Former CGI U Award-Winners Win €500,000 in Green Challenge

The Clinton Global Initiative is proud to announce that One Earth Designs is the winner of the 2010 Dutch Postcode Lottery Green Challenge, which awards a grand prize of €500,000 to the entrant with the best idea for a product or service that can realistically reduce greenhouse-gas emissions within two years. The award-winning project, "SolSource 3-in-1," also known as "SolSource," began as a CGI U commitment. Additionally, the One Earth Designs team members were past recipients of two CGI U Outstanding Commitments Awards.

CGI U interviewed Scot Frank, co-founder and CEO, about his team's accomplishments:

Tell us about your team. What is it working on now?

Catlin Powers and I co-founded One Earth Designs in 2007. Since then, the organization has grown to a team of eight full-time staff working with tens of volunteers and several partner organizations. After three years of research and test trials in China, we are currently working on bringing the SolSource to manufacturing and distribution.

What is SolSource?

SolSource is a portable and affordable three-in-one solar device that can be used for cooking, heating, and generating electricity. We are working to bring this technology to the rural Himalayas, where many people are exposed to the harmful effects of indoor air pollution caused by burning wood and dung for fuel. Women and children, many of whom spend three to seven hours per day by the fire, are disproportionately affected by indoor air pollution, which is the second largest environmental contributor to illness in the developing world (kitchen smoke is the biggest global killer of children under the age of five). To address these and other problems, we worked with local communities over a period of three years to develop a product that not only serves as a clean source of heat and electricity, but can also be made from yak wool and other locally available materials.

What are your goals for SolSource? How are you measuring success?

Our ultimate goal is to provide a portable, low-cost and clean source of energy for those people whose use of traditional stoves negatively impacts their health and access to income generation and education. In doing so, we will reduce both indoor air pollution and the environmental harm caused by biomass fuel-burning.

Our metrics include measurements across a wide range of factors, including income, the time that women and children spend collecting fuel, exposure to toxic smoke, the amount of CO2 and particulates emitted by stoves, etc. With respect to the actual technology, we've conducted pilot programs in Western China, and are now readying the SolSource for manufacturing and then distribution.

How do you plan on spending the €500,000 from the Dutch Postcode Lottery Green Challenge?

We are very fortunate and grateful for the prize, which will provide capital for manufacturing, marketing, and distributing in China. We're in the process of communicating with different manufacturing companies, and we've also received interest from local governments and potential partners in developing the technology. We hope to start manufacturing early next year.

What steps did you take to enter the competition? How did your team prepare for your application?

Actually, applying to CGI U helped us to focus on many of the issues that are important to the application process, such as budget planning and deciding which metrics to use. In addition to the funding, staff support, and connections that we were able to make with CGI members and potential investors, CGI U gave us the external, objective guidance that we needed in order to evaluate the project.

You've been to the CGI U annual meetings in 2009 and 2010, and One Earth Designs has won two CGI U Outstanding Commitment Awards. How has your participation at the CGI U annual meetings contributed to the development of your commitments?

I can definitely say that the annual meeting was especially critical for networking. At the annual meeting in Miami, we met a group of student social entrepreneurs from China through whom we made connections and obtained information about Chinese manufacturing companies. If not for the networking opportunities at the annual meeting, we would not have made many of our connections in the region; we previously didn't know many of the right people or which manufacturers to trust.

What advice can you give to current and prospective CGI U participants who are looking to turn their ideas into actions?

As with anything you spearhead: focus. Strike a healthy balance between work and life. Admit to yourself and team when you don’t know something—this fosters trust, upon which all of your relationships and work is built. Don’t be shy about drawing on as many resources as possible to assist in the multiple aspects of your project. Find good mentors early to advise you in the venture process.

Specific to your commitments: spend the time necessary to really understand the people you are trying to help and include them in all parts of your project. Learn both from people who have worked with the same communities and people who have done similar work elsewhere. Dedication and follow-through are essential to make the significant impact your commitment has the potential to achieve. Budget your money reasonably but grossly overestimate your time; it’s going to take a lot longer than you plan and early funding can be challenging to find. Treat the real world and real lives seriously and consider the effects of your actions. Make one-month and three-month plans, as well as one-year and five-year strategic plans, and revise them frequently.

And last, let your passion show and let your passion live. Let it show because that is what will attract team members, partners, and investors to your organization. Let it live because mountains that seem insurmountable look like hills when you love what you do.

Can students and other interested parties contact you with questions?

Yes, we are more than happy to connect with current or prospective CGI U members, who can visit our website at www.OneEarthDesigns.org, or contact us by email at info@OneEarthDesigns.org.