Ecofiltro is a Guatemalan social enterprise that lets people get safe drinking water without boiling over firewood, using a locally made ceramic filter of clay and colloidal silver. Its origin is a foundation the Wilson family created in 1992, which ran into the reality that filters given away free went unused or became flower pots. MBA-trained Philip Wilson decided to “treat the poor not as objects of charity but as consumers,” and relaunched it as a for-profit social enterprise in 2009–2010. The key is cross-subsidy: it sells higher in cities, cheaper in rural areas, and donates to schools. By pricing it with a payback period shorter than the cost of firewood (about $11 a month), demand took off. It has reached 500,000–700,000 households cumulatively, and in its school program about 700,000–930,000 children drink safe water. It protects about 2,000 trees a day, cuts CO2 by 200,000 tonnes a year, and households save $120–210 a year on firewood. It holds B Corp certification and has received the Schwab Foundation's Central America Social Entrepreneur of the Year and the Energy Globe Award.
●●○ medium
There is no confirmed −; independently verified + decide the position (B). No unreachable strike-through.= non-additive meter
Ecofiltro: Safe water without boiling over firewood. The letter is B; certainty is medium. Unconfirmed concerns are placed under “Watching.” (As of 2026-Q2; estimate based on public information.)
Main narrative
One person’s story (N1)
+ before → after
When founder Philip Wilson proposed “not giving them away free but selling them at an affordable price,” his sister — who had long run water-purification work in rural areas — fiercely objected and would not speak to him for three months: “the poor won't pay.” But given the reality that free filters became flower pots and storage bins, he made the shift to treating the poorest as “consumers,” not “objects of charity.” He and his sister have since reconciled, and hundreds of thousands of households drink safe water.
Source nature: Startups.com / Knowledge at Wharton / P2 independent media (Startups.com / Wharton). Positive effects are not used to offset negatives.
Positive / negative effects
+ effects
- Ecofiltro has delivered locally made ceramic filters to 500,000–700,000 households cumulatively, and in its school program about 700,000–930,000 children drink safe water. By eliminating firewood for boiling, it protects about 2,000 trees a day, cuts CO2 by 200,000 tonnes a year, and households save $120–210 a year. It holds B Corp certification and received the Schwab Foundation's Central America Social Entrepreneur of the Year and the Energy Globe Award (with Climate Impact Partners).P1 independent recognition (B Corp / Schwab Foundation / Energy Globe) / Climate Impact Partners / AIM2Flourish
− effects (confirmed)
- No confirmed −.
- Slow rural penetration (repeatedly pushed-back goals)
- Reach and health-effect figures are partly self-tallied
- Reaching one million rural households, expanding into clean cookstoves, and growing in Central America, Mexico, and beyond.
A second look
The core + is safe-water access and children's health (people) and forest protection and CO2 reduction from cutting firewood and boiling (nature), backed by B Corp, the Schwab Foundation, Energy Globe, Wharton, and others. That said, as an HBR case notes, penetration into rural areas is harder than urban success, and the “one million household” goal has repeatedly slipped from 2020 to 2025 to 2026. Reaching the rural poorest — its social core — is the hardest part, and is watched.
Sources
How to read this assessment
- Reachable upper bound (ceiling): a confirmed − sets the ceiling, and independently verified + decide the position within it. + do not cancel out −.
- The weight of evidence is not symmetric: only confirmed − are counted; the volume of disputes or allegations goes under “Watching.” + are counted from independent evidence, while an organization’s own PR is treated as “reference.”
- Size is not value: scale is not used in the assessment. Matters that stay within money or competition—investors, shareholders, sanctions, trade secrets—are also excluded.
- The letter (assessment) and certainty (how reliable the information is) are separate axes.
This is a translation; the Japanese version is authoritative. The assessments here are generated automatically by AI based on published criteria. The operator does not alter individual results. Because they are AI-generated they may contain errors, and they are opinion and commentary, not statements of fact. Where evidence is insufficient, the entry is marked “On hold.” Requests for correction are accepted via the form.
Terms: Narrative Value = an assessment (A–G) of the distance between the story an organization tells and its reality / Ceiling meter = a visualization of the reachable upper bound / Watching = unconfirmed matters not counted / Protected stakeholders = people, animals, nature, and future generations. | Generated by: AI | As of: 2026-Q2 | Back to top