Climate Change Adaptation
Ashoka Fellow Examples
Coastal Areas and Sea Level Rise
o Flooding: Ravindranath
o Disaster Relief: Dilip Banerjee, Eko Teguh Paripurno
Agriculture and Forestry
o Forestry: Adalberto Verissimo, Willie Smits, Silverius Oscar Unggul
o Gene Banking: Rajeev Khedkar
o Sustainable Agriculture: Badara Jobe, Osmond Mugweni, Muthu Velayutham
o Agriculture Information: Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu
Ecosystems and Wildlife
o Biodiversity: Al Harris, Orri Vigfusson
o Artificial Reefs: Daniel Alberta Vartanian Alarcon
o Wetlands: Rezaul Haq
Water
o Urban Water Systems: Andy Lipkis, Marta Echavarria, Wilson Passeto, Eugen Toth
o Bindeshwar Pathak, Ako Amadi
Energy
o Renewable Energy: Tri Mumpuni, Mathias Craig, Lalith Seneviratne, Harish Hande, Ursula Sladek
o Energy Efficiency: Johannes Hengstenberg
o Waste to Energy: Joseph Adelegan
o Peak Oil: Rob Hopkins
Additional Examples
o Cities: Karl-Henrik Robert
o Socio-economic Development in Arid Areas: Jose Roberto Silva
o Sustainable Tourism: Ishita Khanna
o Appropriate Technology: Ashok Khosla
o Credit: William Foote
o Waste Management: Yuyun Ismawati
Coastal Areas and Sea Level Rise:
Ravindranath, Rural Volunteer Centre, India
http://www.ashoka.org/node/4346
Ravindranath ―Ravi‖ is turning villages and communities in flood-ravaged regions into institutions prepared to
predict, confront, and cope with floods, turning a one-time calamity into opportunities for people to create new
and alternative livelihoods. He is applying existing advanced technology to allow people to live safely in flood-prone
areas in northeastern India and neighboring countries. He has developed a community-based Early Warning
Network System and regional data-sharing along with simple technologies to measure water levels and land
contours to accurately forecast flash floods and the possible heights to which the water may reach.
Dilip Banerjee
http://www.ashoka.org/fellow/3564
Dilip Banerjee is integrating disaster relief into the long-term management of local needs and resources. His
approach represents an important shift in thinking about disaster management, and results in effective strategies
for local governance and planning. Natural disasters are not always isolated events. In many areas of the world,
floods, cyclones, and earthquakes occur cyclically, regularly destroying buildings, homes, and schools and causing
hundreds, even thousands, of deaths. Starting in the cyclone-prone region of the Sunderbans in West Bengal, Dilip
is enabling communities to use disaster management as a starting point from which to launch efforts to prioritize
real needs and design programs that both strengthen communities for the long-term and further the aims of
sustainable development. Dilip sees that this shift from reactionary disaster management, which is often wasteful
and inefficient, to proactive organizing will enable communities to respond to future disasters quickly and
efficiently. They can identify needs, take stock of relief resources, and direct the distribution of the right
resources–food, clothing, blankets, medical supplies–to the people who most need them.
Eko Teguh Paripurno, Kappala Indonesia, Indonesia
http://www.ashoka.org/fellow/2683
Eko Paripurno is arming Indonesian citizens with the knowledge, confidence, and skill they need to foresee the
effects of natural disasters, take control of disaster response, and rebuild their lives after disaster strikes. Working
with communities endangered by volcanoes, floods, forest fires, earthquakes, and other natural disasters, Eko
Paripurno is finding new ways for citizens and government to anticipate and respond to nature's sometimes violent
mood swings. The Indonesian government's response to disaster is often criticized but, until Eko, no one was
helping the people plan, prepare, and change the way they understand disasters. Eko has developed a system for
early warning, rapid response, rehabilitation, reconstruction, and prevention that shifts the balance of responsibility
and authority in crises more towards communities. Eko is also changing local government perspectives by
advocating for sound planning in development, construction, and natural resource use–all of which can lessen the
damage wrought by unforeseen natural catastrophes. While academics have discussed the importance of better
resource management by local government, there has been little attempt at reforming.
Agriculture and Forestry:
Adalberto Verissimo
http://www.imazon.org.br/novo2008/index.php?
