Sustainable Change Occurring in Haiti through Alternative Energy

This week brings the end of three years of work in Haiti. As a friend commented recently, we really have come a long way. I am thrilled and amazed by the progress we have made towards our mission to build sustainable communities by placing the power to create, use and sell alternative energy into the hands of the poor. The most exciting thing to report about 2011 is that it was the year in which we empowered Haitians to change the lives of people in their communities, sustainably.

With over 100,000 jatropha trees planted (and an additional 150,000 funded for next year) we will soon see dramatic economic changes in rural Haiti. Each tree produces enough oil-rich seeds to create a gallon of oil that is a drop-in replacement for diesel fuel. This means that for the next 25-45 these 100,000 trees will bring economic improvement to rural Haitians while the trees improve soil and reverse deforestation. A critical byproduct of producing jatropha oil is a charcoal replacement briquette that is made by pressing the residue or seedcake from the pressing process. Our nurseries each produce 10,000 seedlings every three months and farmers eagerly take these seedlings to their land and plant them without displacing any food crops. Our press needs repairs and as soon as it is ready we will make our first oil. 2012 promises to be another incredible year.

We end 2011 with 240 homes that have their first electricity. Far from the grid these homes are serviced by the IEEE/Sirona Haiti Rural Electricity Program. The IEEE worked with Sirona to design and ultimately deploy six Sunblazer units. These are 1.5kW solar charging stations run by entrepreneurial Operators. Each Operator has forty customers who pay a modest $6.70 per month for basic electricity. Customers receive an energy kit that has a rechargeable battery, lights and the ability to charge cellular phones. When the kit is exhausted (five to seven days on average) the customer brings the battery kit back to the charging station and three hours later the kit is ready to return to their home. The IEEE and the Sirona team have been thrilled to see that, due to our culturally appropriate business plan, all 240 customers have paid every month, every Operator has made his lease payment to Sirona keeping the program sustainable, and nothing has been stolen or damaged since deployment in June.

This program has had such success that the Haitian Secretary of Energy has announced that Sirona Haiti's electricity program is the model for electrification of rural villages. USAID is supporting the program by building Sirona a Haitian assembly facility. This spring the first Haitian built Sunblazers will roll out to rural communities and provide the first electricity many have ever had--at a price lower than what they are currently paying for noxious kerosene, candles and cell phone charging.

We are very excited for next year, the groundwork has been laid for amazing progress to occur in 2012. As the year ends we thank all of our partners and friends in Haiti, our supporters, all of our donors, all of the IEEE volunteers and all of the funding provided by the IEEE for the Sunblazer pilot units. We thank the Government of Haiti for including Sirona in the energy sector strategic planning process and inviting us to display our unit at the Caricom Energy Week events. Many have read the article in World Magazine, and we appreciate all of the kind words and donations that this article has generated. Thank you, one and all. 2012 promises to be a very exciting year full of progress in Haiti and beyond. Year end donations are graciously accepted by the Sirona Cares Foundation!

Giving Thanks & Counting Blessings from My Work in Haiti

Happy Thanksgiving to all who read this.  Growing up Thanksgiving Day meant family trips to visit my grandparents.  Everyone came, my cousins, aunts, uncles, and the special not-really-family members like Miss Jean and a hippy named John Fowler who were adopted by our family.  My grandmother cooked, and our family enjoyed a few days together.  I did not appreciate the reality of all I had to give thanks for, it was simply my life.

I have been working in Haiti for three years now, and for three years my Thanksgiving is completely transformed from those before.  I am humbled by my blessings, and see my life as filled with relative abundance.  I am deeply grateful and appreciate things more than ever.  My health, my home, my family, and the simple fact that we have food to eat and water to drink every day without question.

Many people ask me if it makes me sad to work in Haiti, to see grinding poverty and it's effects.  Isn't it depressing?  A great number of people believe that I and others like me that work in Haiti deserve high praise for our work.  I would love to address both of those points here, today, on Thanksgiving.

