Describe the critical need your solution addresses.

In many developing countries, people are dependent on dirty, diesel-burning generators and/or intermittent grid electricity. At the same time, non-profit organizations are primarily funded by foreign donors, making them vulnerable to the ups and downs of the world economy. This triple-bottom-line venture ties these problems together into a pragmatic, effective solution.

Explain your initiative in more depth and its stage of development.

The Green Initiative (TGI) is a social venture serving the “base of the pyramid”. It began as a program to supply clean energy to a new Visitors’ Center designed by Cook+Fox Architects at the Angkor Hospital for Children (AHC), Cambodia’s leading pediatric training and health care facility. Thinking holistically about children’s health, Cambodia’s environment, and AHC’s financial sustainability led to a biodiesel pilot project; as of September 2009 AHC is running all of its vehicle fleet and generators on 100% biodiesel (B-100) refined from waste vegetable oil. The project has expanded into a consortium of five Cambodian NGOs that are addressing urgent needs in health care and children’s welfare.

TGI’s interrelated benefits are environmental, financial, and social: biodiesel produces 67% lower hydrocarbon emissions and 48% less carbon monoxide than conventional diesel; NGOs are assured of a reliable supply and price for fuel, and can therefore focus limited resources on their core missions; and money spent on locally-produced fuel is creating jobs, supporting sustainable development. Currently these organizations are receiving a total of 8,000 L of fuel per month, produced at two refineries with combined capacity to produce up to 20,000 L/month. After one year of operation, TGI is on track to become profitable within the next six months.

How does your strategy and approach respond creatively and comprehensively to key issues?

words)
This proposal achieves maximum leverage by addressing energy, an issue that affects all NGOs and is a basic prerequisite for sustainable development. It works by maximizing the power of a cooperative network: rather than competing for limited donor funds, participating NGOs strengthen each other through the fulfillment of basic needs. Acting individually, NGOs are typically compelled to choose the least expensive, most polluting fuel, in conflict with their social missions. By forming a consortium, alternative fuels become an affordable option with many benefits for local producers, economies, and for the global environment in an era of climate change.

Locally-produced, renewable energy has the potential to become a “leapfrog” strategy: one that allows developing countries to bypass certain large investments, much the way that cell phone technology has made land-line infrastructure obsolete in many places. Many countries are now at a crossroads between choosing fossil-fuel-based energy infrastructure, modeled on Western systems, or a 21st-century model of distributed, clean energy. Because it relies on the inputs of numerous small producers, micro-generation creates economic opportunity for many people, rather than for a central government or a few large energy companies. In this way, local decentralized energy is a preferred state model – one that is already aligned with a sustainable future.

For countries like Cambodia, where 100% of diesel fuel is imported and people rely heavily on diesel generators, trucks, and buses, sustainably-produced biofuels are a practical way to improve energy security and economic opportunity. By simply offering a cleaner fuel sources, TGI’s strategy works within the current infrastructure, reducing risk to both consumers and producers. While biodiesel is an immediate alternative to petroleum diesel, solar and wind power can eventually be integrated into this model, as the economics of these technologies improve. Perhaps most importantly, the cooperative network that this venture creates among NGOs can lay the groundwork for other creative collaborations, and can be replicated readily around the world.