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Lighting the path of profitability for base-of-the-pyramid enterprises
It’s every small business’s dream to be profiled not only by mainstream media flagships like the New York Times and The Economist but also trendsetting outlets like “The Colbert Report” and Fast Company. And by this measure of media attention, d.light design, provider of solar light and power products for the developing world, is a resounding success. But as any enterprise knows, generating buzz about your product is not the same as having customers actually buy it. d.light represents that most ambitious of social enterprises: One that aims to turn a profit while solving a social problem. Dubbed “hybrid” organizations by Harvard Business School professor Julie Battilana, these businesses differ from other social enterprises, who often rely on grant-based funding, rather than revenue, to sustain operations.
- Categories
- Energy
- Tags
- Base of the Pyramid, solar
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A Social Entrepreneur’s Inspiration For Solar-Powered Lighting
Solar-powered light bulbs for the poor: A growing number of social enterprises are selling such technology to bottom of the pyramid households in Africa, India and other countries. One of the first to do so, Denver-based Nokero (for No Kerosene) just introduced its next generation of products, as it works to make the company’s management more professional–and able to grow the enterprise even more.A little more background on the issue: Around 1.3 billion of world’s population lacks access to reliable electricity. Most of them use kerosene lamps, which are very very very expensive compared to incandescent lamps, (people spend as much as 30% of their income on kerosene-based fuels, according to Nokero), cause deadly fires (If you live without electricity, you’re seven times more likely to die by fire than someone with electricity, according to Katsaros), and contribute to air pollution. They don’t produce a whole heck of a lot of light, either
- Categories
- Energy
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Press Release: Barefoot Power launches new portable, integrated GO systems
Barefoot Power's latest product release, the portable Barefoot GO solar system, launches this month offering an exciting new option for homes and businesses to increase access to renewable energy in developing countries. The Barefoot GO is a portable unit, so it can be used as a torch, ceiling or wall mounted. Barefoot GO lights can also be used as a torch, ceiling or wall mounted. Barefoot Go lights can also be reversed in the
- Categories
- Energy
- Tags
- solar
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Wildlife Works builds business protecting forests, climate
Rangers patrol a dusty forest in southern Kenya, keeping a watchful eye out for poachers.Although they roam near the borders of two national parks, their salaries don't come from the Kenyan government. They're employees of a small Mill Valley company, Wildlife Works.
- Categories
- Energy
- Tags
- forests
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Bringing Solar To Impoverished Towns, With A Model Straight From The Corporate World
Disillusioned by corporate life, Manuel Aguilar and Juan Rodriguez started Quetsol, an organization that uses business acumen to supply rural Guatemalans with solar power.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Latin America
- Tags
- rural development, solar
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RBC inks first deal for its Social Finance initiative, investing $500,000 in MaRS Cleantech Fund
MaRS Discovery District today announced that the RBC Generator, the impact investing arm of RBC's Social Finance initiative, has invested $500,000 in the MaRS Cleantech Fund, Canada's most active dedicated early-stage cleantech venture fund. This is the first deal announced through the RBC initiative. Launched in 2012, the MaRS Cleantech Fund aims to provide early-stage funding to companies developing next-generation clean technology breakthroughs with global markets, deep intellectual property and capital-lean business models.
- Categories
- Energy
- Tags
- renewable energy
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Productive Consumption: How high-end technology enables market-driven service delivery for the BoP
Historically, expansion of basic service access has been hindered by the costs and slow speed of expanding “the grid.” Yet there is no longer any need to move at the pace of grid expansion; technology to offer basic services safely and affordably, without relying on grid electricity, is here today. Interestingly, this opportunity to reach the poorest has been created by the insatiable demand in richer countries for what is in our pockets, handbags and briefcases.
- 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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