First, no, it does not make me sad to work in Haiti, and if you know Haiti you would know why.  I am not blind to the poverty, but when I think about Haitians I think of them as my friend Clay describes them, Haitians smile with intention.  I am more interested in the positive attitude that our partners have, and excited by the possibilities for change.  Haiti is moving forward and it is an exciting time to work there.  I am amazed by the myriad of solutions Haitians find for the issues they face daily.  When something breaks it is repaired with unrivaled ingenuity.  When problems arise communities gather to solve them.  With 80% unemployment every day involves the chore of finding a way to bring economic value to ones life, and as with repairs, the ingenuity is inspiring.  I have never been anywhere in my life where a courteous hello is the expected norm all day, every day, to every stranger you meet.  "Tap-taps" are converted pickups that carry loads of people daily, and it is rude to board a tap-tap without greeting every rider on board with either "Bonjou" or "Salut".

Children walk arm in arm to school.  Beautiful ribbons adorn the complex braids on the heads of little girls.  Uniforms of every color line the side of every road, in the city and in the villages.  Women walk with grace skillfully balancing inconceivably large parcels on their heads.  Haitians have incredible posture.  If poverty is all you see in Haiti you are missing the point.  The culture is complex and the people are warm, they love to laugh.  Celebration is constant as every hurdle of life is conquered.

To the second point, whether people like myself deserve praise for working in a place like Haiti, for myself I will say that I do not.  If you love something, like I love creating sustainable solutions for rural Haitians, the joy of the work fills you, and thanks are unnecessary.  If I could bottle and sell the incredible feeling I get from this work I would have at my disposal the most addictive drug ever made.  I speak for many friends when I say this, the secret is out: we love what we do, we love Haiti, and we don't deserve special attention for what we're doing. 

In giving thanks today I will mention my special blessing, like Miss Jean and John the hippy I am blessed to have been adopted as a not-really-a-family-member by Haiti.  I am greatly enjoying the forward progress of our IEEE/Sirona Haiti Rural Electricity Program and thrilled by the government's adoption of our program as the method for providing energy to rural homes.  I am incredibly proud of our Jatropha farmers who have planted more than 100,000 trees this year.  I am excited, and thankful, and again I wish all who have made it to the end of this post a very Happy Thanksgiving!

The Value of Sustainable Impact vs. Charity

After a visit to Haiti people leave with only one of two reactions.  Some think Haiti is the worst place that they have ever seen.  Heartbroken and frightened after seeing extreme poverty they flee and never return.  The other reaction is one of being hooked by Haiti.  For life.

I fell in love with Haiti, and have spent three years working out what it is exactly that I can do to bring the most change for communities there.  Initially it was the children I focused upon, how to get them food, how to get them into school.  In the first few months of running this organization we raised the funds to feed four orphanages 1/4 of the years food.  While this was a great accomplishment, I must admit that once I sent the funds I was deflated.  I realized that this would be a perpetual cycle, and it was then that I developed a strong bent towards creating truly sustainable communities by creating ways that people in the communities could earn more and feed themselves.  We handled the largest post-earthquake aid delivery from Northern California, but again, like the money for food I had to weigh the cost of that project against it's impact.  20,000 people received basic necessities, at a cost of roughly $20,000.  This $1 per person ratio was not bad, however I know that $20,000 can be spent in ways that will have lasting impact that far exceeds the clothing and toiletries we shipped.

Our work on the IEEE/Sirona Haiti Rural Electricity Project shows exactly how funds can be spent to create massive change in places like Haiti.  The 1.5 Kw solar charging station provides life-changing benefits for 40 households.  Kerosene lamps are dangerous.  Their fumes noxious and many people, especially children, suffer terrible burns every year.  We have empowered people in Haiti by bringing jobs, business, and a step out of the darkness.  Today one of the orphanages we had assisted is able to buy food with income generated by their Sunblazer unit.

Our six pilot stations are operating perfectly and were not affected by recent storms.  All were visited by our Haitian field technicians in the past two weeks and interviews with both station Operators as well as customers confirm that this is a hugely successful endeavor, and that people simply love it.  The project is so embraced by the communities that all six units are safe and secure, and all home kits accounted for.  There has been no theft or tampering with any of the units.  This reflects another benefit of business over charity: we take better care of things that we work for than things that are given to us.