Adalberto has been convinced, since the mid 1980s, that, in order to save the Amazon, there must be a sensible
and sustainable plan to develop it. Through a combination of applied research and win-win negotiations with
groups who wouldn‘t talk with each other, Adalberto has led programs that have five million hectares of
sustainable forests in operation, 25 million hectares of the Amazons formally protected via a first ever 2006 Law of
National Forest Preserves, and a satellite monitoring system of the Amazon which he has transformed into an
Amazon Health Index, similar to a stock exchange Dow Jones index so that trends in the health of the Amazon can
be tracked every couple of days.
Willie Smits, Masarang Foundation, Indonesia
http://www.masarang.or.id
Smits, the world‘s most prominent protector of orangutans, has undertaken one of the most ambitious
reforestation experiments to date – rebuilding a 5,000 acre rainforest in Samboja Lestari, Borneo that had been
turned into a biological desert through deforestation. After developing a gene bank, he and his team of 100 local
workers planted over 1000 different trees species to build up a healthy new forest. Along the forest edges, he
planted rows of sugar palms, a ―magic tree‖ due to its fire and flood resistant properties, ability to be tapped for
biofuel, and role as a ―natural fence‖ dividing the farmers‘ crops from the orangutans‘ food supply. Covering
approximately 5,000 acres in Borneo, this healthy man-made rainforest – a first of its kind – is now home to
hundreds of rehabilitated orangutans, the forest‘s original keystone species, and other native species. The forest,
which provides significant economic incentives for the local community, is now home to hundreds of rehabilitated
orangutans and serves as an innovative model for restoring forest habitats worldwide. He is currently working with
both Google and Greenpeace as strategic partners to create a system that can monitor the world‘s natural
resources and increase transparency.
Silverius Oscar Unggul, JAUH, Indonesia
http://www.ashoka.org/fellow/3868, www.telapak.org
With Indonesia‘s rainforests in danger of disappearing within the next five to ten years due to rampant illegal
logging and land conversion, Silverius Oscar Unggul, known as ―Onte‖, is capitalizing on the growing demand for
green business among international consumers of forest products to enable villagers to manage, benefit from and
protect their natural resources. Onte formed JAUH (Jaringan Untuk Hutan, Network or Community of the
Forest) in 2003 with the explicit purpose of supporting the creation of cooperatives that would compete with
Indonesia‘s large timber companies by harvesting and selling environmentally-friendly timber. Onte‘s successful
model of sustainable community-based logging allows villagers to take ownership of local resources and manage
eco-friendly teak plantations that yield up to four times more income while simultaneously protecting Indonesia‘s
old growth forests from over-use. Demonstrating his innovative and replicable community forest management
model, the community cooperative in the South Konawe District in Indonesia has become the first community
cooperative in Southeast Asia to receive an eco-label certificate and enter the international timber market.
Rajeev Khedkar, Academy of Development Science, India
http://www.ashoka.org/fellow/2594
Rajeev Khedkar is restoring the diversity of plant species cultivated in India by teaching farmers how to use, modify
and preserve traditional species of rice. The reintroduction of traditional rice species will help farmers confront
their problems of soil infertility, plant diseases and pests, and climate change. Rajeev Khedkar is promoting the
preservation and cultivation of India's indigenous plant species as a more sustainable and appropriate system of
agricultural and ecological management. Through the reintroduction of a variety of indigenous rice species, he is
demonstrating their effectiveness as a crop. By creating a string of interconnected local gene banks, he is providing
for the widespread use of his strategy, while ensuring its sustainability by gaining grassroots support through public
education and placing control of these resources within the community. In addition, he is creating a network of
trained individuals to help farmers and agricultural organizations utilize and maintain the "living" gene banks across
the widest possible area.
Badara Jobe, Njawara Agricultural Training Centre (NATC), The Gambia
http://www.ashoka.org/bjobe, http://natcfarm.blogspot.com/
Badara Jobe has developed a grassroots, farmer-to-farmer approach to sustainable agriculture that builds capacity
and self-reliance to confront the climate changes characteristic of the Gambia and surrounding countries in West
Africa. To achieve sustainable farming, Badara has developed an approach that cultivates and strengthens farmers‘
abilities to produce successful crop yields despite climate changes. His core insight is that fluctuations in an already
short rainy season introduce a new and complicating set of variables for farmers. Areas of focus include the
integration of crop cultivation, animal husbandry, planting of cover for forage, and shade crop cultivation. Farmers
are also trained to counter to the emergence of pests that respond to these and other changes in the balance of
the local ecosystem. His approach, which encourages farmers to use innovative farming techniques as well as to be
creative problem-solvers, is being replicated in four areas on either side of the Gambia River.
