For Immediate Release
September 22, 2017
LIXIL Corporation

LIXIL’s SATO to Bring Safer Sanitation to 15 Million More People with
Support of New Funding
Led by Grand Challenges Canada, a new investment fund will help LIXIL scale up manufacturing anddistribution of affordable and safe SATO products in an additional 11 countries
Tokyo, Japan – LIXIL Corporation (LIXIL) – a global leader in the housing and buildings industry – today
announced that its breakthrough SATO business will be funded under the “Urban Sanitation Challenge,”a newly launched program of the Water Innovation Engine. LIXIL’s SATO is one of the first five projects
ever to be funded through the Urban Sanitation Challenge. The new program, led by Grand Challenges
Canada, was launched on September 21 at the UN General Assembly meetings in New York City.
LIXIL’s SATO is a first-of-its-kind line of affordable toilet and sanitation products specifically tailored forrural and peri-urban communities with difficulties accessing safe sanitation. The products are designed
to automatically and reliably seal open-pit latrines with an innovative self-closing trap-door thatminimizes odors and the passage of disease-carrying insects, making the toilet safer and more pleasant
to use. The first SATO toilet was developed in 2012 by LIXIL’s American Standard brand. There are now
1.2 million units in use, improving sanitation for 6 million people around the world.

SATO offers a variety of toilet products for pit latrines, to block odors and flying insects
SATO products are currently commercially available in four countries – Bangladesh, Uganda, Kenya, andIndia. The CAD $1 million of funding will help LIXIL scale up SATO to reach an additional 15 millionpeople, enabling manufacturing and distribution of SATO products in Nigeria, Tanzania, Ethiopia,Rwanda, South Africa, Vietnam, Indonesia, Haiti, Ghana, Malawi, and the Philippines. This will take the1company a step closer to reaching its goal of bringing safe sanitation to 100 million people by the endof 2020 — and improving worldwide access to basic sanitation by four percent.
Jin Song Montesano, Executive Officer and Senior Managing Director, LIXIL Group commented: “SATO
seeks to scale its operations and to develop the means to reach the millions of rural and peri-urban
consumers currently living without access to safe and adequate sanitation. Funding from Grand
Challenges Canada will have a significant impact on our ability to achieve these goals. That funding
represents a much-appreciated vote of confidence in the SATO team’s innovative and technologyfocused approach to sanitation solutions.”
A second project to receive funding uses another of LIXIL’s innovations. Laguna Water’s project in thePhilippines utilizes LIXIL’s Portable Toilet System – an in-home sanitation solution designed for dense
urban informal settlements that lack adequate sanitation infrastructure. The system is being field-tested
to offer disadvantaged households an ‘odorless’ toilet from which human waste can be collected andtreated hygienically and efficiently.
The Urban Sanitation Challenge recognizes projects that tackle the impact of poor sanitation on health,the environment, and the economy through cost-effective solutions. It is the newest initiative of theWater Innovation Engine, which was formed in in response to a 2016 Call to Action from the eleven
Heads of Government and State and Special Advisers who make up the UN / World Bank High Level
Panel on Water (HLPW). The challenge is supported financially by the Government of Canada throughGlobal Affairs Canada, and a host of other partners.
Dr. Peter A. Singer, Chief Executive Officer of Grand Challenges Canada commented: “The lack ofsanitation has a disproportionate impact on vulnerable women and girls and leads to diarrhea, deathand delayed child development. Investing in safe urban sanitation is key to advancing gender equality,
and to ensuring the health and well-being of every woman and every child.”
For more information about SATO, visit www.sato.lixil.com.

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About the Urban Sanitation Challenge
The new Urban Sanitation Challenge will fund breakthroughs in innovative approaches that help communities deliver
cost-effective universal urban sanitation so as to prevent harmful impacts to health, the environment, and the economy.
The Urban Sanitation Challenge, led by Grand Challenges Canada, is the newest initiative of the Water Innovation Engine,which was formed in response to a 2016 Call to Action from the eleven Heads of Government and State and Special
Adviser who make up the UN / World Bank High Level Panel on Water (HLPW). Leaders specifically made an appeal forthe launch of challenge programs to stimulate thinking that will shift the needle in implementing a new water agenda.
The Water Innovation Engine’s development is being guided by a Launch Committee, whose members include theAustralian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the World Bank, and the Rockefeller
Foundation.
About LIXIL
LIXIL is a global leader in the housing and building industry. Our unique portfolio spans everything from technologies
that revolutionize how we interact with water in our daily lives, to a full lineup of products and services for housing andmajor architectural projects. Delivering core strengths in water, kitchen, housing, and building technologies, our brands
including LIXIL, American Standard, GROHE, DXV, INAX, and Permasteelisa are leaders in the industries and regions inwhich they operate. LIXIL operates in more than 150 countries and employs more than 70,000 people, bringing together
function, quality, and design to make people’s lives better and more delightful – wherever they are.
Learn more at www.lixil.com, facebook.com/lixilgroup and www.linkedin.com/company/lixil-group.

About LIXIL Group
LIXIL Group Corporation (TSE Code: 5938) is the listed holding company containing LIXIL Corporation, LIXIL VIVACORPORATION and LIXIL Housing Research Institute, Ltd. The Group, which is led by President and CEO Kinya Seto, isinvolved in a broad spectrum of housing-related businesses, ranging from the manufacture and sales of building
materials and housing equipment to the operation of home centers and a network of homebuilding franchises, andcomprehensive real estate service. LIXIL Group Corporation posted ¥1.79 trillion in consolidated sales in FYE March 2017.

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