Our work is focused upon listening to Haitians about what they want, and they often say, "It's better to teach a man to fish than to give a man a fish".  Below is an excerpt from an e-mail I received after our trip.  Comments like this are encouraging, and let us know that not only in Haiti are we on the right track with our work: 

"My husband, Eric, shared with me the information that you passed on to him regarding Sirona Cares. Both the Jatropha Project and the IEEE Rural Electricity Program are amazing! What strikes me is your emphasis on building sustainable communities within Haiti and beyond. Truly, as stated in the Jatropha Project Overview, "charity is debilitating." When I was in Haiti in March, I was truly struck by the Haitian people and their strong desire to have jobs and a chance for a better life. In contrast, there appeared to be many well-intentioned groups offering aide to the people of Haiti. While no one would argue that the need in Haiti is great, the greatest need is not for foreigners to come in and "rescue" Haitians through foreign aide, but rather the need is for the establishment/building of sustainable communities.
 
We commend your vision to build sustainable communities! We also desire to become a part of building sustainable communities in Haiti and beyond. Thanks for sharing your story with us and giving us hope and confirmation that it is possible!"
 

 

IEEE/Sirona Haiti "Sunblazer" Solar Generating Stations are Haiti Bound

It is with great excitement that I announce that the IEEE/Sirona Haiti Rural Electricity generating units are now on the water headed for Haiti.  We have finalized the schedules for deployment of the six units and along with IEEE engineers we will arrive in Haiti on the 20th to begin that process.  We have been working on this project with the Community Solutions Initiative (CSI) IEEE sub-group since the fall of 2009, and to be at the point of deployment is very exciting for the members of both teams.

The technology has been designed to create small businesses and provide reliable electricity to homes.  There are six "Sunblazer" units in the first deployment, so by July 8th we will have started six businesses and provided light to 240 homes.  The excitement that we have pales in comparison to the excitement in Haiti over the project.  Our first six Operators have already signed up their forty customers, and will attend training next week on operation of both the equipment and their business.  In addition to providing technical support for the units, Sirona is also providing entrepreneurial support for the Operators.  A successful Operator becomes a candidate for additional units and can ultimately receive up to 5, meaning that they will be providing electricity to up to 200 homes in their community and using residual energy from the units to run their businesses.

This is blog entry 200.  Since December of 2008 we have been formulating plans to improve life in Haiti and attempting to educate people here on what life Haiti is like, and what Haitians really need.  130,808 readers have visited the blog, and the support of people who believe in us personally, and/or in the vision we have for creating positive change in Haiti has gotten us this far.  Our early work was more focused on charity, and how to "help"; a reader can go through the posts to follow our transition from the charity mindset of "giving" to one of "partnership": working with Haitians to create sustainable change in their communities.  We are using alternative energy for the basis of change, and have created a strong Jatropha project and now a home electricity kit business.  "Poverty" is not the only word people should associate with Haiti; I hope that our programs will induce readers to associate more words like "inspiring", "ingenious", "creative", and "industrious" to the people of Haiti.

Our trip will last from June 20th-July 8th.  Should anyone in Haiti wish to see the units, we will be training Operators and displaying the equipment on June 22nd.  If you would like to attend, please contact me through this site for specific information on where the training will occur. 

Post Washington DC & Pre IEEE/Sirona Haiti Rural Electricity Pilot Launch

We traveled to Washington DC last week to meet with different funding organizations for the IEEE/Sirona Haiti Rural Electricity Project.  The discussions went very well and we are now back following up, organizing materials that show the scalability of this project, and preparing for the shipment of the first six units.  It is a very exciting time for us.  During our meeting at the UN Foundation we discussed the fact that 2012 is the International Year of Sustainable Energy For All.  We are excited to be part of this important initiative.

In Haiti our groups are preparing for the arrival of the equipment as well as the training for our first six Franchise Operators and first Field Technicians.  In only a few weeks we will be turning the lights on, for the first time, in 240 homes and starting six small businesses.  By the end of the year we hope to have all 15 pilot units in Haiti, and have lit 600 homes and started 15 businesses.  The children above live in an orphanage that will receive light next month.  We are working to co-locate several of the next units with schools in Haiti.

