawn told me that when Clean the World started six years ago, 9,000 children were dying daily from diarrheal disease. Today, 6,000 children die on a daily basis—still unacceptable, of course. While our industry cannot take all of the credit for the decline, it is making a real difference. “Flooding the world with 25 million bars of soap has had a real impact,” Shawn said. “Seven million pounds of waste has been diverted from the landfill.”
Combined with Global Soap, Clean the World will have about 4,000 properties contributing soap and amenities. “We have about 20 percent of the hotels in the United States,” Shawn said. “Our goal is to have 50 percent participation by the end of 2016.”
With the addition of Global Soap, Shawn gets to work together with Global Soap Executive Director Sam Stephens (now Chief Development Officer of Clean the World). Sam told me that when he began chatting with Shawn last summer he was “instantly excited” about the opportunity to join Clean the World.
‘Comprehensive Global Soap Access’
“From a distribution standpoint Global Soap was distributing 1 million bars of soap annually,” Sam said. “Combined with Clean the World, Global Soap will now distribute 7 million bars of soap or more. We will be able to expand our micro-lending component. The mission is about comprehensive global soap access. We can start soap manufacturing in the local areas. It supports the local economy and makes sure the mission is sustained long term. We already have plans to expand from three to seven countries with micro-enterprises and should be in 10 countries by the end of the year.”
Sam said areas of extreme poverty will continue to be focus areas. “We will see a lot of work in Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and continued focus on Latin America. India will also be a focus area as it is the single largest contributor to hygiene-related deaths under the age of five.”
Sam will continue to be based in Atlanta, home of organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control, CARE and UPS. Shawn will continue to be based in Orlando. Clean the World, in addition to its operation centers in Orlando, Las Vegas and Hong Kong, has plans to expand in Hong Kong and into Thailand. “We are aggressively pursuing a European launch in the next six months,” Shawn said.
Since helping to launch Clean the World more than six years ago, Shawn has been on what he describes as quite an “amazing ride.” I have been reporting on Clean the World’s progress (and to some extent Global Soap’s) since day one and it has been amazing how quickly and how extensively the soap and amenity donation project has grown. I am convinced it is one of the most important things our industry has ever done—helping to save lives, helping to reduce waste to landfill, helping to empower housekeepers and others by allowing them to make a difference, and helping to seed new businesses at the grassroots level through micro-lending and micro-enterprise support.
I am proud to be a supporter of this effort.
If your property is not yet a Clean the World participant, I strongly encourage you to contact the organization for more information.
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