- Published on
by Daniel Schnitzer
EarthSpark received two $50,000 low-interest loans from Deutsche Bank this year. The first was issued in May, and the second in October. These loans provided EarthSpark with cash to purchase inventory as we scaled up with more retailers throughout Haiti and demand began to outstrip our supply. Specifically, the loans allowed EarthSpark to purchase its first full 20′ container of solar lighting products. A purchase of this magnitude resulted in the manufacturer giving high-volume discount pricing, allowing us to pass on lower prices to our retailers and their customers.
The due diligence process for the loans was tough, but highly beneficial to EarthSpark. Deutsche Bank required a detailed business plan and cash flow projections, which forced us to develop a realistic plan for growth. It also helped us understand what systems and practices (such as sales tracking, marketing materials and business training) we needed to prioritize.
We owe special thanks for this loan to Denis O’Brien, the Chairman of Digicel, for first proposing the idea of such a loan to EarthSpark, and Gary Hattem, the Director of the Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation for opening the door to us. Upon hearing that we secured the first $50,000 loan, Denis provided further assistance by providing a guarantee facility for the next $50,000 loan. EarthSpark’s Board of Directors - Johanna Mendelson Forman and Theodore Steck - were supportive of the decision to take on the loans. We worked closely with Mark Narron at Deutsche Bank throughout the process and are grateful for his thoroughness and support.
EarthSpark received two $50,000 low-interest loans from Deutsche Bank this year. The first was issued in May, and the second in October. These loans provided EarthSpark with cash to purchase inventory as we scaled up with more retailers throughout Haiti and demand began to outstrip our supply. Specifically, the loans allowed EarthSpark to purchase its first full 20′ container of solar lighting products. A purchase of this magnitude resulted in the manufacturer giving high-volume discount pricing, allowing us to pass on lower prices to our retailers and their customers.
The due diligence process for the loans was tough, but highly beneficial to EarthSpark. Deutsche Bank required a detailed business plan and cash flow projections, which forced us to develop a realistic plan for growth. It also helped us understand what systems and practices (such as sales tracking, marketing materials and business training) we needed to prioritize.
We owe special thanks for this loan to Denis O’Brien, the Chairman of Digicel, for first proposing the idea of such a loan to EarthSpark, and Gary Hattem, the Director of the Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation for opening the door to us. Upon hearing that we secured the first $50,000 loan, Denis provided further assistance by providing a guarantee facility for the next $50,000 loan. EarthSpark’s Board of Directors - Johanna Mendelson Forman and Theodore Steck - were supportive of the decision to take on the loans. We worked closely with Mark Narron at Deutsche Bank throughout the process and are grateful for his thoroughness and support.
- Published on
by Daniel Schnitzer
At the American Renewable Energy Day conference last weekend I had the pleasure of speaking on the “Energy Access” panel with Jennifer Butte-Dahl from EarthSpark partner Nokero. Check out Jen’s thoughtful post that captures the challenges of “going big” on renewable energy at home and abroad.
Go Big or Go Home was the title of a panel discussion at the recent AREDAY Summit, which made the business case for renewable energy in America. It’s a great motto, so we’re stealing it. More on that later.
AREDAY convened doers and thinkers focused on environmental sustainability, energy security, climate change, and the role of renewables in the energy mix. A USA-centric event, I was there to talk about “energy access” and represent the technology vendors, clean energy distributors and policy-makers focused on bringing energy solutions to the 1.3 billion people living off the grid around the world. Beyond our borders, “going green” has an entirely different meaning. Yet the business case for renewable energy is interestingly similar, as are the mechanisms needed to take it to scale.
At the American Renewable Energy Day conference last weekend I had the pleasure of speaking on the “Energy Access” panel with Jennifer Butte-Dahl from EarthSpark partner Nokero. Check out Jen’s thoughtful post that captures the challenges of “going big” on renewable energy at home and abroad.
Go Big or Go Home was the title of a panel discussion at the recent AREDAY Summit, which made the business case for renewable energy in America. It’s a great motto, so we’re stealing it. More on that later.
AREDAY convened doers and thinkers focused on environmental sustainability, energy security, climate change, and the role of renewables in the energy mix. A USA-centric event, I was there to talk about “energy access” and represent the technology vendors, clean energy distributors and policy-makers focused on bringing energy solutions to the 1.3 billion people living off the grid around the world. Beyond our borders, “going green” has an entirely different meaning. Yet the business case for renewable energy is interestingly similar, as are the mechanisms needed to take it to scale.
