Urine Diversion

After 15 minutes, we started to wonder about our office visitor who asked to use our “bathroom”—a small former darkroom closet installed with a new design of Swedish composting toilet we were trying out.

She finally emerged. “I love that toilet! What does it cost?” It wasn’t really for sale, we told her, but 20 minutes of beseeching us to order one for her ultimately led to Ecovita, my eco-toilet business specializing in urine-diverting composting toilets. That was in 2000 or so.

I had always wanted a products business, since my work as a freelance writer meant I was at the computer for hours every day. Selling big products is way different: Moving around big 40-pound boxes, opening boxes to figure out what was rattling around, re-strapping boxes, talking to customers at our showroom and at conferences got me moving.  (more…)