Innovation For Good®
Innovation for Good (IfG) is an in-house startup comprised of Kohler Co. entrepreneurs commercializing business opportunities with a social purpose. Since 2011, IfG has brought together associates from across industries, skills, and perspectives in an innovation incubator designed to explore products and solutions for pressing global, social, and environmental issues. We believe that the private sector has an important role to play in the development of scalable solutions that improve people’s lives, and we are committed to doing our part.
Innovative products making an impact.
Developed through Innovation for Good®, these smart solutions are helping communities around the world gain access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene.
First M-Prize Challenge sparks innovation with Marquette University students
Kohler Company and Marquette University partner for a higher-ed spin on Kohler’s Innovation for Good® I-Prize Challenge
World Toilet Day Q&A
In Nairobi’s informal settlements, Kohler and Sanergy’s container-based sanitation solution is changing lives. Sanergy’s cofounder and members of Kohler’s Innovation for Good® team discuss the human-centered design approach that made their collaboration a success.
Innovation for Good: Looking Ahead
Celebrating the 10th anniversary of Innovation for Good, we take a look at our success stories, hear from associates competing for the I-Prize, and imagine a future in which innovating solutions with a social purpose is part of every Kohler associate’s workday.
Our Progress Toward Better: Kohler's 2022 Believing in Better® Report
In our journey to better, we use Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria as a framework to transparently report against our goals and progress while ensuring the actions we take are embedded in our business strategy and operations. The report was prepared with reference to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards.
What happens when associates are empowered to think creatively and innovate with purpose?
You get amazingly creative yet eminently practical solutions to some of the world’s most pressing social and environmental challenges. Take a look at the history of Innovation for Good.
Creating a ripple effect.
Our most recent Sustainable Brands article explores how tapping into our associates’ innovative spirit generates solutions to global issues and so much more.
Water and climate: an urgent need to change behavior.
Why we must act now to drive innovation and action around water challenges.
Water innovation: a conversation with Fast Company
Manolo Caballer, Vice President – Engineering and Advanced Development, shares with Fast Company how Kohler fosters innovation to help solve some of today’s most pressing global issues.
Innovative solution to address global sanitation gaps.
Partnering with Sanergy, a Nairobi-based organization focused on sustainable solutions for nonsewered sanitation, Kohler is developing a container-based sanitation (CBS) option for people living without access to safe sanitation systems.
Water and climate change: how we can all help make our planet better.
Simple steps, taken collectively, enable us all to be stewards building a better planet.
The 50-liter home.
Fourteen of 20 of the world’s largest cities are experiencing water scarcity. Find out how Kohler and the 50L Home Coalition are working toward a more water-resilient future.
What is the I-Prize?
As a part of our Innovation for Good incubator, the annual I-Prize competition invites our associates to propose new products and business opportunities to address environmental or social issues—particularly those aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals on safe water and sanitation, reliable power, and responsible production and consumption. Each year, the top teams compete in Shark Tank-style competitions to earn incubation funding to further develop their ideas. Pitches have addressed everything from water quality and hygiene stations to energy and industrial waste, with the ultimate goal of transitioning to business development and commercialization.
Innovators wanted: driving change through intrapreneurship.
Dreamers. Doers. Status quo busters. Be the change-rs. Nothing’s impossible-rs. Kohler Co. has been brimming with them for 145 years—and now we’re tapping into that potential like never before.
Innovating for the greater good.
Kohler engineer James Bourne took the I-Prize for designing a new handwashing solution for the developing world.
Intelligent power: from concept to reality.
When a real-life opportunity to help make the world a little better came knocking on Kohler Product Manager Brad Meissner’s door, he made sure he was ready to go.
A successful failure.
See how one I-Prize team found greater success in failure, inspiring much-needed conversations and product innovation around female sanitation and hygiene needs.
Driving innovation beyond the I-Prize.
Kohler associate Lokesh Mohanpuri may not have brought home the I-Prize, but the business knowledge and new skills he developed changed his approach to his work.
WasteLAB®
KOHLER® WasteLAB was born in 2014 as an idea coming out of Kohler’s Innovation for Good incubator program. KOHLER WasteLAB associates look for ways to see the world differently, specifically looking to nature as a model for sustainable processes. Through nature’s cycles of growth and decay, waste simply doesn’t exist. WasteLAB associates apply such an approach in the manufacturing process, using landfill-bound pottery, wastewater sludge, slag, and glaze overspray to design and produce stunning products.
Every end is also a beginning…
From pottery wastewater running down a drain to a stunning canvas of unlimited creative expression, explore the journey and hand-crafted artistry of WasteLAB products.
Better business, better world.
Across all our brands, products, and services, we believe that doing well as a business and doing good in the world go hand in hand, and we hold ourselves accountable to take a larger role in addressing some of society's biggest challenges. In addition to our commitment to product transparency, renewable energy, and reduction of our operational impact, we strive to develop new products and business solutions to enhance the quality of life for current and future generations.
Abstra™ Collection
Made from nearly 100% recycled waste materials, the Abstra Collection features three-dimensional reliefs of intersecting lines that create a dynamic interplay of light and shadow. With endless combinations of color, size, and surface patterns, every installation becomes a unique expression of personal style. The Abstra Collection is also available in a matching set of unadorned field tiles with the same undulating surface detail.
Crackle Collection
Receiving an honorable mention from Fast Company for World Changing Ideas, Crackle Collection tiles are handcraftedby WasteLAB artisans and decorated with a dimensional visual effect achieved with a unique glaze designed to pool and break over the textured surface during firing.