- Published on
by Greg Levin
Part of the beauty of EarthSpark is its preternatural shape shifting ability. The mission – eradicating energy poverty – should be and is consistent. The path to attainment needs to be flexible. If there was a definitive map, a charted course, an infallible plan to achieve energy for all…well, then it would probably already be done. But that’s not the case. We’re blazing the trail, and with expeditions come surprises. We encounter, consider, and navigate accordingly. Changing course is a good thing; it means we’re paying attention.
When the Clean Energy store opened its doors in July of 2010, it was EarthSpark’s prevailing model. Open this store, thrive, and then open more. Things happened, time passed and lessons were learned. The model changed. It evolved. Over the past 6 months we’ve shifted focus from ‘brick and mortar’ to ‘Catalog and SMS’. We’re moving away from on-the-ground retail outlets and becoming a multichannel distributor. The Enèji Pwòp brand is now more nimble, agile, light on its feet. Have renewable and responsible energy products, will travel.
As a part of that shift, we’ve also reimagined and rebirthed a “rent to own” approach. Our rental program began, much as our organization did; organically. Daily, we encounter a large potential customer base that is unable to access our products based on their relatively high upfront costs. Even though the payback period is incredibly short – for most products less than 5 months – and savings are large – upwards of 10% of annual income – getting over the initial upfront cost has been a serious hurdle. From this problem set, came inspiration, and from there this nascent rent to own model was born.
We know that in a head to head savings, quality, and sustainability ‘Energy Battle Royal’ with our competitors (candles and kerosene) we win EVERY time. The problem is that we hadn’t been able to pick a head to head fight. Candles and kerosene kept ducking us, so we decided to bring the fight to them.
If using the smallest possible kerosene lamp, a ‘tet gridap’ baby food jar with a rag inserted in the top to burn as a sooty but low-cost lamp, the average rural Haitian pays 5 HTG (12.5 cents) a night for kerosene per lamp. They don’t pay for large quantities; they buy drips and drabs each night. Call it cultural, call it inefficient, and call it reality. These people are used to an extremely small and extremely regular investment. We saw that if we wanted to compete with kerosene, we’d need to play by its rules. So we are. No need to re-invent the wheel, just put the existing one on a better product and go for a ride. We think we’ve found a sweet new ride; a project we’ve piloted that’s renting our ‘Lanp Enèji Pwòp’ at 5 HTG a night. A pilot that has over 100 bulbs being completely rented out EVERY night in Les Anglais.
We’ve been testing the approach with 3 retailers in Les Anglais, one of which is a business partnership between two entrepreneurs who are dominating the project. Wisline and Jamil are a pair of sharp twenty somethings who have teamed up to rent out the vast majority of the pilot’s stock. We started them with 12 lamps, and two weeks later they came back to us with a waiting list of 18 additional names. We upped their stock, and two weeks after that they asked for 30 more. We finally capped our stars at 77 bulbs, which they’ve been renting out in full every night since they received them. We’re thrilled by their early successes and can’t wait to see our partnership with them continue to thrive and grow.
Over the course of 4 months of rentals (120 nights) a retailer will recoup 600 HTG for their product, a full third more than what they’d normally charge. This represents an increase from a 25% ROI per lamp to nearly 88%. It also represents a large premium to the end users, but a necessary one for the retailers who are incurring greater risk by not requiring a down payment. Meanwhile, though our customer has paid a third more than they would have at retail, they’ve acquired a great product with ‘0’ down and a payment plan that did not change their daily expenditures. With no adjustment at all to household budget, they’ve acquired a product that will benefit them, immediately, in three drastic ways:
1. Health and Safety - The risk of their kerosene lamp burning their home or children is eliminated. Respiratory issues associated with the sooty kerosene smoke are no longer a concern.
2. Environment – A polluting fuel, kerosene, is replaced by a clean one, sunlight.
3. Economics – Over the first year and a half of ownership they will save 2000 HTG by not purchasing Kerosene.
The choice is a no brainer, and the math checks out. We’re scaling up, finding the right implementing partners and preparing a marketing blitz. We’ve had the goods, and we’ve had the facts, now we believe we have the mechanism by which to disseminate them both.
In his TEDx talk, THE veritable authority on the matter in Haiti, (TonTon) Dan Schnitzer, talked about the ‘Last Mile’; the final hurdle that needs to be crossed to get existent technologies into the hands of those who need them most. This is an example of that very last hurdle, and clearing it seems more and more a reality every day.
