Designing Scalable Water and Hygiene Businesses

May 24, 2013

Stopping in for a Glass of SmartLife Drinking Water

During an off day in Kenya on the Juhudi Kilimo project, IDEO.org visited the SmartLife store in Nairobi. You’ll recall that SmartLife is the social enterprise selling pure drinking water designed as part of a 2012 IDEO.org project  partnering with  Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP), Unilever, Aqua for All, and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN).  The SmartLife store launched in February and our IDEO.org team was excited to see how the new business was doing. 

IMPACT UPDATE
Arrow
Stopping-in-for-a-glass-of-smartlife-drinking-water-1
Stopping-in-for-a-glass-of-smartlife-drinking-water-2
Stopping-in-for-a-glass-of-smartlife-drinking-water-3
Stopping-in-for-a-glass-of-smartlife-drinking-water-4
Stopping-in-for-a-glass-of-smartlife-drinking-water-5
Stopping-in-for-a-glass-of-smartlife-drinking-water-6
Stopping-in-for-a-glass-of-smartlife-drinking-water-7
Stopping-in-for-a-glass-of-smartlife-drinking-water-8

“When we visited the SmartLife store in Rongai [the neighborhood in Nairobi where the SmartLife store is located], we were excited to see the store up and running and operated by local staff,” said IDEO.org Fellow Danny Alexander. 

“It was also great to see that so many shops in the neighborhood had become vendors of SmartLife water and that they were proudly displaying SmartLife stickers in their shop windows,” Danny continued. “The positive reception of SmartLife in the community is really inspiring.”

With an ultimate goal to reach 500 households in Rongai over the next six to nine months and future plans to open ten to fifteen SmartLife stores around Nairobi, IDEO.org is happy to see SmartLife making great strides!

Stay posted for future updates about the success of SmartLife.

- Jacqueline Watts (IDEO.org Community Manager)