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Put Down the Champagne, Pick Up the Computer Mouse: For Solar Power To Reach Poor Consumers, the Focus Must Be On Results
The 2013 World Economic Forum in Davos launched with the theme "Resilient Dynamism." Although I have never attended Davos, the international gathering of dignitaries did remind me somewhat of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) conference, ‘Sustainable Energy Strategies in Low and Middle-Income Economies,’ in November. Is there a better way to support BoP businesses? The answer is yes.
- Categories
- Energy
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Working at the ‘Coalface’ of Clean Energy: BCtA forum gathers renewal power players
The webinar was a collaborative effort between BCtA, the Business Innovation Facility (BIF) and the Innovations Against Poverty, and resulted in a rich and thought-provoking discussion, covering perennial issues ranging from marketing to the BoP to distribution challenges.
- Categories
- Energy
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NextThought Monday – An Alternative to Alternative Energy: Will microfinance embrace biogas for the BoP?
Solar was once the wild west of alternative energy. Today, microfinance banks see it as a solid investment, even for poor clients, and bio-gas may follow its footsteps.
- Tags
- microfinance, solar
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NextThought Monday: Barefoot Power looks to reduce the cost of living off-grid in India
Founded in 2005, Barefoot Power has created affordable lighting and phone charging products tailored for low-income markets – including 20 developing countries across Africa, America and, more recently, China. To ensure that Barefoot Power can rapidly expand within the focus states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh by mid-2013 and make safe and affordable energy options more accessible, the company is focused on a two-pronged distribution approach.
- Categories
- Energy
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EcoZoom on Building a Market for Clean Cookstoves: What it takes for consumers to invest for long-term savings
Global Envision interviewed Chief of Operations Phil Ferranto on the challenges EcoZoom faces in convincing people to invest in clean cookstoves, developing a market for cookstoves in developing economies, and what sets EcoZoom apart as a socially-minded for-profit business.
- Categories
- Energy, Social Enterprise
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A Market for Preservation: Tropical-forest friendly products, entrepreneurship and consumer choice
CleanStar Energy, is social enterprise that focuses on bringing sustainable bioenergy solutions into developing markets while preserving delicate tropical forest communities. It’s the type of business being sought by the Tropical Forest Challenge, which aims to identify the best for-profit solution – an idea, start up, or company with a positive impact on tropical forest biodiversity.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Transportation
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Waste Not, Want Not: Eco-Fuel Africa
Sanga Moses, is the founder of Eco-Fuel Moses recently applied for the WWF Switzerland Tropical Forest Challenge – a challenge that is working to identify the best for-profit solutions having a positive impact on tropical forest biodiversity in any of the 75 tropical forest-rich countries around the world.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Technology
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Achieving Sustainable Energy for All Hinges on International Cooperation and Leadership
This year was designated the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All by the UN General Assembly to raise awareness and promote the three objectives: clean energy access, energy efficiency, and renewable energy. 2012 is also the year of the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development, to be held in late June. The moment is ripe for action, and lofty goals have been set, but where to begin?
- Categories
- Energy, Environment
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