Part of the beauty of EarthSpark is its preternatural shape shifting ability. The mission – eradicating energy poverty – should be and is consistent. The path to attainment needs to be flexible. If there was a definitive map, a charted course, an infallible plan to achieve energy for all…well, then it would probably already be done. But that’s not the case. We’re blazing the trail, and with expeditions come surprises. We encounter, consider, and navigate accordingly. Changing course is a good thing; it means we’re paying attention.
When the Clean Energy store opened its doors in July of 2010, it was EarthSpark’s prevailing model. Open this store, thrive, and then open more. Things happened, time passed and lessons were learned. The model changed. It evolved. Over the past 6 months we’ve shifted focus from ‘brick and mortar’ to ‘Catalog and SMS’. We’re moving away from on-the-ground retail outlets and becoming a multichannel distributor. The Enèji Pwòp brand is now more nimble, agile, light on its feet. Have renewable and responsible energy products, will travel.
As a part of that shift, we’ve also reimagined and rebirthed a “rent to own” approach. Our rental program began, much as our organization did; organically. Daily, we encounter a large potential customer base that is unable to access our products based on their relatively high upfront costs. Even though the payback period is incredibly short – for most products less than 5 months – and savings are large – upwards of 10% of annual income – getting over the initial upfront cost has been a serious hurdle. From this problem set, came inspiration, and from there this nascent rent to own model was born.
We know that in a head to head savings, quality, and sustainability ‘Energy Battle Royal’ with our competitors (candles and kerosene) we win EVERY time. The problem is that we hadn’t been able to pick a head to head fight. Candles and kerosene kept ducking us, so we decided to bring the fight to them.
If using the smallest possible kerosene lamp, a ‘tet gridap’ baby food jar with a rag inserted in the top to burn as a sooty but low-cost lamp, the average rural Haitian pays 5 HTG (12.5 cents) a night for kerosene per lamp. They don’t pay for large quantities; they buy drips and drabs each night. Call it cultural, call it inefficient, and call it reality. These people are used to an extremely small and extremely regular investment. We saw that if we wanted to compete with kerosene, we’d need to play by its rules. So we are. No need to re-invent the wheel, just put the existing one on a better product and go for a ride. We think we’ve found a sweet new ride; a project we’ve piloted that’s renting our ‘Lanp Enèji Pwòp’ at 5 HTG a night. A pilot that has over 100 bulbs being completely rented out EVERY night in Les Anglais.
We’ve been testing the approach with 3 retailers in Les Anglais, one of which is a business partnership between two entrepreneurs who are dominating the project. Wisline and Jamil are a pair of sharp twenty somethings who have teamed up to rent out the vast majority of the pilot’s stock. We started them with 12 lamps, and two weeks later they came back to us with a waiting list of 18 additional names. We upped their stock, and two weeks after that they asked for 30 more. We finally capped our stars at 77 bulbs, which they’ve been renting out in full every night since they received them. We’re thrilled by their early successes and can’t wait to see our partnership with them continue to thrive and grow.
Over the course of 4 months of rentals (120 nights) a retailer will recoup 600 HTG for their product, a full third more than what they’d normally charge. This represents an increase from a 25% ROI per lamp to nearly 88%. It also represents a large premium to the end users, but a necessary one for the retailers who are incurring greater risk by not requiring a down payment. Meanwhile, though our customer has paid a third more than they would have at retail, they’ve acquired a great product with ‘0’ down and a payment plan that did not change their daily expenditures. With no adjustment at all to household budget, they’ve acquired a product that will benefit them, immediately, in three drastic ways:
1. Health and Safety - The risk of their kerosene lamp burning their home or children is eliminated. Respiratory issues associated with the sooty kerosene smoke are no longer a concern.
2. Environment – A polluting fuel, kerosene, is replaced by a clean one, sunlight.
3. Economics – Over the first year and a half of ownership they will save 2000 HTG by not purchasing Kerosene.
The choice is a no brainer, and the math checks out. We’re scaling up, finding the right implementing partners and preparing a marketing blitz. We’ve had the goods, and we’ve had the facts, now we believe we have the mechanism by which to disseminate them both.
In his TEDx talk, THE veritable authority on the matter in Haiti, (TonTon) Dan Schnitzer, talked about the ‘Last Mile’; the final hurdle that needs to be crossed to get existent technologies into the hands of those who need them most. This is an example of that very last hurdle, and clearing it seems more and more a reality every day.
