by Allison Archambault The UN Environmental Program (UNEP) named EarthSpark International as one of five original implementing partners in its multi-year multi-sector Côte Sud Initiative which aims to bring sustainable prosperity to Haiti’s Southern Peninsula. In recognition of EarthSpark’s leading work in clean energy delivery, UNEP has asked EarthSpark to advise on the development of the Initative’s 5 Year Plan for the energy sector and is directly supporting EarthSpark’s work with funding and logistical support. UNEP awarded EarthSpark $182,000 in grant funding and also delivered $80,000 to the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) for large capital purchases directed by EarthSpark. The one-year grant will fund EarthSpark’s work to expand clean energy retail operations and also to design, manage, and implement Haiti’s first ‘smart’ microgrid. The exemplary micro-grid will highlight the value of prepayment, efficiency, and collaborative business models to deliver localized grid electricity. Retail-level service provides low-income Haitians with access to efficient cookstoves and small-scale solar electricity systems. These high-quality, low-cost, efficient and renewable energy technologies save money over time and reduce strains on health and the environment. Clean Energy retail sites create jobs and serve as local centers of energy excellence - promoting “energy literacy” and technical training and attracting other enterprises. The model is highly scalable: EarthSpark’s local partners will soon be serving customers across the entire South-West of Haiti. “This grant will enable EarthSpark to transition from pilot scale to deployment,” said EarthSpark founder Dan Schnitzer. “In doing so, our impact will increase by an order of magnitude, bringing access to clean energy across an entire province of Haiti.” “EarthSpark has been on the ground working with communities and getting hard data about what works. They bring great value to this Initiative,” said Andrew Morton, Haiti Regeneration Initiative Coordinator for UNEP. As a social enterprise working in rural Haiti since 2008, EarthSpark has a deep understanding of low-income customers’ energy needs and has strong local partnerships with community organizations, corporations, international institutions, and government agencies. In partnership with local Haitian businesses, community groups and the diaspora, EarthSpark has launched Enèji Pwòp, a Haitian brand for small-scale clean energy products. Through micro-franchising and micro-consignment, Enèji Pwòp is building a network of independent retailers to sell efficient cookstoves and stand-alone solar electricity systems to households and small businesses. The first Enèji Pwòp storefront opened its doors in Les Anglais, a small town in the South, in July 2010 and has since generated over US$28,000 in revenue. EarthSpark has partnered with Haiti’s largest micro-finance organization, Fonkoze, and has leveraged global innovations around energy lending to offer financing options that are unique in Haiti. EarthSpark seeks to leverage the UNEP support with additional funding to increase the reach of its 2011-2013 operations. With additional support, EarthSpark will be able to reach important economies of scale that will further reduce prices for clean energy products, speed delivery, and increase the number of lives reached. About UNEP’s Côte Sud Initiative The Côte Sud Initiative (CSI), launched in January 2011, is the most ambitious initiative to date supporting the sustainable recovery and development of south-western Haiti. The CSI’s 20-year vision is to improve the livelihoods of more than 200,000 people in Haiti’s South Department. This will be achieved through a complex and diverse program which addresses the root causes of extreme poverty, including environmental degradation, vulnerability to disaster and limited access to social services.
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by Allison Archambault Congratulations to our friends at the UN and UN Foundation for officially launching the ‘Year of Sustainable Energy for All.’ 2012 will see the UN platform highlighting energy access, efficiency, and renewable energy. Very timely and exciting! Here’s a link to their newly launched website. More info: With leadership from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, UN-Energy – a coordinating group of 20 UN agencies – is undertaking a new global initiative, Sustainable Energy for All. This initiative will engage governments, the private sector, and civil society partners globally to achieve three major goals by 2030:
by Allison Archambault
EarthSpark is delighted to announce that its leadership team has been selected as Echoing Green finalists. Of 2,854 applications, Echoing Green has selected 27 organizations to advance to the final round. We feel honored to have been chosen and excited to meet the Echoing Green team and the other Echoing Green Finalists in New York next month. Echoing Green supports early stage social entrepreneurs with core funding and a fantastic network. Thank you to everyone who reviewed and supported our application, and congratulations to the other finalists! by Allison Archambault EarthSpark friend and Enèji Pwòp cookstove supplier D+E Green Enterprises won the Digicel Entrepreneur of the Year competition in the Environment category. The Clean Energy Store (Enèji Pwòp) has been featuring D+E’s ‘Eco-Recho’ since the store’s opening, and customers love the product. Enèji Pwòp’s manager is hoping to expand sales of the efficient stove through an expanded marketing campaign in the coming months. Congratulations to