Considering that showering represents a major part of the environmental impact of its toilet products’ life cycle (due to the quantity of water needed and of energy to heat that water), the Unilever group is asking creative individuals all over the world to submit their ideas and solutions for an environmentally friendly shower at eYeka.com. The winning submissions will be granted a cash prize and a trip to London to develop the idea.

In-home use is responsible for a significant proportion of the carbon footprint of shower products and with water becoming evermore precious there is an identified need to develop the world’s first commercially viable shower of the future,” says the company.

According to Phil Giesler, Vice President, New Businesses Unit for Unilever, the move is in line with taking increased responsibility for the way in which Unilever brands are consumed.

Long term partnership

The initiative comes after the announcement of a partnership between Unilever and co-creation community eYeka in order to further tap into its open creativity platform across Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Russia and South Africa. Actually, Unilever considers crowdsourcing (the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, and especially from an online community) has the potential to help delivering coherent solutions to complex challenges.

Through the partnership, eYeka’s online community of over 250,000 creators will help developing ideas for a number of familiar Unilever brands.

eYeka’s mission is to leverage the world’s creativity to enable organizations and people to create a better future together. This initiative is a tremendous opportunity for our community to have an impact on our environment," states François Pétavy, CEO, eYeka.