- Published on
by Allison Archambault
EarthSpark International has been chosen as one of twenty social enterprises in this year’s Global Social Benefit Incubator at Santa Clara University. Now in its tenth year, the GSBI has built an alumni network of 139 award-winning social enterprises, most of which are scaling quickly and tackling some of the world’s biggest poverty and environmental challenges. EarthSpark is delighted to join such an esteemed network, and we look forward to the hard work ahead in the GSBI social entrepreneur ‘boot camp’ this summer!
EarthSpark International has been chosen as one of twenty social enterprises in this year’s Global Social Benefit Incubator at Santa Clara University. Now in its tenth year, the GSBI has built an alumni network of 139 award-winning social enterprises, most of which are scaling quickly and tackling some of the world’s biggest poverty and environmental challenges. EarthSpark is delighted to join such an esteemed network, and we look forward to the hard work ahead in the GSBI social entrepreneur ‘boot camp’ this summer!
- Published on
by Dan Schnitzer
This entry was inspired by the discussion generated at TED.com in the comments section of Dan Schnitzer’s TEDxPittsburgh talk. In this blog we hope to cover the evolution of EarthSpark, different retail business models we’ve tried, the challenges we face now, and what the next steps are.
The germ of the idea for EarthSpark’s model sprouted from the results of a survey fielded in Les Anglais, Haiti in 2008. Les Anglais does not have grid electricity, a municipal water and sewage network, or many of the other services and conveniences to which individuals are accustomed in the industrialized world. Rather than entering Les Anglais with preconceived notions about what the right portfolio of energy solutions was (or even what the problems were), we opted for a participatory survey approach to inform our work. The model that emerged is reflective of two key survey results: the stated aspirations of the Les Anglais respondents, and the stated energy expenditures.
We sought to understand aspirations by directly asking respondents to indicate which two of ten energy products or projects they would most want to have access to in their town. The results are striking: 65% of the choices for energy products or projects were for either solar household lighting or portable solar lamps. The figure below shows the results for all of the ten items.
The survey enumerators were trained in advance of fielding the surveys, and each had a set of color pictures that corresponded to the list of 10 energy products or projects.
The aspirations of the community tell only part of the story. What was also needed to deliver the services desired by the community was a nuanced portrait of their status quo energy consumption. Understanding how much they paid for energy services would provide an upper bound on the price of the products to which they wanted access. Understanding what they used energy for would help to specify the attributes and attribute levels of the solar lighting products.
We found that, on average, households in Les Anglais spend $10 per month on kerosene and candle lighting, and $18 per month on charcoal for cooking. Surveys conducted in other parts of the country reveal that households spend an average of $4 per month on charging cell phones. These energy expenditures account for roughly 25% of household income.
Spending this much money for such poor energy services is an injustice. It is the epitome of “energy poverty” – the dependence on expensive, inefficient energy fuels and appliances that are harmful to human health and degrade the environment. This reality propelled the creation of EarthSpark as a mechanism to address this injustice in the most sustainable, efficacious way.
This entry was inspired by the discussion generated at TED.com in the comments section of Dan Schnitzer’s TEDxPittsburgh talk. In this blog we hope to cover the evolution of EarthSpark, different retail business models we’ve tried, the challenges we face now, and what the next steps are.
The germ of the idea for EarthSpark’s model sprouted from the results of a survey fielded in Les Anglais, Haiti in 2008. Les Anglais does not have grid electricity, a municipal water and sewage network, or many of the other services and conveniences to which individuals are accustomed in the industrialized world. Rather than entering Les Anglais with preconceived notions about what the right portfolio of energy solutions was (or even what the problems were), we opted for a participatory survey approach to inform our work. The model that emerged is reflective of two key survey results: the stated aspirations of the Les Anglais respondents, and the stated energy expenditures.
We sought to understand aspirations by directly asking respondents to indicate which two of ten energy products or projects they would most want to have access to in their town. The results are striking: 65% of the choices for energy products or projects were for either solar household lighting or portable solar lamps. The figure below shows the results for all of the ten items.
The survey enumerators were trained in advance of fielding the surveys, and each had a set of color pictures that corresponded to the list of 10 energy products or projects.
The aspirations of the community tell only part of the story. What was also needed to deliver the services desired by the community was a nuanced portrait of their status quo energy consumption. Understanding how much they paid for energy services would provide an upper bound on the price of the products to which they wanted access. Understanding what they used energy for would help to specify the attributes and attribute levels of the solar lighting products.