Osmond Mugweni, The Njeremoto Enterprises, Zimbabwe
http://www.ashoka.org/fellow/2482
Working in arid and semiarid regions of Zimbabwe, Osmond Mugweni encourages livestock farmers to adopt a
collective land management system to improve productivity and halt desertification. Imported during the colonial
era, the livestock practices used for decades in Zimbabwe have destroyed land, decreased productivity of livestock
farmers, and accelerated desertification, which threatens not only Zimbabwe but many parts of the African
continent. To steer livestock farmers toward a solution that offers immediate and long-term benefits, Osmond has
developed a land management system that combines components of traditional knowledge and farming practices
with modern agricultural techniques. He trains farmers to herd collectively, allowing them to maximize their
holdings. His approach prevents overgrazing–and the irreversible soil erosion it precipitates–by carefully regulating
grazing to allow pastures to recover fully between grazing cycles. Osmond has shown that this approach yields
useful environmental, economic, and social benefits. It ensures long-term sustainability of arid and semiarid regions,
brings together farmers in a collective endeavor from which they earn more money, and restores the farmers'
connection to each other and to the land. Osmond is working through universities in the U.K. and elsewhere to
share his methodology more broadly with academics and development workers.
Muthu Velayutham, India
http://www.ashoka.org/node/3636
Muthu Velayutham realized that the key to revitalizing the farm economy in Tamil Nadu, India was to link rural
producers to rural consumers, not urban ones. He organizes federations of dry-land farmer groups into companies
that compete in large regional markets. This network of small business ventures is supported by community banks
that make the loans they need to grow and prosper. His organization, the Covenant Centre for Development, set
up Gram Mooligai Company Limited, a cooperative that raises, processes, and sells local medicinal plant products.
Muthu also set up Aharam, the region‘s first community health-food company, which produces and markets
nutritious traditional foods. Muthu has also founded groups to support these community ventures, such as his
Community Enterprise Forum, India. The Forum brings together 160 community organizations across the country.
Muthu encourages direct trade among them and helps members set up herbal products enterprises, artisan training
centers, and biomass power plants.
Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu, The Smallholders Foundation, Nigeria
http://www.ashoka.org/innaemeka
Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu is improving the incomes of smallholder farmers through a people‘s owned community
radio system that disseminates local knowledge on best practices in agriculture. Nnaemeka has developed a
sustainable community owned and managed radio through which farmers can share knowledge with each other.
While community radio has flourished throughout the West African sub-region, Nigeria has not yet been able to
leverage the potential here and propel development. Until now. Nnaemeka‘s new radio program engages listeners
and tackles an important problem: Agricultural productivity has steadily declined in the decades since the discovery
and exploitation of major oil reserves. Targeting smallholder farmers, Nnaemeka empowers them by giving them a
voice and ownership in the project, validating their indigenous knowledge, and providing fast access to markets and
thus eliminating middle men. Nnaemeka also disseminates important environmental information, highlighting the
importance of protecting nature and its close link to agricultural productivity. He does all this through rural
farmers‘ listening clubs. Clubs gather around the radio, listen to Nnaemeka‘s programs and record their
discussions, later airing these for other listeners. They also leave questions for experts using voice mail when
necessary. In order to ensure sustainability the community radios charge a small fee for community
announcements such births and obituaries, and use solar power to reduce operational costs and dependence on
the unreliable national power grid. The radio is directed and managed by a board comprised of the community
stakeholders.
Ecosystem and Wildlife:
Al Harris, Blue Ventures, Madagascar
http://www.ashoka.org/aharris, blueventures.org
Alasdair Harris (‗Al‘) has pioneered an effective bottom-up approach to marine and coastal conservation. Through
working with coastal communities and local governments, and drawing on international resources, Al set up a
model of conservation for community members to actively implement, manage and monitor conservation
strategies. His organization, Blue Ventures, acts as a catalyst for local conservation by piloting efforts that have
immediate economic and environmental benefit, and then handing off ownership to local leaders and fishermen. Al
launched the world‘s first community-run Marine Protected Area for octopus in 2004, which resulted in a
significant increase in octopus fishing yields and mean size, increasing earnings of fishers. Within a year, the
government of Madagascar used the project as a model to create seasonal octopus fishing bans across the
country. Al‘s model of community-run marine reserves has been successfully replicated across the southwest
coast of Madagascar and is starting to spread internationally.
