EarthSpark International has been chosen as one of twenty social enterprises in this year’s Global Social Benefit Incubator at Santa Clara University. Now in its tenth year, the GSBI has built an alumni network of 139 award-winning social enterprises, most of which are scaling quickly and tackling some of the world’s biggest poverty and environmental challenges. EarthSpark is delighted to join such an esteemed network, and we look forward to the hard work ahead in the GSBI social entrepreneur ‘boot camp’ this summer!

This is the first entry of a multi-part series of blog posts inspired by the discussion generated at TED.com in the comments section of Dan Schnitzer’s TEDxPittsburgh talk.  In this series we hope to cover the evolution of EarthSpark, different retail business models we’ve tried, the challenges we face now, and what the next steps are.  Stay tuned!

The germ of the idea for EarthSpark’s model sprouted from the results of a survey fielded in Les Anglais, Haiti in 2008. Les Anglais does not have grid electricity, a municipal water and sewage network, or many of the other services and conveniences to which individuals are accustomed in the industrialized world. Rather than entering Les Anglais with preconceived notions about what the right portfolio of energy solutions was (or even what the problems were), we opted for a participatory survey approach to inform our work. The model that emerged is reflective of two key survey results: the stated aspirations of the Les Anglais respondents, and the stated energy expenditures.

We sought to understand aspirations by directly asking respondents to indicate which two of ten energy products or projects they would most want to have access to in their town. The results are striking: 65% of the choices for energy products or projects were for either solar household lighting or portable solar lamps. The figure below shows the results for all of the ten items.

The survey enumerators were trained in advance of fielding the surveys, and each had a set of color pictures that corresponded to the list of 10 energy products or projects.

The aspirations of the community tell only part of the story. What was also needed to deliver the services desired by the community was a nuanced portrait of their status quo energy consumption. Understanding how much they paid for energy services would provide an upper bound on the price of the products to which they wanted access. Understanding what they used energy for would help to specify the attributes and attribute levels of the solar lighting products.

We found that, on average, households in Les Anglais spend $10 per month on kerosene and candle lighting, and $18 per month on charcoal for cooking. Surveys conducted in other parts of the country reveal that households spend an average of $4 per month on charging cell phones. These energy expenditures account for roughly 25% of household income.

Spending this much money for such poor energy services is an injustice. It is the epitome of “energy poverty” – the dependence on expensive, inefficient energy fuels and appliances that are harmful to human health and degrade the environment. This reality propelled the creation of EarthSpark as a mechanism to address this injustice in the most sustainable, efficacious way.

Thanks to Frantz at Konbit for Port-à-Piment for incorporating kerosene and charcoal prices in the monthly Port-à-Piment market status reports on www.portapiment.com! Great to see the mention of www.enejipwop.com too! We look forward to comparing kerosene and charcoal prices across the region and also adding up savings for each region based on efficient cookstoves and solar lighting.

EarthSpark Lights Up Haiti for Women and Girls from EarthSpark International on Vimeo.

Within weeks of the earthquake that devastated Haiti on January 12th, 2010, reports of violence against women in Port-au-Prince’s internally displaced camps emerged. EarthSpark immediately focused its efforts to increase public safety in less secure areas by distributing solar lamps. We targeted this distribution to women, who are most vulnerable at night when they walk through the unlit camps to latrines or washing areas.

Nearly two years later, EarthSpark and its partners have distributed over 8,000 solar lights to women and their families in camps throughout Port-au-Prince and other affected areas. We partnered with the Clinton Global Initiative, Partners in Health, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, and smaller organizations like KOFAVIV and KONPAY, to distribute lamps to women as individuals and in solidarity groups. Three main distributions of a few thousand lamps each were carried out in April 2010, September 2010 and most recently in December 2011.

Thanks to the documentation efforts of Melinda Miles of Let Haiti Live and photographer Evan Abramson, we are pleased to share with you, our supporters, this short video showing the profound effects of a simple solar lamp. We are very grateful to the American Jewish World Service, the Urban Zen Foundation, Asha Jyothi, PACT and Citizen Effect for funding this work.

Last month, working with the United Nations Environment Programme’s local health lead, Ernest Mondésir of EarthSpark International coordinated the distribution of solar lights through Linkin Park’s Power the World campaign. These lights were given to midwives in rural southern Haiti where they often work to deliver babies by only the light of a candle or small kerosene lamp. While there remain many challenges in their work, these small solar lights will at least provide reliable, smoke-free light.

On January 23, Haitian President Martelly announced a new rural electrification program aiming to electrify 200,000 households in the next two years. The program, named “Ban m limyè, Ban m lavi” (BLBL, translated as “Give me light, give me life”) envisions a portfolio of approaches to electrification, including opening up access to end-user credit for small solar home systems.