We found that, on average, households in Les Anglais spend $10 per month on kerosene and candle lighting, and $18 per month on charcoal for cooking. Surveys conducted in other parts of the country reveal that households spend an average of $4 per month on charging cell phones. These energy expenditures account for roughly 25% of household income.
Spending this much money for such poor energy services is an injustice. It is the epitome of “energy poverty” – the dependence on expensive, inefficient energy fuels and appliances that are harmful to human health and degrade the environment. This reality propelled the creation of EarthSpark as a mechanism to address this injustice in the most sustainable, efficacious way.
- Published on
by Allison Archambault
Thanks to Frantz at Konbit for Port-à-Piment for incorporating kerosene and charcoal prices in the monthly Port-à-Piment market status reports on www.portapiment.com! Great to see the mention of www.enejipwop.com too! We look forward to comparing kerosene and charcoal prices across the region and also adding up savings for each region based on efficient cookstoves and solar lighting.
Thanks to Frantz at Konbit for Port-à-Piment for incorporating kerosene and charcoal prices in the monthly Port-à-Piment market status reports on www.portapiment.com! Great to see the mention of www.enejipwop.com too! We look forward to comparing kerosene and charcoal prices across the region and also adding up savings for each region based on efficient cookstoves and solar lighting.
- Published on
by Daniel Schnitzer
Within weeks of the earthquake that devastated Haiti on January 12th, 2010, reports of violence against women in Port-au-Prince’s internally displaced camps emerged. EarthSpark immediately focused its efforts to increase public safety in less secure areas by distributing solar lamps. We targeted this distribution to women, who are most vulnerable at night when they walk through the unlit camps to latrines or washing areas.
Nearly two years later, EarthSpark and its partners have distributed over 8,000 solar lights to women and their families in camps throughout Port-au-Prince and other affected areas. We partnered with the Clinton Global Initiative, Partners in Health, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, and smaller organizations like KOFAVIV and KONPAY, to distribute lamps to women as individuals and in solidarity groups. Three main distributions of a few thousand lamps each were carried out in April 2010, September 2010 and most recently in December 2011.
Thanks to the documentation efforts of Melinda Miles of Let Haiti Live and photographer Evan Abramson, we are pleased to share with you, our supporters, this short video showing the profound effects of a simple solar lamp. We are very grateful to the American Jewish World Service, the Urban Zen Foundation, Asha Jyothi, PACT and Citizen Effect for funding this work.
Last month, working with the United Nations Environment Programme’s local health lead, Ernest Mondésir of EarthSpark International coordinated the distribution of solar lights through Linkin Park’s Power the World campaign. These lights were given to midwives in rural southern Haiti where they often work to deliver babies by only the light of a candle or small kerosene lamp. While there remain many challenges in their work, these small solar lights will at least provide reliable, smoke-free light.
Within weeks of the earthquake that devastated Haiti on January 12th, 2010, reports of violence against women in Port-au-Prince’s internally displaced camps emerged. EarthSpark immediately focused its efforts to increase public safety in less secure areas by distributing solar lamps. We targeted this distribution to women, who are most vulnerable at night when they walk through the unlit camps to latrines or washing areas.
Nearly two years later, EarthSpark and its partners have distributed over 8,000 solar lights to women and their families in camps throughout Port-au-Prince and other affected areas. We partnered with the Clinton Global Initiative, Partners in Health, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, and smaller organizations like KOFAVIV and KONPAY, to distribute lamps to women as individuals and in solidarity groups. Three main distributions of a few thousand lamps each were carried out in April 2010, September 2010 and most recently in December 2011.
Thanks to the documentation efforts of Melinda Miles of Let Haiti Live and photographer Evan Abramson, we are pleased to share with you, our supporters, this short video showing the profound effects of a simple solar lamp. We are very grateful to the American Jewish World Service, the Urban Zen Foundation, Asha Jyothi, PACT and Citizen Effect for funding this work.
Last month, working with the United Nations Environment Programme’s local health lead, Ernest Mondésir of EarthSpark International coordinated the distribution of solar lights through Linkin Park’s Power the World campaign. These lights were given to midwives in rural southern Haiti where they often work to deliver babies by only the light of a candle or small kerosene lamp. While there remain many challenges in their work, these small solar lights will at least provide reliable, smoke-free light.
