More than a billion people do not have access to safe drinking water. Many must devote several hours every day to retrieving water, and water-borne pathogens kill more children that any other cause, making unclean water the biggest threat to world health. As part of a social enterprise consortium, Don Gould, who is both a product designer and ceramicist, helped to design and deploy simple, effective water filtration devices to the developing world. When people ask him how he knows that his product works, he answers: "Because babies stop dying." In this audio interview, he talks with host Tim Zak about both the traditional production techniques and the new economy models for collaboration.
Don Gould is president of DGPS, Inc., a product strategy and design consortium that specializes in developing sustainable social enterprise product solutions to global issues. Gould's recent efforts focus on Pure Water 4 All, a global initiative to create sustainable, grassroots water purification solutions to support NGOs world-wide in their quest to reduce child deaths from water-borne pathogens. He also is involved in "I Have Choices," a program to provide low-cost/high-value access to vision care for freelancers, artists, and any uninsured individuals in the United States and Puerto Rico regardless of economic or citizenship status. He was a development consultant for the Ford Foundation-funded CDC/ARI Social Entrepreneurship Initiative to develop business, marketing, and funding plans for the Cambodian Khmer Cultural Center, Long Beach, Calif., and the Museo Chicano, Phoenix, Ariz. Gould has owned and operated a design firm and has also been a director for product strategy and corporate marketing management, strategic planning, and visual communications positions with Rockwell International, Mellon Financial Corp., QED Communications, and Carnegie Institute.
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