-
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
-
Social Business Roundup: Scrutinizing a $30M Cookstove Study, the Limits of Silicon Valley and TV from the Sun
A $30 million study looking into using liquified petroleum gas in clean cookstoves has some 'stovers' heated up, why apps won't stop pandemics and why the time may be right for solar TV. It's all in our weekly roundup of social business news.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Health Care, Impact Assessment, Technology
- Tags
- solar
-
East Africa’s clean energy boom
Africa is very much in the firing line when it comes to climate change so the recently adopted Paris Agreement – where developed and developing countries alike are required to limit their carbon emissions to keep the global temperature increase to below two degrees celsius – is positive news, although the devil is still in the detail.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- renewable energy, solar
-
Solar Energy Entrepreneurs In India Are Finding Faster, Cleaner and Economical Route to Power
Access to power in India is not a given. Mera Gao Power (MGP), however, is able to offer customers two solar powered lamps and a mobile phone charger for less than a dollar per week, powered by renewable energy sources as opposed to kerosene.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- renewable energy, solar
-
Solar startup ARED empowers Rwandans with “business in a box”
Rwandan hardware-as-a-service company ARED is empowering local people with a “business in a box” solar kiosk platform that enables them to start their own businesses by charging phones and selling virtual top-ups.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- renewable energy, solar
-
Social Business Roundup: Building Our Immunity to Anti-Vaxxers, Solar Loans With a Side of Health, and SRI Goes Robo
There’s a crisis of trust in the world, some of it well earned – and some, like skepticism about vaccines, completely unwarranted. We cover an alarming uptick in the anti-vax movement's profile, an effort to pair solar loans with health care in Ghana, and the emergence of "robo-SRI" in this news roundup.
- Categories
- Energy, Health Care, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology
-
Zimbabwe Off-Grid Solar Start-up Lands Kiva Direct to Social Enterprise Loan
Off-grid solar start-ups are cropping up across sub-Saharan Africa, conveying the advantages and benefits of reliable, affordable, safe and environmentally friendly electrical power to local communities at an unprecedented rate. It’s not the sort of “big” business that makes major business news headlines, but Africa’s solar start-ups are having an outsized, positive impact and proving that a little bit can go a long way.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- social enterprise, solar
-
East Africa’s ‘largest’ solar plant now in operation
What is claimed to be East Africa’s largest solar offering is now online in the form of the 10MW PV plant in Soroti, Uganda. Located on just over 13 hectares of land and comprised of 32,680 modules, the facility is also the country’s first grid-connected plant and will provide enough clean energy to power 40,000 homes.
- Categories
- Energy, Impact Assessment
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- renewable energy, solar