- Published on
by Allison Archambault
On January 23, Haitian President Martelly announced a new rural electrification program aiming to electrify 200,000 households in the next two years. The program, named “Ban m limyè, Ban m lavi” (BLBL, translated as “Give me light, give me life”) envisions a portfolio of approaches to electrification, including opening up access to end-user credit for small solar home systems.
Dr. René Jean-Jumeau calls for bold innovation to electrify 200,000 Haitian homes in two years. While details have yet to be defined, the announcement is a clear signal that the highest levels of Haitian government are prioritizing energy access. Dr. René Jean-Jumeau, Secretary of State for Energy, pointed out that the state-owned national utility, EDH, recently celebrated 40 years of operation, yet less than 30% of the Haitian population has access to electricity. “We cannot wait another 40 years to get another 30% electrified,” Jean-Jumeau said.
Both Jean-Jumeau and Martelly drew clear lines between economic growth and access to energy and called for innovation and public-private partnerships to fill the gaps currently left by EDH.
On January 23, Haitian President Martelly announced a new rural electrification program aiming to electrify 200,000 households in the next two years. The program, named “Ban m limyè, Ban m lavi” (BLBL, translated as “Give me light, give me life”) envisions a portfolio of approaches to electrification, including opening up access to end-user credit for small solar home systems.
Dr. René Jean-Jumeau calls for bold innovation to electrify 200,000 Haitian homes in two years. While details have yet to be defined, the announcement is a clear signal that the highest levels of Haitian government are prioritizing energy access. Dr. René Jean-Jumeau, Secretary of State for Energy, pointed out that the state-owned national utility, EDH, recently celebrated 40 years of operation, yet less than 30% of the Haitian population has access to electricity. “We cannot wait another 40 years to get another 30% electrified,” Jean-Jumeau said.
Both Jean-Jumeau and Martelly drew clear lines between economic growth and access to energy and called for innovation and public-private partnerships to fill the gaps currently left by EDH.
- Published on
by Daniel Schnitzer
Held on the weekend of November 18th, 2011, TEDxPittsburgh:Power explored power as a concept from the subatomic scale to the cosmic, and with practical and philosophical implications. As EarthSpark’s Founder and Executive Director, Dan’s talk focuses on the core problem being addressed by EarthSpark in Haiti: energy poverty. Describing the realities of living in energy poverty, Dan also identifies the two biggest challenges to ending it: the lack of physical and financial access to clean energy products. Analogies are drawn to the telecommunications and retail industries - both of which were innovators in providing their customers with access. Telecoms had to figure out how to extend the “last mile” of phone lines to their most distant markets, and retailers like Bloomingdales had to figure out how to provide credit to their customers so they could afford better products.
EarthSpark is innovating on these fronts in Haiti to provide customers with physical and financial access to clean energy products. Our retailers reach Haitians in rural areas and sell solar products to them bundled with micro-loans backed by Fonkoze, a Haitian micro-lender, and on “rent-to-own” terms for less expensive products like efficient cookstoves.
As Dan mentions in his TED talk, Haitians living in the United States and Canada send $1.6 Billion to their friends and family in Haiti every year. This prompted us to think about how to channel those dollars directly into clean energy products. Today we are launching www.enejipwop.com, the first e-commerce site marketed to Haitians living in the United States and Canada to purchase clean energy products like solar home systems for immediate delivery to their friends and family in Haiti. Each sale is fulfilled by one of EarthSpark’s Enèji Pwòp entrepreneurs in Haiti, so each sale grows a local business. We urge you to take a look at the site, and share it with your friends in the Haitian community in the United States and Canada. We’re open for business!
Held on the weekend of November 18th, 2011, TEDxPittsburgh:Power explored power as a concept from the subatomic scale to the cosmic, and with practical and philosophical implications. As EarthSpark’s Founder and Executive Director, Dan’s talk focuses on the core problem being addressed by EarthSpark in Haiti: energy poverty. Describing the realities of living in energy poverty, Dan also identifies the two biggest challenges to ending it: the lack of physical and financial access to clean energy products. Analogies are drawn to the telecommunications and retail industries - both of which were innovators in providing their customers with access. Telecoms had to figure out how to extend the “last mile” of phone lines to their most distant markets, and retailers like Bloomingdales had to figure out how to provide credit to their customers so they could afford better products.
EarthSpark is innovating on these fronts in Haiti to provide customers with physical and financial access to clean energy products. Our retailers reach Haitians in rural areas and sell solar products to them bundled with micro-loans backed by Fonkoze, a Haitian micro-lender, and on “rent-to-own” terms for less expensive products like efficient cookstoves.