While details have yet to be defined, the announcement is a clear signal that the highest levels of Haitian government are prioritizing energy access. Dr. René Jean-Jumeau, Secretary of State for Energy, pointed out that the state-owned national utility, EDH, recently celebrated 40 years of operation, yet less than 30% of the Haitian population has access to electricity. “We cannot wait another 40 years to get another 30% electrified,” Jean-Jumeau said.

Both Jean-Jumeau and Martelly drew clear lines between economic growth and access to energy and called for innovation and public-private partnerships to fill the gaps currently left by EDH.

Held on the weekend of November 18th, 2011, TEDxPittsburgh:Power explored power as a concept from the subatomic scale to the cosmic, and with practical and philosophical implications. As EarthSpark’s Founder and Executive Director, Dan’s talk focuses on the core problem being addressed by EarthSpark in Haiti: energy poverty. Describing the realities of living in energy poverty, Dan also identifies the two biggest challenges to ending it: the lack of physical and financial access to clean energy products. Analogies are drawn to the telecommunications and retail industries - both of which were innovators in providing their customers with access. Telecoms had to figure out how to extend the “last mile” of phone lines to their most distant markets, and retailers like Bloomingdales had to figure out how to provide credit to their customers so they could afford better products.

EarthSpark is innovating on these fronts in Haiti to provide customers with physical and financial access to clean energy products. Our retailers reach Haitians in rural areas and sell solar products to them bundled with micro-loans backed by Fonkoze, a Haitian micro-lender, and on “rent-to-own” terms for less expensive products like efficient cookstoves.

As Dan mentions in his TED talk, Haitians living in the United States and Canada send $1.6 Billion to their friends and family in Haiti every year. This prompted us to think about how to channel those dollars directly into clean energy products. Today we are launching www.enejipwop.com, the first e-commerce site marketed to Haitians living in the United States and Canada to purchase clean energy products like solar home systems for immediate delivery to their friends and family in Haiti. Each sale is fulfilled by one of EarthSpark’s Enèji Pwòp entrepreneurs in Haiti, so each sale grows a local business. We urge you to take a look at the site, and share it with your friends in the Haitian community in the United States and Canada. We’re open for business!

By Alki Delichatsios and Greg Levin

We come from very different places and backgrounds, have diverse interests and check in at extraordinarily divergent heights. We also each have great friends who independently and fortuitously introduced us to EarthSpark International. We are both transitioning from one career path to another (Alki was in Nuclear Recycling in France, Greg was in Sports Retail in South Africa and Germany), and were excited to take some time to volunteer with the dynamic team that is EarthSpark in its operating base in beautiful Haiti. Our goal was to help professionalize EarthSpark’s retail business practices and lay the groundwork for its impending expansion.

It’s difficult to overstate how important the experience of being on the ground was to our understanding of the work this organization does, and the constraints that it exists within. It’s all too easy to forget the inherent difficulties of life and business from the blessed ease of home. The challenges of a deficient infrastructure, nonexistent public transportation and insufficient access to information are so much more apparent in person. For instance, we didn’t get to Les Anglais until four days after we planned. Why? Because there was a storm that flooded the river and washed away the road from Port-a-Piment to Les Anglais – which by the way, happens every time there’s a big storm. Even days after the rain had stopped when we finally made our way to Les Anglais by a road so bumpy only big cargo trucks could manage (on which we were lucky to find a ride instead of doing the 10-mile hike by foot as previously planned), we had to wade hip-level deep with our bags on our heads to cross the football field-length river. Let’s just say that “supply chain difficulties” takes on a whole new meaning now.

We’ve both been lucky enough to have previously spent time in areas of varying levels of development, but the challenges we were introduced to in Haiti were of a different scope than we had known. We were both humbled and inspired by this. The challenges EarthSpark faces are real and they are many, but they are also interesting and they are (hopefully, eventually) solvable.

The staff of the Les Anglais Magazen Enèji Pwòp is par for the course when it comes to the people affiliated with EarthSpark; passionate, energetic and fun. All were caring and gracious in helping the two of us understand their community, business and goals. The management team of Jean Noel and Jacquelin, as well as Pedro, the store’s technician and one of its sales agents, were excellent guides to their town, and truly ambassadors for it.

In getting to know the products and their true benefits we were able to be much more effective in improving EarthSpark’s back-end plans and processes. By visiting local homes and businesses, the need, use and effectiveness of the products came to life in front of our eyes. Going local was the difference between thinking we understand something in theory, and realizing that we can only ever truly strive to understand part of a practice.

Walking down the pitch black streets of town at 7pm, it’s hard to not wonder when the power will be turned back on. It’s easy to forget that the blackout is by no means temporary - it is the everyday reality. When you see children sitting outside under streetlights, or any other sources of light they can find, squinting over books, the deeply unfair realities of their situation refuses to be ignored. Once you’ve seen it firsthand, finding a sustainable way to help these kids, and the others like them who will follow becomes no longer a choice but an obligation.

