Innovation For Good®
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Innovation for Good (IfG) is an in-house startup compromised 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.
Products With Purpose
Simple, durable, and gracious sanitation and hygiene solutions.
KOHLER Loope™
KOHLER® Loope integrates a waterless solution with container-based sanitation (CBS) waste-collection models.
KOHLER Rinse™
KOHLER Rinse is a seated sanitation solution that offers comfort and dignity to affected people around the world.
KOHLER Cleanse™
KOHLER Cleanse is a hands-free faucet that provides health and hygiene to those around the world who lack access to handwashing facilities.
The Power of a New Partnership
Kohler is partnering with nonprofit Amalooloo to provide KOHLER Cleanse handwashing faucets to individuals throughout nine countries in Africa.
Award-Winning Design
Launched in 2023, the KOHLER Loope container-based toilet took the world by storm. Not only is this product Kohler's first waterless toilet, but it's design has also won multiple awards, including iF Design Gold, Red Dot Design, and Fast Company's World Changing Idea awards.
Striving Toward Sustainable Sanitation
Water Mission, a nonprofit that works to improve access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene, leverages the KOHLER Rinse toilet in its "Healthy Latrines," which provide communities with a gracious experience and durable toilet solution.
What is the I-Prize?
Part of our Innovation for Good incubator, the annual I-Prize competition is a global, internal innovation incubator and competition to develop commercially viable business solutions for pressing global, social, and environmental issues. Each year, the top teams compete in a Shark Tank-style competition to earn incubation funding to further develop their ideas.
Innovating a Handwashing Solution
The KOHLER Cleanse handwashing faucet would not have been made possible without the power and passion of our associates. While traveling to Indonesia, Kohler Mira project engineer James Bourne became inspired after witnessing the lack of adequate hygiene. Driven by the need for change, James pitched his idea for a simple and efficient handwashing solution. This solution not only went on to be one of the I-Prize winners but is also IfG’s primary handwashing solution to date.
Inspiring the Innovative Minds of Students
The M-Prize, hosted in partnership with Marquette University, is an innovation sprint and pitch competition inspired by Kohler’s annual I-Prize competition. Over the six weeks of the competition, the IfG and Kohler Innovation teams hosted the students for an innovation workshop and facility tour, met weekly for mentoring sessions, and cheered on the students during their amazing final pitches.