Orri Vigfusson, The North Atlantic Salmon Fund, Iceland
http://www.ashoka.org/fellow/2985, http://www.nasfworldwide.com/
Angler-turned-conservation activist, Orri Vigfüsson leads the multi-national effort to conserve and restore the
North Atlantic wild salmon. Through strategic salmon ―buyouts‖ and sustainable economic alternatives for
fishermen, Orri and the other members of his North Atlantic Salmon Fund (NASF) have successfully brought a halt
to large-scale commercial fishing in every North Atlantic country but Ireland. By protecting salmon offshore
where they mature while migrating along foreign coastlines, NASF ensures salmon will survive to return to the
local rivers to spawn. Thanks in large part to Orri and his coalition‘s efforts, over the past four years Iceland,
Scotland, England, and Canada, among other North Atlantic countries, have reported significant increases in the
local stock of wild salmon, potentially reversing several decades of decline. NASF estimates that such
environmental agreements with commercial fisheries, coupled with economic incentives and reinforced by
legislation, have successfully saved four to five million salmon.
Daniel Alberto Vartanian Alarcon, INRECOSMAR, Costa Rica
http://www.ashoka.org/fellow/3008
With the participation and cooperation of both business and individual community members, Daniel Vartanián
creates artificial marine reefs out of used tires. This effort at once reduces a serious solid waste threat and
increases marine stock, providing an important source of income for declining coastal villages. In his pilot project
on the Nicoya Gulf, Daniel worked with a group of twenty fishermen to create an artificial reef that only six
months later looked to generate four tons of fish per year. All members of the community were involved in the
process. Local businesspeople donated transportation and materials. Fishermen provided the cords used to tie the
tires together and transported them to the site. The success of the project brought national press coverage,
government support, and further alliances. Hotels on the Gulf are now interested in working with Daniel's group
to develop scuba tours and fishing tournaments. An additional component of Daniel's program seeks to find
alternative uses for those tires he is unable to use in building the reefs. This will reduce even more the number of
used tires contaminating the environment, and at the same time bring in funds to sustain reef construction. This
aspect of the project will convert tires to rubber scrap and sell it for environmentally-safe, economicallyproductive use in construction and paving materials.
Rezaul Haq, Wetland Resource Development Society, Bangladesh
http://www.ashoka.org/fellow/3524
Rezaul Haq, a biologist and environmentalist in Bangladesh, is creating a new public perception of wetlands as a
resource and teaching the inhabitants of such areas how to revitalize their local economy and preserve their fragile
land.
Water Resources:
Andy Lipkis, TreePeople, USA
http://www.ashoka.org/alipkis, www.treepeople.org
Andy Lipkis, founder and President of TreePeople, is spearheading the design and implementation of innovative
urban watershed management in Los Angeles. He is retrofitting urban infrastructure to mimic the way natural
forests handle storm water, preventing waste and pollution. Through powerful demonstrations of effective
watershed management, Andy and his team have won the support of communities, government agencies and
engineering firms. After witnessing Andy‘s demonstration sites, government agencies have changed their
approaches—even names—and have adapted Andy‘s proposal to solve chronic flooding in L.A.‘s Sun Valley district.
In addition to catalyzing successful designs and intensive community engagement, Andy has successfully enabled
multiple government agencies to adopt integrated and cross-agency solutions to pressing environmental challenges.
Pioneering an effective, sustainable model to retrofit the LA region to become more water and climate resilient,
Andy‘s smart green infrastructure will adapt the city to prevent flooding and water pollution, reduce imported
water requirements by half, conserve energy used for cooling, and create green jobs.
Marta Echavarria, Ecuador
http://www.ashoka.org/fellow/3942
As the cleanliness and abundance of the world‘s water is threatened by agriculture, urban development, and weak
public regulations, Marta discovered a new solution for sustainable watershed management. She has established
water markets which assign price tags to the environmental benefits of healthy watersheds, enabling all actors –
farmers, environmentalists, water companies, electric companies, and governments – to better understand the
value of water. Marta‘s multi-tiered strategy forges ―uncomfortable alliances‖ between public and private groups,
establishes private funds for watershed management initiatives, and coordinates watershed conservation plans
between upstream and downstream users. Piloted in Colombia, Marta‘s model continues to spread and have
success in communities throughout Latin America.
