Global Washington: Changemaker- Rick McKenney

Clean water, social justice, and sustainable business: Rick McKenney of Water for Humans

By Anamika Ved;;;A
social entrepreneur, mechanical engineer, a physicist, material scientist and a keen advocate of social and economic justice are few words that describe RicMcKenneyey, thcofounderer of Water for Humans. Having started his career as a budding entrepreneur during his high school days, Rick’s passion for implementing social change eventually gave birth to the non profit social venture enterprise that is called “Water for Humans”.

In 2006, while traveling in Mexico during the summer, Rick noticed the elderly struggling with water jugs, people getting drinking water out of five-gallon jugs and trucks carrying jugs of clean water. He realized that people understand the value of clean water; they recognize that drinking tap water can potentially lead to serious medical problems and even death. With multinational companies and other private enterprise mushrooming in the profitable business of potable water sales and distribution, Rick saw people spending 25% of their income on buying expensive bottled water. Those with less financial means were drinking water that was insufficiently treated and not safe for human consumption.

He also saw raw sewage flowing directly into the sea and onto farmers’ fields polluting the ocean and human consumption crops. With fields getting flooded by raw sewage, farmers could only grow animal feed commodity, which has less financial value than human consumption crops. His exposure to this socioeconomic reality made him decide to work towards saving people from the deleterious effects of these unsafe water and sanitation practices.
Born in Southern California, Rick was imbued with both the business and engineering skills to start a private enterprise. While in high school he started and successfully operated his own business, a small manufacturing outfit, before he sold it to pursue his undergraduate degree in Solid State Physics and Mechanical Engineering.

After working in military industrial complex where he was “conflicted by the lure of science and the application of technology,” he joined Boeing as physicist and materials scientist. During his eighteen years at Boeing, he worked on many classified projects; however, he wanted to do something in line with his core values. He wanted to give back to the society. As a first step, he went to Vancouver, B.C. and for four years worked at Ballard Power Systems developing hydrogen fuel cell technologies.

Rick was interested in social entrepreneurship from social justice perspective. He wanted to use his engineering and business skills for environmental, economic and social causes. He wanted to do, as he says, “Business for good.” With that thought in mind, he joineBainbridgeBainbridge Graduate Institute (BGI) in the fall of 2004 to get his MBA in Sustainable Business Practices in June 2007.

and unemployment. He also studied social justice and business and started lBainbridge some ideas relating to it.

In his effort to start a social enterprise for safe drinking water and sewage, Rick was greatly supported and encouraged by Gifford Pinchot, the co-founder of Bainbridge Graduate Institute. Gifford connected him to Paul Hudnut, a social entrepreneur and founder of Envirofit, an enterprise-based model that represents a more sustainable approach to tackling the global IAP/cook stoves problem.

Rick also drew inspiration from Fabio Rosa, a Brazilian social entrepreneur whose initiatives focused on rural electrification and the use oPinchotinable energy resourBainbridgear to Rosa’s “The Sunshines for All,” which delivHudnutow cost electricity to millions of ruraEnvirofitans, Rick decided to come up with what he calls “a reliable, low cost, culturally acceptable technical solution that could provide sustainable sewage treatment systems, and access to clean water.” This, he thought, would reduce pollution for people of all economic classes. He also understood the importance of proviSunshinesnancial mechanism via a social venture enterprise. A social venture enterprise, according to him, was important to ensure that infrastructure, such as sewage treatment systems, have adequate financial resources to provide continuous operations and maintenance for areas where local governments do not have the capacity to deliver such services. This led to the birth of Water for Humans, a social enterprise that strives to insure local public control of water resources and the deployment of low cost water purification systems to the 1.1 billion people in the world who lack safe drinking water.

According to Rick, “the strength and vitality of a community is based on its ability to provide food security and economic vitality to its citizens.” In order to accomplish his vision to bring about social and economic justice, Rick wants to ensure the safety and quality of the local food sources and help local economies thrive.

Rick also stresses on the importance of collaborative working model, which resonates with one of Global Washington’s four principles of aid effectiveness i.e, local ownership. According to Rick, collaboration or partnership with the local communities, NGOs, and government has been the mainstay of their organization’s success. “Strong and deep connections to key community partners have allowed us to grow and increase our impact,” he says. Their most recent project, aimed at designing and building a constructed wetland for sewage treatment in Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla, is an example of such collaboration. In this endeavor, Water for Humans isNGOstnering with a local internationally-recognized NGO, Instituto de la Naturaleza y la Sociedad de Oaxaca (INSO). The goal is to develop this watershed project 20Km NNE of Oaxaca City, as a model that communities throughout the world can study and emulate. In addition, they are also working onSantoinwater catchmenBajodEtlaer treatment, and composting latrine program within Oaxaca City. There many sections of Oaxaca City that do not have adequate water aInstitutotden sNaturalezand theSociedadrdeng hard with the community to implement a cost effective solution to this chronic water shortage issue.