Duquesne Fednard, Fritz Fednard, and the entire D+E Green Enterprises Team! Duquesne Fednard is one of a family of seven who have engaged in entrepreneurial activity in Haiti spanning 20 years. The family businesses comprise Haiti’s largest mechanical shop, a mechanical engineering school, secondary level school, and a third level education college offering up to twenty courses. The latest innovation is the development of EcoRecho - a fuel efficient charcoal stove for the Haitian market. The EcoRecho is the brainchild of Duquesne Fednard who boasts many years of entrepreneurial, operations, business management, and finance experience in companies at home and abroad. He wanted to create something that would have multiple impacts on Haiti. The EcoRecho project provides a high-quality, affordable alternative to replace the inefficient traditional metal charcoal burners. The improved charcoal stove design has been shown to reduce charcoal consumption in households by an average of 50%. It significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions while simultaneously offering benefits to families of relief from high fuel costs and reduced exposure to health-damaging airborne pollutants. This new product development has created 28 permanent jobs since its launch and anticipates creating an additional 50 jobs by the end of this year. The company currently has 20 distributors and has sold over 5000 stoves in the Port-au-Prince area. Following recent investment in new machinery they believe the output and sales will increase to 30,000 stoves in less than a year – this impact on the environment alone will be very significant. by Allison Archambault
A Letter from the Executive Director Dear Friends of EarthSpark, This holiday season, EarthSpark has much to be grateful for. With your support, we have planned, funded, and launched our first clean energy store in Haiti; we have sent over 5,500 solar lamps to women and girls who have been living under tents and tarps since the January earthquake; and we have been recognized for our work in Haiti by the Clinton Global Initative. For your role in these successes, we give thanks to you. Meet the Clean Energy Store Employees and Board In our last quarterly progress report, we told you about the festive grand opening of our first Clean Energy Store on July 7th in the town of Les Anglais, Haiti. We had high hopes for the store, but knew that many challenges lay ahead. Before the store opened we addressed as many of these challenges as possible: we spent over a year in Les Anglais fielding various surveys to collect market research and create an energy poverty baseline; we brought Diogo Texeira, a retired McKinsey management consultant to work with EarthSpark and our community partners to develop a governance structure, management responsibilities, and a financial accounting system; we brought Bill Nichols, another McKinsey alum, to further develop the operational capacity of the store; EarthSpark Energy Systems Engineer Peter McPhee conducted a week-long training session on solar home system installation and maintenance; the store hosted a team from Fonkoze, Haiti’s premier microfinance institution, to work out the details of our joint “energy lending” program. Meet the Suppliers to the Clean Energy Store When asked how the first three months of the Clean Energy Store had affected him, Jean, the man who hand-makes efficient stoves in Les Anglais, said he had been able to send both his son and his daughter to school because of his increased sales through the Store. Meet the Customers of the Clean Energy Store Magazen Enèji Pwòp in Les Anglais offers a range of products, and its customers are equally as diverse. Leonie, a woman who cooks at the market, saves US$0.25 in charcoal expenses each day simply because she switched from a standard cookstove to an efficient ‘miracle’ cookstove (Recho Mirak in Haitian Creole) that uses less fuel for the same cooking performance. Taking home an extra US$0.25 per day significantly increases her profits from her small market stand. PACT and EarthSpark Light Up Haiti for the Holidays This summer, PACT, an online underwear brand that blends design and sustainability with support for powerful social and environmental causes, came across EarthSpark’s work via Citizen Effect’s website. Inspired by the stories of women in tent camps using the solar lights after the earthquake, PACT approached EarthSpark about donating a portion of the profits from their 2010 holiday collection. by Allison Archambault NEW YORK, NY – EarthSpark International was honored on stage at the opening plenary session of the Clinton Global Initiative 2010 Annual Meeting for its exemplary work bringing clean energy solutions to Haiti. Dan Schnitzer, Co-Founder and Executive Director, represented EarthSpark on stage in front of hundreds of NGO leaders, heads of state, and corporate executives. In the above photo EarthSpark Co-Founder and Executive Director Dan Schnitzer (left), receives recognition from President Bill Clinton. Photo Credit : Clinton Global Initiative President Bill Clinton praised EarthSpark for its commitment to develop two new renewable microgrids and five new clean energy store franchises. “There are a lot of things going on in Haiti that can be accelerated with connectors like these microgrids,” he said. EarthSpark joined the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in November 2009. As a member, EarthSpark is expected to develop and follow-through on a “commitment,” using CGI’s vast network of NGOs, businesses, and governments to implement its plan of action. EarthSpark entered Haiti in August 2008 to