While the global financial crisis arguably continues unabated it’s interesting to come across a story of a guy who’s acting on the idea of making a fortune from the bottom of the pyramid.
A Norwegian guy has based himself in Nairobi, and most notably designed a solar-powered cardboard boX cooker which can apparently be made for around 5 euros. There’s been a bit of hot air around the way it’s been publicised…namely it won an FT climate change competition and the write-up on FT stated that;
The $5 cooker uses the greenhouse effect to boil and bake.
Umm “greenhouse effect”?? How about solar energy, or as its more commonly known sunshine!!
However this spin appears to have a very clever rationale as;
The trials will generate data to back an application for carbon credits, the crucial element which will make the project scalable, he explains. He expects each stove to make a yearly profit of 20-30 euros, which will more than cover the manufacturing cost.
It’s a hell of an idea. He’s looking at getting millions of these out to villagers around Africa. At a cost price of around 5 euros each, plus what could be a fairly neglible distribution cost if he could for instance get NGO’s on board to do it for him, he could make a hell of a profit if he can claim 20-30 euros a year per unit for carbon credits based on them cutting down on the amount of wood being burnt for cooking, and therefore avoiding carbon dioxide emissions.
Not to mention the feel-good aspect of putting the naughty greenhouse effect to good use in alleviating the suffering of impoverished people…the promotional video he’s put out leaves no doubt as to its beneficial effects in that regard.
As he has said himself
“We’re going to make money on this. This is a whole new kind of business. I think Grameen [the celebrated microfinance institution which offers affordable credit to individuals and communities in Bangladesh] has proven that there’s an interesting business at the bottom of the pyramid.”
No kidding!! I wonder if the first world signatories to the Kyoto protocol had any idea that they would be funding this ‘whole new kind of business.’
As a side note these “kyoto boxes” are impressively simple and are what could be called a very old idea that has waited for the right combination of scientific/political theory and business acumen to make its debut …
The Kyoto Box is a combination of de Sausseurs “hot box” from 1767 and modern manufacturing (cardboard, from ca. 1880!). However, the production version is made from recycled polypropylene and will last much longer. PP only consists of carbon and hydrogen and is completely benign.
