Archive for the ‘Business’ category

Nuru Lights Pedals Toward Clean Energy in Africa

By Tina Casey*
A clean energy startup called Nuru Lights has come up with a low cost pedal-powered LED light kit that is designed to help households in East Africa and India ditch their kerosene lamps.
Kerosene lamps are ubiquitous in the developing world. They’re a notorious fire hazard and can cause carbon monoxide poisoning when [...]

4 Keys to a Successful Sustainability Strategy

By Mindy S Lubber*
Consider these morsels from last week’s Wall Street Journal: “By 2050, there could be two billion cars on the road — twice as many as there are today.”
“Energy demand is expected to be 35 percent higher in 2030 than in 2005.” “Pollution of drinking water is Americans’ No. 1 environmental concern.”
If you’re [...]

Ethical and Social Implications of New Biofuels

By Joyce Tait and Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka*
Biofuels were first pioneered in the early days of car manufacturing.
Cheap fossil fuels soon overtook them as our fuel of choice, but concerns about climate change have revived interest in them — global biofuel production doubled between 2000 and 2007, and is expected to double again by 2011.
‘First generation’ biofuels, [...]

Solar Lighting Spells End of Kerosene in Africa

By Charlotte Webster*
A simple but effective solar kit is helping to bring light to homes in the less-industrialised world without the choking side-effects of kerosene lamps.
About 14 per cent of Kenya is electrified, Tanzania even less at 11 and Malawi a pitiful seven. These statistics correspond directly to poverty and development.
The extensive off-grid rural areas [...]

Don’t Sacrifice Health in Climate Battle — Bill Gates

By Naomi Antony
Spending more on climate change research could put hundreds of thousands of lives at risk by stripping away precious global health funding, Bill Gates has said.
In his 2010 Annual Letter — the second of its kind, released last week by the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation — the philanthropist warned that aid budgets may [...]