As Dan mentions in his TED talk, Haitians living in the United States and Canada send $1.6 Billion to their friends and family in Haiti every year. This prompted us to think about how to channel those dollars directly into clean energy products. Today we are launching www.enejipwop.com, the first e-commerce site marketed to Haitians living in the United States and Canada to purchase clean energy products like solar home systems for immediate delivery to their friends and family in Haiti. Each sale is fulfilled by one of EarthSpark’s Enèji Pwòp entrepreneurs in Haiti, so each sale grows a local business. We urge you to take a look at the site, and share it with your friends in the Haitian community in the United States and Canada. We’re open for business!
- Published on
by Alki Delichatsios and Greg Levin
We come from very different places and backgrounds, have diverse interests and check in at extraordinarily divergent heights. We also each have great friends who independently and fortuitously introduced us to EarthSpark International. We are both transitioning from one career path to another (Alki was in Nuclear Recycling in France, Greg was in Sports Retail in South Africa and Germany), and were excited to take some time to volunteer with the dynamic team that is EarthSpark in its operating base in beautiful Haiti. Our goal was to help professionalize EarthSpark’s retail business practices and lay the groundwork for its impending expansion.
It’s difficult to overstate how important the experience of being on the ground was to our understanding of the work this organization does, and the constraints that it exists within. It’s all too easy to forget the inherent difficulties of life and business from the blessed ease of home. The challenges of a deficient infrastructure, nonexistent public transportation and insufficient access to information are so much more apparent in person. For instance, we didn’t get to Les Anglais until four days after we planned. Why? Because there was a storm that flooded the river and washed away the road from Port-a-Piment to Les Anglais – which by the way, happens every time there’s a big storm. Even days after the rain had stopped when we finally made our way to Les Anglais by a road so bumpy only big cargo trucks could manage (on which we were lucky to find a ride instead of doing the 10-mile hike by foot as previously planned), we had to wade hip-level deep with our bags on our heads to cross the football field-length river. Let’s just say that “supply chain difficulties” takes on a whole new meaning now.
We’ve both been lucky enough to have previously spent time in areas of varying levels of development, but the challenges we were introduced to in Haiti were of a different scope than we had known. We were both humbled and inspired by this. The challenges EarthSpark faces are real and they are many, but they are also interesting and they are (hopefully, eventually) solvable.
The staff of the Les Anglais Magazen Enèji Pwòp is par for the course when it comes to the people affiliated with EarthSpark; passionate, energetic and fun. All were caring and gracious in helping the two of us understand their community, business and goals. The management team of Jean Noel and Jacquelin, as well as Pedro, the store’s technician and one of its sales agents, were excellent guides to their town, and truly ambassadors for it.
In getting to know the products and their true benefits we were able to be much more effective in improving EarthSpark’s back-end plans and processes. By visiting local homes and businesses, the need, use and effectiveness of the products came to life in front of our eyes. Going local was the difference between thinking we understand something in theory, and realizing that we can only ever truly strive to understand part of a practice.
Walking down the pitch black streets of town at 7pm, it’s hard to not wonder when the power will be turned back on. It’s easy to forget that the blackout is by no means temporary - it is the everyday reality. When you see children sitting outside under streetlights, or any other sources of light they can find, squinting over books, the deeply unfair realities of their situation refuses to be ignored. Once you’ve seen it firsthand, finding a sustainable way to help these kids, and the others like them who will follow becomes no longer a choice but an obligation.
We were lucky and pleased to be able to meet a host of impressive EarthSpark colleagues and collaborators. From the partners at Digicel to the new clients in the back of Tap Taps, people are engaged and excited to be working with EarthSpark. One of the more exhilarating moments of the trip was learning that Rene Jean-Jumeau, a good friend of the organization and a truly inspiring man, who we were privileged to meet, had been named Haiti’s first Secretary of State for Energy. How fortuitous to be working towards sustainable clean energy in Haiti at a time when the Government is acknowledging its importance and beginning to make strides in the right direction.
While our time in Haiti was short, it was most definitely meaningful. Our hope was to help the organization and of course to pick a little knowledge up along the way. As is to be expected, we got the lion’s share of the deal. There’s just no way that we could give to EarthSpark in equal measure to what we received. With this in mind, we have both decided to stay as actively involved as we can from afar, and we’re working on finding ways to get back down to Haiti and see if we can’t even out the ledgers a little bit!