We were lucky and pleased to be able to meet a host of impressive EarthSpark colleagues and collaborators. From the partners at Digicel to the new clients in the back of Tap Taps, people are engaged and excited to be working with EarthSpark. One of the more exhilarating moments of the trip was learning that Rene Jean-Jumeau, a good friend of the organization and a truly inspiring man, who we were privileged to meet, had been named Haiti’s first Secretary of State for Energy. How fortuitous to be working towards sustainable clean energy in Haiti at a time when the Government is acknowledging its importance and beginning to make strides in the right direction.

While our time in Haiti was short, it was most definitely meaningful. Our hope was to help the organization and of course to pick a little knowledge up along the way. As is to be expected, we got the lion’s share of the deal. There’s just no way that we could give to EarthSpark in equal measure to what we received. With this in mind, we have both decided to stay as actively involved as we can from afar, and we’re working on finding ways to get back down to Haiti and see if we can’t even out the ledgers a little bit!

All the best from Phoenix, Boston, Les Anglais and everywhere else in between,
Alki & Greg

For more reading related to Alki and Greg’s experience with EarthSpark in Haiti, check out their personal blog posts:

Alki, October 26th 2011
Greg, October 27th 2011
Greg, November 14th, 2011
Greg, November 16th, 2011
Greg, November 22nd 2011

If anyone is looking for a fun and thoughtful present to give for the holidays, we can recommend the three solar/EarthSpark gift ideas below. EarthSpark is expanding our work in Haiti, and we have partnered with some innovative groups to try to offer holiday presents that are both great for our supporters and meaningful to our work.

1. Your Own Solar Light Bulb: Buy One, Give One.

Here’s your chance to have your very own solar product while also giving back. The solar light bulb is fun and elegant and a great entry-level solar product for anybody who is energy-consicous or gadget minded. When purchased with the 25% off “earthspark” code at the bulb manufacturer’s website, they will also donate a solar bulb to EarthSpark’s Enèji Pwòp clean energy entrepreneurs in Haiti. The solar lights change lives here, replacing kerosene lamps that are smoky, dim, and expensive, and enabling families to save money and improve their health and ability to study and work at night.

Here’s How it Works:

1. Visit http://www.nokero.com/products/n200 and select “add to cart.”

2. Enter the quantity of solar light bulbs you would like to purchase.

3. Enter the coupon code “earthspark” to receive 25% off your order. The price of each bulb will be $15. For every bulb you purchase, an additional bulb will be donated to EarthSpark at no additional charge.

2. Team Up with Linkin Park’s Music for Relief.

If there are any Linkin Park fans on your list, you can also support EarthSpark’s work by donating through the band’s new site www.powertheworld.org. Donations through that site support EarthSpark’s work in Haiti and are rewarded with a Linkin Park e-card to send to fans for the holidays.

Check out Linkin Park’s video featuring solar light bulbs.

3. Just Donate.

And finally, if a Haitian hand-made “gift in honor of” card would be best for your friends or loved ones, we would be happy to send a hand written note on one of the beautiful banana leaf cut-out cards made in Haiti that we have adopted as the EarthSpark stationary. It’s possible to donate through paypal directly at http://earthsparkinternational.org/support.html. Following your donation, please just email info@earthsparkinternational.org to let us know who should receive the card and what it should say.

All the best for a happy, healthful, and meaningful 2012 from the EarthSpark team.

When stories are told in Haiti, often the storyteller warms up the audience with a series of well-know riddles.
“Krik!” the storyteller yells to get everyone’s attention.
“Krak!” the audience - or those paying attention - will yell back to show they are ready for the story.
Gathering more interest, the storyteller often launches riddles. A popular one: “Piti piti, plen kay” (Very small, fills the house)?
“Lanp!” (Lamp!)
The Enèji Pwòp team has a variation on this well-known riddle. “Piti piti plen kay modèn?” (Very small, fills the house, is modern?)
And the answer? An Enèji Pwòp Lamp, of course. This draws smiles and nods. “Aaaaah! Lanp Enèji Pwòp,” people agree, “Lanp modèn.”
The Enèji Pwòp-branded Nokero N200s have arrived, and customers love them. While a typical kerosene lamp costs 200 gourdes to buy and 10 gourdes/night to operate, this Enèji Pwòp lamp costs 500 gourdes to buy and then needs no fuel, just exposure to sun to recharge the battery. Not only are families getting better light, reducing their exposure to dirty smoke and fire hazard, they are saving huge amounts of their household budgets.

EarthSpark’s first branded product, the Enèji Pwòp branded Nokero solar light bulbs, are ready to ship. They will be reaching our partners in Haiti and available in a Magazen Enèji Pwòp (Clean Energy Store) soon!

People in Les Anglais loved these when we did our field trials, and this will be the most affordable Enèji Pwòp solar product yet. We’re excited to be expanding our solar offerings!