Interview: Paul Crossley on building the innovative new eco-cistem brand

Two years after the former JT MD came out of retirement to head up eco-cistem™, Paul Crossley talks to Nicola Hanley about the huge potential behind the ‘world’s most environmentally friendly toilet cistern’.

When Paul Crossley sold shower tray manufacturer JT in 2019, he thought he’d left the bathroom industry behind. However, after taking some time out, he began consulting with some manufacturing businesses and came across eco-cistem, and he instantly saw its potential.

An innovative toilet cistern that uses grey condensate water from air conditioning units for flushing, eco-cistem was invented by 2 directors of UK-based G&H Group, a large mechanical and electrical company, and is now the trading name of The Green Futures Initiative Ltd. It features a patented 18-litre twin-chamber cistern that can store up to 12 litres of grey condensate water and 6 litres of mains water – which is only used when no grey water is available – to flush the toilet.

“The guys who invented the product were running a business with over 250 employees and during my consultancy work with eco-cistem, it became apparent that they needed someone to head it up,” says Crossley. And so, in 2023, he invested in the business, officially took the helm as MD and was tasked with refining the product design and branding, streamlining the UK manufacturing process, and establishing several test sites to measure the water savings and gain the required accreditations.

Thomas Dudley had originally been involved in eco-cistem’s R&D so one of Crossley’s first calls as MD was to Martin Dudley. “I don’t want to run a huge factory again,” he says. “I wanted to work with someone who is very competent and knows exactly what they’re doing. And Thomas Dudley also has its own in-house testing facility for WRAS. So we had a very open conversation about what we could achieve together and the relationship I’ve built up with the team at Thomas Dudley is brilliant. We have a really unique product that is a genuine innovation.”

Following significant investment in finessing the tooling and getting the product tested, all eco-cistem fittings now have WRAS approval and it is registered with Made in Britain. It has also passed the AB Air Gap test conducted by KIWA, achieving Category 5 compliance. In addition, the cistern is also eligible for BREEAM points under WAT 01 for water consumption and can earn up to 6 points in LEED’s water efficiency category.

“We have already installed the cisterns in a number of commercial offices in the UK and a national UK gym chain is using eco-cistem for their refurbishment roll-out,” says Crossley.

He has also taken the product to the UAE and eco-cistem is currently in the process of being installed in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Abu Dhabi. It’s also in the Marriott and Hilton hotels in Barcelona, where Crossley is getting live data monitoring on the water savings that can be achieved with eco-cistem.

Although there are a lot of variables at play, the results are impressive. “Through the summer at both hotels we were consistently getting 64% water savings,” Crossley says. “It shows that with eco-cistem, a 220-room hotel can save over 1 million litres of water per year, which up until this point would have just gone down the flush pipe. 

“It’s not the golden pill by any means but it is a phenomenal amount of water we're saving,” Crossley continues. “People are saying ‘why haven’t we done this before’?”

In April, eco-cistem joined the Bathroom Association and the company has also partnered with Smiths Briten, which will stock and distribute the product in the UK. Crossley is now in the process of setting up similar worldwide distribution partnerships. “I’ve got agents signed up for Brazil and Singapore and they’ve had some good meetings and I’m looking for partners in Ireland, France, Portugal and Spain,” he says.

Although eco-cistem is primarily a commercial product, which is particularly well suited to hotels, apartments, offices and other buildings that regularly use air conditioning units, it also has the potential to become a B2C product. Even in the UK, the air conditioning market is poised for growth with climate change resulting in higher temperatures. “I do think it’s going to become a residential product,” says Crossley, who is currently in talks with a contractor who wants to put eco-cistem into student accommodation units in London.

Crossley says he isn’t looking to expand the product range or employ a huge number of people, but may consider bringing a sales director on board down the line. “At the moment I’m the only employee, and I’m meant to be retired,” he laughs. “This is a product with huge potential. We’re still at such an early stage but we’re getting incredible feedback.”