Wilson Passeto, Agua e Cidade, Brazil
http://www.ashoka.org/fellow/4302, http://www.aguaecidade.org.br/
Wilson Passeto is empowering ordinary citizens to take steps to combat urban water scarcity, by providing them
with a series of incentives and technical innovations to reduce their water consumption. He offers training and
support to a growing cohort of ―water agents,‖ who then help to change the habits and behavior of their friends
and colleagues, fostering a major culture shift across Brazil. Wilson begins by training what he calls ―water agents‖:
Employees and community members equipped with the knowledge and tools to combat water wastage in their
homes and offices. These agents then teach what they‘ve learned, along with the practical how-to strategies for
reducing consumption, to their families and communities. He provides each newly empower water agent–and the
institution that supports them–with technological tools, consulting services, and a supportive community. Each
organization–be it private, public, or government-related–is then offered a platform for sharing best practices, and
an incentive scheme to reward the most innovative water management projects. Encouraging people to change
their behavior, however, requires that they have access to the basic infrastructure and appropriate technologies
needed to do so. To this end, Wilson is helping to design and market technological innovations aimed at improving
efficiency and reducing waste. In partnership with one of the world's biggest water distributors, he helped to
institute individual water measurement systems in commercial and residential buildings. To date, he has helped
train more than 1,600 teachers and instituted new water-related teaching materials in more than 220 schools
throughout a number of Brazil's major cities. He is currently adapting his training program to tailor directly to the
needs of particular urban industries, and is launching a pilot program Costa Rica.
Eugen Toth, Water of Prešov for People, Slovakia
http://www.ashoka.org/node/4444
Eugen Tóth is bringing groundbreaking solutions to the challenges of microclimate change in urban areas, while also
changing citizen‘s attitudes about the importance of rainwater. Since most people live in cities, Eugen‘s solution has
strength in its simplicity—holding and circulating water where it falls to impact a wide area. Using campaigns,
negotiation, education, and discussion, he is creating new possibilities for water conservation. Eugen had developed
a way to overcome climate change within the city of Prešov while also changing peoples‘ attitudes about the value
of rainwater. His work is crucial because it does not focus on rainwater harvesting like others, but on holding
water where it falls and then circulating it in the same area. In this way he treats rainwater not as a commodity but
as a resource that can be owned by the public; a source of social cohesion and economic prosperity. Eugen‘s
approach relies on a model of local environmental management that recognizes the important interconnections
between the environment and the city. For Eugen to successfully change perceptions about rainwater as a resource
there must be a political commitment to funding and permission to plan. He has invested in lobbying and
communications with municipal representatives and has increased public awareness with educational activities and
an information campaign. This enables him to separate his activities and apply various architectural, technical, and
biotechnical approaches to meet his objectives, without limiting the freedoms of people living in urban areas. For
Eugen, this means not only developing a new water management system, but circulating water so that it protects
urban areas from external environmental influences.
Bindeshwar Pathak, Sulabh International, India
http://www.ashoka.org/fellow/5407, sulabhinternational.org
Over a span of four decades Bindeshwar Pathak has advanced his vision for a safe, just, and dignified India through
the introduction of dramatically improved sanitation systems supported by municipal and user fees. His project,
Sulabh International, is improving India‘s sanitation, eroding the caste system, and transitioning the ―untouchable‖
caste to safer, more dignified jobs. His solution draws together design, financing, and public will; municipal
resources; and, technologies that are basic and low-cost: The pour-flush compost toilet (Sulabh-Shauchalayas), is
outfitted with biogas converters to generate energy and reduce toxins and practices that damage the environment,
such as dumping waste into rivers. By introducing a scalable, self-financing solution for sanitation, Bindeshwar
eliminates scavenging—the practice of removing human waste with manual tools—a role that falls to India‘s
untouchable class. Thus, the system he has introduced has built new roles for India‘s poorest citizens and charted a
new, safe and dignified way for them to earn money. To further scale his efforts, and share insights, Bindeshwar is
building a University of Sanitation that will be a central resource center for everyone who needs to know about
sanitation—users, technologists, municipal leaders, renewable energy experts, and rights workers—to learn, share
ideas, expand and deepen the work, and develop new ideas.
