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A Toolkit to Identify Sustainable, Market-Based Energy Solutions in Off-Grid Areas
The MIT D-Lab, working with Mercy Corps, developed the Energy Assessment Toolkit to help organizations with strong connections in off-grid communities assess local energy needs, and select and implement market-based solutions that meet those needs. The toolkit includes surveys and interview guides that an organization can use to gather information from a range of stakeholders.
- Categories
- Education, Energy, Telecommunications
- Tags
- supply chains
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More Than Lighting: Women Entrepreneurs Turn Solar Technology Into Opportunity
The entrepreneurs at Solar Sister, a social enterprise that uses networks of local women to directly sell solar lanterns in remote areas, aren't just lighting homes, they're transforming what rural Tanzanians do at home when it’s dark. Among the benefits they bring to communities they serve are more time for education, reduced health risks, increased productivity and larger household incomes.
- Categories
- Energy, Social Enterprise
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Dear Critics: Here’s Why the Off-grid Energy Industry Needs Impact Investment
Off-grid lighting trade organization GOGLA responds to a recent post from Ceniarth critical of "hype" in the energy access sector. Consider the off-grid market within the context of the wider world and economy around it, say John Keane and Laura Sundblad, and remember that millions of households around the globe live with unreliable, dangerous, inadequate and ultimately extremely expensive means of lighting and basic energy.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Investing
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Hype in the Energy Access Sector (Finally!)
Leaders at Persistent Energy, an impact investor focused on the renewable sector primarily in West Africa, push back against a recent NextBillion post by Ceniarth positing the industry has become overhyped. While there has been some hype about a handful of established companies, they argue, the bigger concern is that not enough capital is flowing into the sector to give it the opportunity to prove itself.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment
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How Can Inclusive Business Advance the SDGs?
Two recent publications released in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals' first anniversary share the view that inclusive business is a part of the solution to deliver on the SDGs. That's a sign of progress, according to Jenny Melo, but we still need to go deeper in the conversation and ask for impacts, measurements and specific connections.
- Categories
- Education, Energy, Environment, Health Care, Social Enterprise
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Energy Urgency: Why the Global Mining Industry is Embracing Renewables
November’s elections have given the 2015 Paris agreement unprecedented urgency, as 194 signatories race to keep temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius. Yet COP21’s enduring challenge for investors – scaling climate-resilient industries in the developing world – remains elusive. Meanwhile, according to Joseph Kirschke, mines around the world are innovation and energy-intensive ecosystems brimming with solutions just below the surface.
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- Energy, Environment, Investing
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An Impact Investor Urges Caution on the ‘Energy Access Hype Cycle’
Ceniarth, an impact investor, has been actively engaged in the energy access sector since 2014. But now it's reducing its exposure to the venture-backed, solar home system segment of this market while shifting its strategy toward enterprises – for-profit, nonprofit and hybrid – that are finding the most capital-efficient ways to reach rural customers. Here, three principals in the firm candidly explain why they are reassessing their approach.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Investing
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Social Business Roundup: Debating UBI in India, Pondering Change at WHO, Questioning SRI
In this week's social business roundup, our editors note the growing debate over replacing welfare programs with a universal basic income (UBI) in India, the limitations of WHO's donor-funded model, and an ironic side-effect of SRI's avoidance of "sin stocks" – among other developments making recent headlines.
- Categories
- Energy, Health Care, Investing
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