Abhishek Nath is an Indian businessman, social entrepreneur.[1] He is the founder of
LooCafe, an India-based
WASH organization promoting employment, environmental sanitation, waste management and ending sanitation based issues in India.[2]
The parent company of
Loocafe, Ixora Corporate Services that he founded is into urban sanitation, and
facility management for public spaces.[3][4]
Nath started working in urban sanitation after leaving his roles at
Johnson Controls &
Taj Hotels, he started Ixora Corporate Services (ICS) a facility management company.[7] Then was involved in the
Swachh Bharat Mission for urban sanitation work with heritage sites, such as the Charminar.[8]
He first noticed the failing structures of brick and mortar
Public toilets and their pay to use system, which did not work out due to operations costs and high philanthropic investment needs.[1]
Then established
LooCafe where he created a structure of a public toilet that was prefabricated, free for toilet use, attached to a
Point of sale (café) built inside a shipping container.[9] The model also supports social change, as it helps urbanization of street hawkers into established businesses and creates employment directly through its structure.[10]
After founding LooCafe in 2018[11] in Hyderabad, he has worked on expanding their operations into sanitation technology,[12] waste management, and building circular economy models.[13]
Currently, the company counts 400 such structures across India. With operations set up in Hyderabad,[14][15][16] Srinagar,[17] Bengaluru, Chandigarh,[18] Mumbai,[19] Chennai,[20] Patna,[21] Pune, Indore,[22] Mohali.[23]
Recognition
In 2016, he won Cleaning leader of the Year award by Clean and Green India.[24]
In the 2022 edition of InkWASH, he was awarded with the WASH Stewardship Award, In the 2023 edition, he was a featured speaker.[29] His work was also a featured Innovation in the WASH book of Innovations.
[30] His work has been claimed to have brought about reforms in the
Public toilet and sanitation space using sustainability and technology.[31] Currently,
LooCafe's are India's most widespread public toilet models.[32]