The pilot will demonstrate that Haitians are both willing and able to pay leases on their equipment and that we have designed a sustainable program.  Sirona will use the data we collect from the pilot to encourage social investors to supply capital for formation of a Haitian for-profit company, Sirona Haiti.  This capital will fund in-country assembly and bring the project to scale.  By the end of year five we hope to supply electricity to 1,000,000 Haitian people.  Very much a chicken-and-egg scenario, Haiti is far too risky for capital investment on an unproven business plan, so the equipment and pilot was developed by the IEEE Community Solutions Initiative Group and The Sirona Cares Foundation: both non-profits that are focused upon using alternative energy to improve lives in developing countries.  Many groups within the IEEE contributed funding for the pilot.

The beauty of this project lies in its simplicity.  Due to our relationships and our experience in Haiti we know that to simply survive Haitians have honed their entrepreneurial skills.  This project gives Franchise Operators the ability to supply home battery kits (3 lights, wiring, a dc outlet for cell phones and small appliances, and a rechargable battery) to forty homes and use the excess energy generated by the 1.2 kW charging station for their own business.  The battery charging service alone more than covers the Franchise Operator's lease payment, and what he/she makes beyond that is theirs to keep.  We are excited by all of the possibilities and we fully expect to see uses of this power that we cannot even imagine.  Perhaps the home kit customer will use their battery to charge a neighbors cell phone and offset his/her monthly fee ($50 Haitian per month, or $6.70).  Where there is money to be made, we can be certain that the Haitian entrepreneur will capitalize on this opportunity, at every level.

People ask about our concerns regarding theft of equipment and the answer is simple: Haitian-to-Haitian accountability will provide security for the equipment.  If someone steals a battery kit they are not stealing from us, they are stealing the from their neighbor, probably the first electric light he/she has ever had; and from the Franchise Operator who will then face a challenge meeting his/her lease payment.  Theft is not a primary concern for us, because we know Haitians will manage that risk.

There is much to do, and daily we receive positive comments as well as inquiries about access to this program for rural Haiti.  Interest is very high, and we are working very hard to deploy this program as quickly and efficiently as possible.  I would ask that any reader interested in investing in this program contact us for a copy of the Sirona Haiti Business Plan.

 

IEEE/Sirona Rural Electricity Project: Preparing to Ship

On Thursday we will be in Washington D.C. meeting with potential funding sources for the IEEE/Sirona Haiti Rural Electricity Project and our Jatropha Project.  I cannot possibly express the level of our excitement to see that funders are considering Haiti.  For the first time since the earthquake I feel optimistic that money dedicated to Haiti will finally find its way to help Haiti help itself. 

 
We are also preparing the final logistics for shipment of the IEEE/Sirona Haiti Rural Electricity Project equipment.  There are six 1.2Kw solar trailers and 240 home battery kits (battery, three lights, cell phone charger).  The equipment is in New York, so we must ship to Haiti, move the equipment to Grand Goave for final preparation and training, and then deploy the six units to their operators in St. Etienne, L'Azile, Jeremie, Anse au Veaux, Deuxieme Plaine and Marmelade.  A team of IEEE members will train the Haitian operators and the first members of our Haitian technical support team.  We will also be providing ongoing entrepreneurial support for the new businesses.  The trip should take several weeks and we're optimistic that the equipment will clear customs by early June.

IEEE members have dedicated uncountable hours to design, construct, and test the equipment for this project.  They had technical issues with the equipment and had to make some changes.  This caused a delay but will be worth the wait in the end.  The Sirona team has continued our work with the operators and Haitian teams to prepare for the arrival of the project.  The logistics are complex, and navigating Haitian customs is a process not to be taken lightly.  We are busy working out schedules, crossing our "t's" and dotting our "i's".

This project will literally change the lives of people in Haiti who, until now, have had no option for electricity in their homes.  Children will be able to study at night, people will be able to charge their phones at home rather than walk for miles to do so, candles and kerosene lamps that burn many people each year will be put away.  A step into the present will occur in areas that have been left in the dark for too long. 

Every level of this project generates commerce.  This is an economically sustainable project, not charity.  Charging station operators have access to residual electricity generated by the solar panels that is not used to recharge customer battery kits.  Refrigeration is the preferred business for most of our operators. Each franchise has 40 customer home kits to lease, and the home battery kit user will be able to charge phones at their homes to offset their own utility payment.  Light in and of itself, has value in rural Haiti. 