help relieve the country’s acute energy poverty, made worse by the January 2010 earthquake in Port-au-Prince. Seventy percent of Haitians lacked access to electricity before the earthquake; that number has now risen to 80 percent. Most Haitians rely on dirty sources of fuel, like charcoal and kerosene, for lighting and cooking. On average, households in Haiti spend 10 percent of their income on lighting, which is twenty times what the average American spends. Moreover, the overuse of charcoal is contributing to massive deforestation in the country. This environmental damage has left Haiti vulnerable to catastrophic flooding during the hurricane season, which in 2008 wiped out an estimated four years of GDP growth. EarthSpark is working with CGI and the Haitian government to build electricity access from the bottom up, starting with direct sale of solar lamps and energy efficient stoves to communities in rural Haiti by establishing local clean energy stores. EarthSpark currently operates one store in Les Anglais, serving a community of 25,000 people with cleaner energy solutions. This retail model targets underserved markets quickly, while also creating jobs and local centers of excellence in clean energy technology. Building on this effort, in 2011 EarthSpark will develop two small renewable electricity grids to service communities like Les Anglais. The grids aim to increase access to clean and affordable electricity by harnessing the skills and support of the private sector and nonprofit groups in the communities they support. They are the next step of a “technology ladder” allowing customers to access larger amounts of clean electricity at a cost far below what they pay for in lighting from kerosene and candles. “With over one million people left homeless and living in temporary housing, the Government of Haiti is developing ambitious blueprints for building permanent, sustainable communities around the country. EarthSpark is honored to work with government officials and businesses to develop the country’s first renewable microgrids,” said Co-Founder and Executive Director Dan Schnitzer. by Allison Archambault “Atansyon! Atansyon!” megaphone-equipped town criers hollered throughout neighboring towns. Clean energy was coming to Les Anglais, they announced. The Clean Energy Store (Magazen Enèji Pwòp) of Les Anglais held its grand opening this week with a full day of events and community outreach in this small town near the tip of Haiti’s southern peninsula. After a morning of local DJ’s, product demonstrations, raffles, and special guests at the marketplace, Sinema Anba Zetwal, the acclaimed “Cinema Under the Stars” troupe from Port-au-Prince, lit up a giant screen in the town square for a full evening program that highlighted the environment, Haitian culture, and the benefits of solar electricity products and efficient cook stoves. In this town which has no electricity grid and almost exclusively inefficient stoves (when people have stoves at all), people carried wooden chairs into the square, set up seats on rooftops, and lined the fences to watch. The program featured short films, cartoons, a vox pop short film of Les Anglaisians’ thoughts on clean energy, live testimonials from fellow-townspeople who had tested the products, as well as explanations from manufacturers and a guest speaker from Fonkoze, Haiti’s largest micro-finance institution. The evening concluded with the full length environmental docu-film “Home” by Yann Arthus-Betrand in Haitian Creole. Universally, the people of Les Anglais were impressed by the giant screen and professionalism of the event. “Les Anglais has never seen an installation this noble” one of the attendees commented. Another threw her hands in the air stretched far apart to convey how ‘ampil ampil extraordinaire‘ the night had been. The following morning, a small crowd massed outside of the store before its doors opened at 9 am. Some had come to claim the stoves and solar products they had won in the raffle, and others came to look at the goods. The first paying client that day was a woman from the 9 am crowd who wanted to get a ‘miracle stove’ before her day of cooking at the market. She had heard that she could save 10 gourdes (approx US$0.25) in charcoal costs each day with the efficient stove, and she was anxious to start her savings when she fueled her business that day. Very special thanks and congratulations to COREA, CRAN, AVODCA, D+E Enterprises, The Green Family Foundation, Fast Forward Haiti, Sinema Anba Zetwal, and to all of the citizens of Les Anglais for making this opening a success! by Allison Archambault The store is painted, and the Les Anglais community group, COREA, is laying plans for a grand opening on market day of next week. (Wednesday, July 7th) We’re still waiting on most of our solar PV products to clear customs, so the “Grand Opening” will focus on the benefits of clean and efficient cook stoves and on general education and outreach promoting both the Clean Energy Store (Magazen Enèji Pwòp in Creole) and the benefits of clean and efficient energy products. Since the painting of the storefront, there has been a buzz in the town about when the store will open, so COREA members are anxious to move forward. The storefront painting features a solar panel, a Barefoot Power Firefly solar powered lamp, an overhead light, a battery, and a Réchaud Mirak (Miracle Stove.) I can’t decide whether I love the lamp or the Miracle Stove the most. Bob, the local artist who painted the store, is well known around town and has just finished an Obama mural at the local hotel. |
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