Firmenich Proves Malodor Control Is a Key Lever in Tackling Today's Sanitation Crisis

/ -- Marking World Toilet Day, Firmenich, the world's largest privately-owned perfume and taste company, released pioneering research demonstrating that malodor control is a key lever in tackling today's sanitation crisis. The four-country study, released at the Global Sanitation Economy Summit 2019 in Pune, India, found that effective malodor control significantly increased the use of shared toilets. Malodor was singled out as one of the top barriers to using toilets by 87% of respondents in Kenya, 70% in South Africa, 62% in India and 51% in China.

"At Firmenich we are committed to making safe toilets save lives. This pioneering study combines our world-class science of smell with our leading consumer insights," said Gilbert Ghostine, CEO, Firmenich. "With bad smell consistently cited as a barrier to toilet use, we have clear evidence that our breakthrough malodor-control technologies can make a real difference when they are integrated into affordable cleaning products."
"Firmenich is providing key software for the new toilet economy by taking a human-centered approach, based on our deep understanding of how positive emotions can drive behavior change," said Dr. Berangere Magarinos-Ruchat, Global Head of Sustainability. "This tangible, evidence-based work is in line with our purpose as a responsible business advancing science-based targets."
"With Firmenich and the Naandi Foundation in India, we developed a collaborative market research approach called 'Community Voices'," said David Menasc, Managing Partner, Archipel&Co. "We empowered young adults from underprivileged communities to interview their peers, leading to more accurate and reliable data in low-income settings, while creating employment opportunities."
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