The project is economically sustainable because station operators lease the equipment from Sirona for $200 US per month starting in month four.  The home kit is currently priced at $50 Haitian a month ($6.70 US) and customers can recharge as often as needed.  The forty home kit payments more than cover the operator's lease payment, and all of the money that the his/her business generates beyond that $200 per month will go to them.  In addition, an operator has the option to keep home kit lease payments for the first three months allowing them to purchase equipment for their business and start debt free.  The solar equipment is leased, rather than sold, to the operators to guarantee that maintenance will be performed by Sirona.  This protects the entrepreneur who would face many challenges repairing/replacing parts for the equipment.  Equipment can decay rapidly in rural Haiti and our program is designed to keep everything working.

We are excited to see how it turns out, and we are looking forward to our trip to DC.  As always I can't wait to get back to Haiti to turn the lights on!

Earth Day: Sirona Offers Affordable Biofuel to Help Local Economy

Happy Earth Day.  Most followers of this blog know of our work in Haiti focused on building sustainable communities, but may know little about what we do for our community in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sirona Cares is the sister to Sirona Fuels, a for-profit biofuel company.  My husband Paul and I created both because we are convinced that alternative energy is the key to change, both environmental and economic.

Both organizations share the same vision and together we accomplish more than a for-profit or non-profit could not do on it's own.  In Haiti we are putting biofuel into rural communities and deploying the IEEE/Sirona Haiti Rural Electricity Project to light homes and start businesses.  Here we are supporting businesses/individuals who use diesel fuel and public schools.  Starting today Sirona Fuels is selling biofuel from the refinery in Oakland directly to customers at $.25/gallon less than the price at the pump.  Current fuel prices are crippling, and this is a way we can respond to support our community.  The quality of Sirona's fuel is so high that it is a drop-in replacement for diesel fuel and requires no modification to the vehicle.  For every gallon of biofuel used, 20 lbs of carbon is offset.  The Sirona Fuels company donates a percentage of it's profits to the Sirona Cares Foundation allowing us to focus donor support on our programs.

I am thrilled to announce that our Sirona Cares for Schools Program is now being supported by Whole Foods, Cisco and Oracle, in addition to many local restaurants.  This bio-recycling program allows restaurants to donate their waste kitchen oil to Sirona for refining, and then 20% of the sale price of the biodiesel is given to public schools through grants.  In addition to providing a free service, we offer tax donation receipts to participating restaurants.

Today and every day we are committed to finding ways to support our communities here and in Haiti.  From the Sirona Team, have a happy Earth Day.

Haiti: More Adventure than Typical Business Trip

I thought I'd share our travel itinerary, we pack in a lot on our trips!

April 10th, leave San Francisco on the red eye to Miami, catch the 7:00 flight to Haiti and arrive at 8:05 local time (or six a.m. San Francisco time).  After flying all night our trip starts.  We ride from Port au Prince with our L'Azile agronomist who will take us first to Aquin where we will pick up our translator, Pierre, a charming teenager I met last summer, and we will drive on to L'Azile.  I have been told that the potholes on the L'Azile road have been filled, and what used to take an hour now only takes ten minutes... we'll see.

In L'Azile we will visit our jatropha nursery, check on the sustainable kitchen garden planted by the Global Call to Youth, and the computer center that was set up with equipment from Tech Assist Haiti.  We will take Pierre home and continue to Les Cayes where we will stay with our old friends from ESMI, the St. Germain family.  We will sleep well!

The next day my companions will meet with Haitian Pastors.  In my advocacy role I facilitate introductions between groups that want to help in Haiti, like The Leadership Connection, and Haitian groups that need suppport.  They will have meetings and discuss their projects, and I'm hoping to see some of the kids I haven't seen for a while at the Cambry orphanage.

On Wednesday we travel to Petit Goave to distribute jatropha seedlings.  I am very excited to see the progress of this group, and honored to be present at their first distribution.   We will be joined by two American Pastors involved with the TLC project and a medical doctor who brings groups to Haiti.  I'm excited to connect this group with the Mission of Hope, who regularly hosts medical and missions teams. 