Ako Amadi, Community Conservation and Development Initiatives, Nigeria
http://www.ashoka.org/fellow/2332
Ako Amadi is addressing the perennial problem of acute water shortages during the dry season in Nigeria by
developing a cost effective and simple rainwater harvesting system for use in poor rural and semi-urban
communities. Ako's idea begins with the conviction, borne of extensive experience and education, that an adequate
water supply is fundamental to any country's development. Without water there can be no successful and
sustainable social, economic, or environmental initiatives. Available water, then, should be the greatest priority of
all development efforts. Ako is convinced that the acute water shortages which plague poor communities during
Nigeria's dry season are unnecessary. Through an organization he founded, Ako is revolutionizing the rural water
supply system by harvesting water during the wet season for use during the dry season. His water collection and
storage tank system, which includes the use of water hyacinths and lilies for microfiltration, ensures water supplies
adequate for both domestic use and economic development. The idea behind the system is simple and requires
only basic technology. Most of the required labor is provided directly by the community, thereby making Ako's
program an inexpensive yet highly effective community water supply system. This idea is new because it is the first
time rainwater has been harvested on a large scale anywhere in Nigeria. In typical rainwater harvesting, families use
buckets and pans to collect water, and the supply is exhausted even before the rains are over. There is no
adequate system by which local people can collectively store rainwater over a long period of time. Most
significantly, in the process of helping communities secure water, Ako is addressing an array of critical social,
economic, and environmental issues. With minor alterations, Ako's water-harvesting system can also benefit the
more arid northern regions of Nigeria, as well as other places where lack of adequate water causes severe
obstacles to the health and well-being of local people.
Energy:
Tri Mumpuni, People Centered Economic & Business Institute (IBEKA), Indonesia
http://www.ashoka.org/fellow/3870
Tri Mumpuni is tackling the challenges of rural electrification and economic development by creating communityowned micro-hydropower (MHP) systems throughout Indonesia. She designed and successfully lobbied for a
revolutionary off-grid/on-grid connection system that allows small-scale community producers to sell their
generated power back to the larger state-owned power company. The technology that Tri (better known as Puni)
focuses on for rural electrification is turbine crossflow for micro-hydro. Together with her team, Tri is developing
a new turbine called the E-BK 100 (Energi Bangsaku 100 kW, ―Energy for our Nation‖). The E-BK 100 turbine is
particularly suitable for rural Indonesian communities due to its easy-to-maintain design and the ability to
manufacture it cheaply and locally. In addition to encouraging innovation in the field of local, alternative energy, Tri
has been able to connect the community-based off-grid system to the PLN state-owned and subsidized electricity
company grid. This link is crucial because the communities are now able to sell their power supply to the PLN and
gain revenue from the deal. Communities which previously had no access to land, capital, employment or
education are now receiving a gross monthly income of approximately RP 31 million (US$3,300). By giving these
communities equity in the operations and training them to manage the micro hydropower systems technically and
financially, Tri‘s model provides employment opportunities for individuals, opportunities for local economic growth
and a sustainable source of income and electricity for years to come.
Mathias Craig, Blue Energy, Nicaragua
http://www.ashoka.org/mcraig, www.blueenergygroup.org
Mathias has developed a community-based clean energy model dependent on local manufacture and maintenance
of a specially designed hybrid solar/wind turbine along the impoverished Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. He is
implementing this model, which emphasizes long-term accompaniment of rural communities, through his citizen
sector organization blueEnergy Group. Various national and international organizations have already sought out
blueEnergy for support in their own electrification initiatives. In the next five years, Mathias plans to bring the
blueEnergy model to eight locations throughout Nicaragua in addition to other areas in Central America and West
Africa.
Lalith Seneviratne, Sri Lanka
http://www.ashoka.org/fellow/3660
Approximately 60 percent of rural households in Sri Lanka still do not have grid-connected electricity, leading to
deteriorating social and economic status, poor health and education opportunities, and hampered agricultural and
industrial productivity. Lalith Seneviratne has created low cost, high yield biomass-based generators to produce
electricity for rural Sri Lanka. Families living outside of major cities in Sri Lanka have no realistic hopes of grid
based electricity: hydroelectricity is inefficient due to the unpredictability of monsoon rains, and imported fuel is
prohibitively expensive. Lalith designed an electric generator that runs on the biomass of the woody gliricidia,
well-suited to the dry rural conditions; each generator is capable of powering 60 households. The biomass
generators are easy to construct and maintain. With projected larger biomass power facilities, these same rural
farmers will be able to produce excess fuel and energy, a new steady source of revenue. Lalith‘s socially,
environmentally, and economically sustainable biomass-based generators will stimulate economic development in
rural Sri Lanka. Moreover, the plant‘s leaves can be used as naturally effective fertilizers, replacing expensive and
harmful synthetic fertilizers currently used, resulting in improved agricultural productivity and increased revenue.