Rick emphasizes partnerships between small non-profit organizations and agencies like USAID and thinks that Global Washington can help make such connections. He appreciates the role played by Global Washington in increasing the “visibility of the member organizations.”

Excited about launching the first watershed project in the Oaxaca Valley, Rick continues to work towards implementing social change, using his scientific skills and strong belief in social and economic justice. Let’s wish him success in this laudable objective as he fulfills his dream to “affect people in the most positive way.”

Mexico City and UMA

Our trip to Mexico has been outstanding, so far. Rick, Susan and I arrived in Mexico City on Tuesday, July 7th, made our way to the Hotel Isabel via the metro and checked in. Rick and I then met with Michael Sumner, our volunteer living in Mexico City, for dinner. He gave us a good rundown of the city, explained recent news events and cautioned us about certain dangers (like which taxis in Mexico City to avoid). He also made tentative arrangements to meet us in Oaxaca this week during the Festival of the Population.

Wednesday, we caught a taxi to Industrias Mass, one of the water filter suppliers we have been in contact with via email and telephone. Our appointment was with Roberto Lopez. When we met him, he immediately took us to meet the company Director and Elsa Villasana (sales). We explained what Water for Humans was interested in accomplishing in Mexico and how filter suppliers would be instrumental to achieving our goals. They expressed an interest in working with us and proceeded to call upon their technical team to show us some of the products that they currently have available. After showing us their products, they said that they could customize a system for us, depending on what needed to be filtered out of the water. They then offered to independently analyze (pro bono) the water for us as an added check to the university testing that we are planning. All in all, we left with a very good feeling about Industrias Mass.

In the afternoon, we met with the World Vision director, Victor Sandoval. He asked Marco Antonio Garcia (head of Fundacion Realidad) to join us, since we were interested in micro-financing. When we explained that we were interested in long term leasing and banking for the poor, he said that those were areas that they would like to explore/start and if there was a way to help us achieve our goals, through their help, they would do what they could. He then volunteered to send a representative to Oaxaca while we are there to start some exploratory investigating. We told him that it was premature at this time, but we would call him from Oaxaca and let him know when we would be ready to proceed. This was also a very good meeting for us.

Our taxi for the day was more like a hired driver as we used his services all day long. Miguel was outstanding, he found Industrias Mass easily with only one phone call. This was amazing since the office was a good forty-five minutes across town in a complex set of buildings. After our meeting, he was ready to take us to World Vision across town in the other direction. He even suggested a nice restaurant for lunch, close to our afternoon meeting. We were glad not to be driving as we would probably still be searching for these locations and our hotel.

The next day we went on a three hour bus ride to Valle de Bravo to attend an intensive with BGI’s(Bainbridge Graduate Institute) sister institution in Mexico. La Universidad del Medio Ambiente (UMA-the University of the Environment) was holding its final intensive for its initial cohort (C-1). It is an entrepreneur certificate program set up in a similar fashion to BGI. The fifteen participants in the program are all seasoned entrepreneurs who are interested in bringing social justice and environmental sustainability to their businesses. The CAIR (Change Agent in Residence) for the weekend was Dr. Eduardo A. Batllori Sampedro, the Secretary of Urban Development and the Environment for the Yucatan. He presented his detailed plan to deal with solid waste in Yucatan. He has been working on this plan for many years and is now ready to roll it out. We have a copy of the presentation, but were unable to understand it completely since both the presentation and lecture were in Spanish.

Rick and I presented Water for Humans to UMA. After the presentation and Q&A session, the participants identified a number of challenges in our plan. They divided themselves into five groups and each group discussed the challenges. Susan, Rick and I participated in three of the groups. After about thirty minutes, each group presented its conclusions to the entire class. Basically, everyone liked the long term plan. There was a lot of criticism, however, with regard to the short term plan. For various reasons, most did not like the idea of using filters as point-of-use water purifiers, but some did. All in all, we learned a lot from the feedback and will use it as we continue our journey on to Oaxaca.