We will spend the night at Mission of Hope's beachfront compound in Grand Goave.  I'm hoping to see Hal, and bring him some Oreos!  I will sleep under the choukoun (a grass covered patio) and listen to the ocean. If you wake before the sun rises (which is easy because of the roosters) you see the fishing boats out on the water, each with a small fire burning in it creating bright dots in the distance.

On Thursday TLC will meet with Pastors, and I will have discussions with the Lex and Renee Edme about the upcoming deployment of the IEEE/Sirona Haiti Rural Electricity Program.  That equipment is in New York where IEEE members are improving the home battery kits to ensure longer use between re-charges.  As always I'm looking forward to seeing old friends, and making new ones. 

Early Friday, April 15th, we head back to the airport.  It's best to get into Port au Prince early, before the traffic, and our flight leaves at 9:10 for Miami.  (Hoping we won't have a fender-bender on the way to the airport this time!)  If all goes as planned we will arrive home at 7:20 p.m. (or about 12 hours later).

After every trip I'm always thankful first for my family, and then for electricity, clean water, hot water... things we take for granted.  I get home tired, but there's something about Haiti that restores me.  I will have the deployment trip to look forward to, and lots of work to do for it's preparation in between trips.

Non-Profit Best Practices: What We've Learned in Haiti

I recently spoke at UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy as part of a lecture series on non-profit organizations.  It was interesting to prepare this speech for graduate students and a moment to realize how much we've learned, sometimes the hard way.

To summarize my speech on Non-Profit Best Practices, my comments were:

• If someone is already doing what you want to do, go work for them.  The effort to start/run your organization parallels the work of getting your project off the ground.  You won't get paid, and you're actively working in two directions at once.  It makes more sense to go work for a non-profit, learn how they do what they do, and enhance their program with your skills.
• Expect to be surprised by your funding sources.  Don't assume that people who support you personally will support you financially; do expect to be surprised by donors who you would have never expected support from.  New organizations don't receive grants or serious funding for some time, so expect a long haul to prove yourself before expecting funds from grants.
• Focus on sustainable programs.  Organizations like Sirona Cares are here to help people to gain economic stability, and that comes from projects that generate revenue in the community for that community--charity is really, really tough.  Charity can be very debilitating.  If you incorporate economic sustainability into your plan, you can do what a non-profit should do in the future: extract yourself from a viable community and start again where you are needed.  Take a hard look at your goals, and if extraction is not one of them, then you have may inflict damage rather than give support to the community you wish to help.
• Don't make promises that you can't keep:  For a myriad of reasons groups pull out of projects before completing them. In Haiti we see a culture so used to broken promises that every new organization immediately faces the hurdle of proving itself. Learning to never make a promise that I can't be 100% certain I will keep is something I deal with all of the time, I'm dealing with it today.  We were to deploy our IEEE/Sirona Rural Electricity Program in January, however delayed equipment created shipping delays.  I know it will get there, yet for those people waiting to light their homes I'm currently in the "broken promise" place, and it's not a good place to be in.  I shouldn't have given them the deployment date until the ship was on the water, a hard lesson learned.  Never commit to anything that you are not absolutely positive will happen.
• Collaborate.  Small organizations move more quickly than large ones and without bureacracy.  Haiti has more NGOs per capita than any other country, but this only proves helpful to Haitians when groups work in harmony.  Without collaboration there is waste; with collaboration organizations fill in each other's gaps, allocate resources wisely, and accomplish more than any one organization could alone.  Following the earthquake there was a great surge of unity between organizations that work in Haiti, and this has in built up stronger networks than ever before.  This momentum should be capitalized on and sought world-wide.
• Keep "you" out of it.  The reason for doing this work should not be about you, or what you want to accomplish.  That train of thought places "you" in competition with "them" (others striving for the same goals).  The intention should be to work together, check your pride at the door, and realize that if you're really, really successful your programs will have a lasting positive impact for generations... and none of those people will every know who you are.  You're there as a partner, not as a hero.  Ultimately it's the community you are working with that will pull themselves up, because they will take ownership of your project, and their success will belong to them.