Harish Hande, SELCO, India
http://www.ashoka.org/hhande, www.selco-india.com
Harish Hande is uplifting underserved populations by selling, servicing, and financing clean energy that improves
their quality of life. The ingenuity of Harish‘s approach came from questioning three assumptions, namely, that the
poor cannot afford clean and sustainable energy; they cannot maintain such systems; and, an organization cannot
operate a commercial venture while trying to meet social objectives. Harish‘s Solar Electric Light Company
(SELCO) has proven the poor can afford and benefit from modern and clean energy services. Today, over 95,000
solar systems have been installed by SELCO with over 400,000 people directly benefitting and tens of thousands
more indirectly benefitting. SELCO has provided sustainable energy services to the underserved and keeps costs to
a minimum by focusing on the specific lighting needs of its clients as opposed to the common practice of catering
to the general electricity demands of a population. Additionally, through door-step service, SELCO demonstrates
that maintenance is not an issue. The families and individuals purchasing solar services receive routine check-ups
and care for the equipment. The company works with the natural forces of the market and though 75 percent of
its client‘s earn less than US$4 a day, SELCO generates enough revenue to break-even. As SELCO offers unique
products and services to deliver electricity to the poor, its financing methods are equally important. Since an
energy service to an underserved household can represent several months of income, the provision of affordable
and accessible credit is essential. By partnering with credit cooperatives, commercial and regional rural banks,
SELCO helps customers obtain the necessary credit to purchase solar lighting and heating systems. Intrinsic to
SELCO‘s mission is Harish‘s belief that global climate disruption must be addressed. Greening rich nations will not
solve the problem and according to Harish, ―The planet will be destroyed by the billions of people in the
developing world who will be forced to use non-optimal forms of energy to meet their absolute basic needs.‖
Ursula Sladek, Elektrizitätswerke Schönau, Germany
http://www.ashoka.org/usladek, http://www.ews-schoenau.de/
Confronted with the danger of nuclear power when her children were threatened by fallout from the Chernobyl
disaster, Ursula Sladek started a citizen organization to work towards a nuclear-free future in Germany. When she
realized that the oligopolistic utility companies were unwilling to eliminate nuclear power or offer energy-saving
incentives, she decided to take matters into her own hands and began a citizen movement to disrupt utility
monopolies and deliver decentralized renewable energy. It took Ursula years of protesting and lobbying, two local
referenda and a nation-wide campaign to mobilize the public support and resources necessary to take over the
local grid from the existing utility monopoly. Today, Ursula manages the first community-based utility company
providing renewable energy throughout Germany, demonstrating the effectiveness and replicability of a
decentralized, renewable power supply.
Johannes Hengstenberg, co2online gGmbH, Germany
www.co2online.de, http://www.ashoka.org/fellow/4327
Johannes Hengstenberg is making the debate about climate change relevant to and tangible for every citizen in
every household. Johannes believes that climate change is not an issue only for scientists and governments to
confront, but rather a question of sound communication and access to information among people living in
communities – large and small – around the world. As a result, Johannes developed a hands-on online tool that
shows people how easy it is to track their energy consumption and take action to reduce it. The incentive for
most clients, Johannes has found, is not first and foremost to save the environment. He has realized success first
by showing how clients how easy it can be to save money upgrading home appliances, modernizing water boilers,
updating heating systems and using sustainable building materials while also saving the environment. Through his
online advisor platform, CO2online, Johannes‘ users are rapidly changing their energy consumption. Through his
network of 700 partner organizations including media companies, businesses, producers and municipalities,
Johannes has already mobilized more than one million Germany citizens to save an average of 700,000 tons of
CO2 each year on average.
Joseph Adelegan, Global Network for Environment and Economic Development Research, Nigeria
http://www.ashoka.org/fellow/4366
Dr. Joseph Adelegan is pioneering a new model of waste management that treats slaughterhouse effluent at the
source and converts harmful greenhouse gases into clean energy through social enterprise. In addition to
preventing animal waste from being dumped into the river and reducing most pollution related to waste, Joseph‘s
―Cows to Kilowatts‖ provides affordable biogas at a quarter of the price, improving household air quality and
supporting itself through sustainable revenue generation. Providing economic incentives for responsible waste
treatment, Joseph‘s approach leapfrogs the need for effective governmental regulations to improve the health and
living standards of millions of people. Joseph is now partnering with a wide range of public, private and grassroots
organizations to replicate his model in new regions and industries.
