Research and Innovation
Innovating in the sanitation sector
SOIL's extensive research program is pushing the sanitation sector forward through innovative discovery, research, and design initiatives to better understand essential service delivery in complex, low-resource, urban communities.
Our research is focused on expanding sector knowledge and contributing to the global conversation on how to effectively respond to the worldwide sanitation crisis. SOIL's team partners with academic institutions to publish research findings and shares lessons learned at global conferences.
SOIL's Research Highlights
Household Subsidies
SOIL is testing the EquityTool, a country-specific wealth survey, to determine the effectiveness of its use for reliably helping to identify at-risk households that may be eligible for reduced fee options for the EkoLakay service.
Climate Finance
SOIL's waste treatment methodology is mitigating ~ 0.7MT of CO2eq per household per year. The SOIL team is exploring opportunities to turn this climate impact into revenue to support the household service.
Baseline Sanitation Survey
The collection of baseline sanitation data in high risk priority zones in the Cap Haitian region to understand sanitation ownership, access and household needs and strategies for equitable sanitation service offerings.
Results-Based Financing
In late 2023 SOIL is piloting an outcomes-payment model in partnership with other stakeholders. Outcome payments will be tied to increase in households on the service and positive sanitation behavior change.
Meet SOIL's Research Team
Maya Lubeck-Schricker
Maya holds an MS in Epidemiology from the University of Washington and specializes in study design and quantitative data analysis to strengthen evidence-based decision-making and address operational challenges within SOIL’s sanitation service. Her career in global health began at Tufts University, working with Dr. Ramnath Subbaraman on projects examining tuberculosis treatment adherence as well as associations between legal and water access in Indian slums. She later consulted for the Gates Foundation on initiatives spanning the burden of Shigella in the Americas, vaccine investment strategy, climate-related health risks, gender equity in health R&D, and the role of AI in global health. Maya now brings this cross-cutting research background to advancing safe, sustainable sanitation in Haiti and beyond.
Bridj Ozeris
After completing his dissertation at the Université Chrétienne du Nord d’Haïti (UCNH), where he explored the intersection of agronomy and social issues, Bridj developed a strong interest in environmental and social justice. This commitment led him to join SOIL in 2021 through the Black Soldier Fly Project, where he has continued to expand his research expertise, particularly in the field of sanitation in Haiti.
Miselie Fanor Pierre
Miselie began working in the WASH sector in 2014, supporting underserved communities and strengthening health institutions through organizations such as the American Red Cross and Save the Children. In 2023, she joined SOIL to further her work with vulnerable communities by advancing safe sanitation research and services.
Latest Blogs on SOIL's Research
200 Pounds of Compost, Over 7,000 Kilometers and 1 Partnership
In a neat new research collaboration with implications on how we use and market compost in Haiti, SOIL is working with researchers at Cranfield University in the UK to evaluate the agricultural impact of SOIL's compost (Konpòs Lakay). This work can be summarized in numbers: 2 students will research....
Scaling Up a Household Toilet Service – One Neighborhood at a Time
(Photo credit: Monica Wise) Over 2.5 billion people globally currently lack access to sanitation. As a heartbreaking result, over 2,200 children under the age of five die every day from preventable diarrheal diseases. Despite billions of dollars spent on sanitation interventions, the global....
An Optimal Flush
Faithful readers of the SOIL blog will know that we spend a lot of time thinking about cover material at SOIL. Cover material is basically the “flush” that keeps the toilet from getting gross as covering the waste with some kind of dry material prevents it from smelling and deters flies from....
Sludge Love at 4th International Faecal Sludge Management Conference
A few weeks ago, SOIL Directors Sasha Kramer and Nick Preneta traveled to Chennai, India to represent SOIL at the 4 th International Faecal Sludge Management Conference (FSM4). Sasha gave a presentation about SOIL's EkoLakay program, and we also shared two posters about Konpòs Lakay and our ongoing....
Breaking Down All the Costs
As SOIL works to expand and continually improve our household toilet service, EkoLakay, we are constantly evaluating and reassessing our costs. To do this successfully, we need to have a detailed breakdown of what our costs are –how much we’re spending, what we’re spending money on, and what each....
Sunscreen or Rubber Boots? SOIL Has a Weather Station!
Last month we started collecting meteorological data at our composting site in northern Haiti. Currently, very few weather records are available in Haiti, and only a handful of stations publicly share the data they collect. With help from Becca Ryals and Gavin McNicol, our research partners from the....
SOIL Haiti at World Water Week 2016
World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden in August. World Water Week is an annual event that convenes practitioners, experts, and innovators to share ideas, network, and develop new solutions. SOIL's work was featured as part of a panel discussion on water and sanitation as a business. You can watch....
SOIL (Re)presents at Conference in Kumasi
Last week I had the great honor and pleasure of participating in and presenting at the Water, Engineering and Development Centre ( WEDC) International Conference, hosted on the Kwame Nkrumah University Science and Technology campus in Kumasi, Ghana. The theme of this year’s conference was Ensuring....
Oxfam Policy and Practice Blog: Container Based Sanitation Could Solve the World’s Toilet Problems
"Our first ever toilet summit was organised jointly with Sanergy, a social enterprise in Kenya. The two day event brought together sanitation experts and service providers from Africa, North America, the Carribean and Europe (LooWatt, MoSan, Re:Source, Sanergy, Sanivation, SOIL and Oxfam ) to share....
New Security Beat: New Approach to Sanitation May Help Fast-Growing Urban Areas Achieve SDGs
"Along this journey we realised there were other like-minded individuals and organisations who had come to the same conclusion that container based sanitation (CBS), is the most appropriate solution to address the sanitation gap in densely settled urban areas where sewers are lacking and there is....