All the best from Phoenix, Boston, Les Anglais and everywhere else in between,
Alki & Greg
For more reading related to Alki and Greg’s experience with EarthSpark in Haiti, check out their personal blog posts:
Alki, October 26th 2011
Greg, October 27th 2011
Greg, November 14th, 2011
Greg, November 16th, 2011
Greg, November 22nd 2011
We come from very different places and backgrounds, have diverse interests and check in at extraordinarily divergent heights. We also each have great friends who independently and fortuitously introduced us to EarthSpark International. We are both transitioning from one career path to another (Alki was in Nuclear Recycling in France, Greg was in Sports Retail in South Africa and Germany), and were excited to take some time to volunteer with the dynamic team that is EarthSpark in its operating base in beautiful Haiti. Our goal was to help professionalize EarthSpark’s retail business practices and lay the groundwork for its impending expansion.
It’s difficult to overstate how important the experience of being on the ground was to our understanding of the work this organization does, and the constraints that it exists within. It’s all too easy to forget the inherent difficulties of life and business from the blessed ease of home. The challenges of a deficient infrastructure, nonexistent public transportation and insufficient access to information are so much more apparent in person. For instance, we didn’t get to Les Anglais until four days after we planned. Why? Because there was a storm that flooded the river and washed away the road from Port-a-Piment to Les Anglais – which by the way, happens every time there’s a big storm. Even days after the rain had stopped when we finally made our way to Les Anglais by a road so bumpy only big cargo trucks could manage (on which we were lucky to find a ride instead of doing the 10-mile hike by foot as previously planned), we had to wade hip-level deep with our bags on our heads to cross the football field-length river. Let’s just say that “supply chain difficulties” takes on a whole new meaning now.
We’ve both been lucky enough to have previously spent time in areas of varying levels of development, but the challenges we were introduced to in Haiti were of a different scope than we had known. We were both humbled and inspired by this. The challenges EarthSpark faces are real and they are many, but they are also interesting and they are (hopefully, eventually) solvable.
The staff of the Les Anglais Magazen Enèji Pwòp is par for the course when it comes to the people affiliated with EarthSpark; passionate, energetic and fun. All were caring and gracious in helping the two of us understand their community, business and goals. The management team of Jean Noel and Jacquelin, as well as Pedro, the store’s technician and one of its sales agents, were excellent guides to their town, and truly ambassadors for it.
In getting to know the products and their true benefits we were able to be much more effective in improving EarthSpark’s back-end plans and processes. By visiting local homes and businesses, the need, use and effectiveness of the products came to life in front of our eyes. Going local was the difference between thinking we understand something in theory, and realizing that we can only ever truly strive to understand part of a practice.
Walking down the pitch black streets of town at 7pm, it’s hard to not wonder when the power will be turned back on. It’s easy to forget that the blackout is by no means temporary - it is the everyday reality. When you see children sitting outside under streetlights, or any other sources of light they can find, squinting over books, the deeply unfair realities of their situation refuses to be ignored. Once you’ve seen it firsthand, finding a sustainable way to help these kids, and the others like them who will follow becomes no longer a choice but an obligation.
We were lucky and pleased to be able to meet a host of impressive EarthSpark colleagues and collaborators. From the partners at Digicel to the new clients in the back of Tap Taps, people are engaged and excited to be working with EarthSpark. One of the more exhilarating moments of the trip was learning that Rene Jean-Jumeau, a good friend of the organization and a truly inspiring man, who we were privileged to meet, had been named Haiti’s first Secretary of State for Energy. How fortuitous to be working towards sustainable clean energy in Haiti at a time when the Government is acknowledging its importance and beginning to make strides in the right direction.
While our time in Haiti was short, it was most definitely meaningful. Our hope was to help the organization and of course to pick a little knowledge up along the way. As is to be expected, we got the lion’s share of the deal. There’s just no way that we could give to EarthSpark in equal measure to what we received. With this in mind, we have both decided to stay as actively involved as we can from afar, and we’re working on finding ways to get back down to Haiti and see if we can’t even out the ledgers a little bit!
All the best from Phoenix, Boston, Les Anglais and everywhere else in between,
Alki & Greg
For more reading related to Alki and Greg’s experience with EarthSpark in Haiti, check out their personal blog posts:
Alki, October 26th 2011
Greg, October 27th 2011
Greg, November 14th, 2011
Greg, November 16th, 2011
Greg, November 22nd 2011