 

Sirona Now Poised to Generate Millions in Haiti, For Haiti

If you work on sustainable development projects and decide to tackle something as profound as energy poverty, it's easier to see the long road ahead than the progress you make.  This morning I got an e-mail from a friend asking how things were going.  I said that we had planted 50,000 jatropha trees already, and our goal is 250,000 by the end of the year.  We're at 20% of goal in mid-February, which is great.  Then I started thinking about the financial impact this project has for our communities in Haiti and that already we've created the potential for over six million dollars of positive impact for Haiti.  I apply these facts and assumptions:

FACTS:

• Jatropha oil is a drop-in replacement for diesel fuel and can run most generators/diesel engines without refinement.  It's value compares to fossil fuel.
• Our farmers displace no food crops with this project, and pay nothing to participate.  We provide the nursery, training and seedlings. 
• This is a non-profit effort to sustainably improve lives in rural Haiti.
• Jatropha is non-invasive and has grown in Haiti for hundreds of years.
• Our model is co-op based, non-exclusive and collaborative.
• Sirona buys/leases no land in Haiti for our project.
• All fuel sale profits are re-invested in development work in Haiti. 

 

ASSUMPTIONS:

• Jatropha plants should live for 25-45 years, I've taken 25 for my assumption.
• Over the next 25 years the price for a diesel substitute will not rise above $5.00 per gallon.  This is a lower value than diesel sells at today (around $8/gallon) and a very safe assumption. 
• Each tree produces enough seed to create one gallon of jatropha oil per year.  We are testing this, and feel it is a safe assumption.  Internationally this is a conservative number, but we're not in India or Africa, and we won't know until we harvest.  Because our plants are inter-cropped with food crops (rather than using the poorest land available), we believe that they will receive the care necessary to produce this amount of oil.  A plus of this farming method is that jatropha puts nitrates back into the soil, repairing and improving the food crop's soil.

 

So, here is what I wrote to my friend today, and wanted to share on the blog:

• Every donation of $100 plants 1,000 jatropha trees
• Each tree produces one gallon of fuel a year ($100 donation=1,000 gallons of fuel)
• Each gallon is worth $5 ($100 donation=$5,000)
• Each tree will produce at this level for 25 years ($100 donation will put $5,000 into the Haitian economy per year and $125,000 over time.)

 

Today, with 50,000 trees in the ground, our project will put $6.25 Million dollars into the Haitian economy over time:

• In two years, these 50,000 trees should produce 50,000 gallons of fuel a year, for 25 years.
• At $5 per gallon, the fuel sales will inject $250,000 per year into our farming communities
• Over the life of the trees, the financial impact (if our assumptions are accurate) will be $6.25 Million dollars 

 

And we all know what they say about a-s-s-u-m-p-t-i-o-n-s.  Even if we're wrong, even if it's half of that, the project will put more than $3 Million dollars a year into a country desperate for revenue generating projects, re-forestation projects, improved soil and alternative fuel sources.  I've addressed the nay-sayers there, but to the supporters: just what if we're right?  If we reach our goal of planting 250,000 trees this year, the financial impact two years later will be around $625,000 per year culminating in $31.25 Million over the life of the trees.  That's really, really exciting to stop and ponder.

If you have a dime in your pocket (well, I think the minimum donation on Paypal is $5), send us a donation.  That dime will create $5 in revenue per year for the Haitian community, and ultimately provide $125 dollars worth of positive impact.  $5 bucks, or 500 trees creates $2,500 per year for 25 years, or $62,500 over the life of the tree (unless I'm wrong, and it's half, meaning your $5 will only made a $31,250 impact.)  All this without displacing a single food crop, and at the same time improving the global environment and Haiti in many ways (slowing deforestation; creating a low carbon/low emission fuel substitute; improved soil, creating a clean-burning charcoal alternative, not to mention many jobs and community improvements...).

We have enrolled over 1,000 farmers excited to participate in the program.  We can't keep up with demand at our nurseries and would love to plant faster.  Next year's goal is completing 1 Million trees, and we could make that this year with adequate funding.  The more fuel we produce and sell in Haiti the better; if it can't be sold in Haiti it is a very valuable export for which I have a guaranteed buyer.  We expect the Haitian market for this oil to be robust, but we have a back-up plan just in case.

Today I feel really excited.  I can look at where we are, what our Haitian partners have accomplished, and breathe for a moment.  Once I click "Publish" I will turn back to the long road in front of us... but it has been a really, really good morning.

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