Rob Hopkins, Transition Towns, UK
http://www.ashoka.org/fellow/5679, www.transitiontowns.org
The Transition movement Rob Hopkins initiated provides solutions to the twin challenges of climate change and
reaching peak oil, the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction. He is accomplishing this goal by helping
communities build a resilient, re-localized alternative to our current perilous trajectory. A Transition Initiative is a
community working together to assess what it needs to achieve sustainability, as well as what it can do to
drastically reduce carbon emissions and mitigate the economic and environmental repercussions of reaching the
peak in available oil supply. This bottom-up, citizen-led process has propelled over 1,000 communities and tens of
thousands of people to effect positive environmental change on the local level. Already, their combined efforts are
resulting in policy changes as local governments join the movement as Transition Authorities. Further, as more
people continue to take part, more demand-side pressure is being placed on environmental technology providers
to deliver solutions that reduce carbon emissions while building alternatives to fragile oil supply chains, creating
more practical options for citizens and communities. Locally, as more Transition activity develops, communities
become more resilient to the negative effects of the onset of peak oil. On a broader level, as the Transition
Network develops, it becomes more robust with each new member, able to offer a greater range of solutions and
opportunities for action. Through his continued efforts, Rob has integrated two separate problems into a single
historic opportunity to call entire communities to action.
Additional Examples:
Karl-Henrik Robert
www.naturalstep.org
In launching the Natural Step, former Swedish cancer researcher Karl-Henrik Robert has built both a scientific
framework and global institutional platform that brings together disparate strands of environmentalism (scientific,
social, economic, etc.) to assist institutions, from companies to governments, to create and implement concrete
sustainability strategies. Karl-Henrik has successfully nurtured a global environmental movement that engages a
coalition of universities, companies, industrial groups, municipalities and larger government entities to pioneer new
ways in which humans can interact sustainably with their environment. Early in the Natural Step, Karl-Henrik and
his colleagues developed four sustainability objectives as a common language for how to adopt sustainable practices
and guide local decisions. The four objectives have become the building blocks for decision making among
governments and corporations and industrial groups alike. To date they have been adopted by over 70 cities and
towns in Sweden (over twenty-five percent of all municipalities), several in the United States and Canada, and by
national planning associations, international companies, and full industries who have examined and overhauled their
processes.
Jose Roberto Silva, Instituto Eco Engenho de Tecnologia Aplicada ao Desenvolvimento Sustentável, Brazil
http://www.ashoka.org/fellow/4297, http://www.ecoengenho.org.br/
Through the Eco-Engenho Institute, José Roberto questions the widespread assumption of fighting against drought,
and bases his work on a new paradigm where it is possible for small rural communities to draw on the potential of
semi-arid regions for their socioeconomic development. He has created a model for remote rural zones in the
northeast of Brazil which utilizes renewable energies and technologies appropriate for cultivating products of high
aggregate value in this climate. He is also developing mechanisms for access to a fair market in which there is
solidarity; guaranteeing income for these communities. With the project H2Sol, José Roberto makes use of the
abundant solar energy to amplify access to water and develop irrigation micro-systems which permit agricultural
production without wasting water. This technological process is customized to each producer. With the vision that
it is necessary to produce in order to generate income and not only subsistence, José Roberto stimulates
production valued in the market and through Articulation of Solidarity Trade (AmercSol) supports the entire
productive process and commercialization. To guarantee sustainability, José Roberto encourages both community
associative activities, to share expenses and experience, and the creation of social micro-companies by each
producer that receive tax exemption (producer and buyer), thus increasing their competitiveness in the consumer
market. This transforms the mentality of these communities, accustomed to assistance programs, demonstrating
that it is possible to construct a dignified and productive life on rural semi-arid regions.
Ishita Khanna, Spitiecosphere, India
http://www.spitiecosphere.com/index.htm
Ishita Khanna is building a green economy in the remote villages of India‘s high Himalayas. In response to the
region‘s growing environmental degradation and threatened cultural preservation, Ishita has developed a collection
of new income-generating and ecotourism opportunities designed to improve environmental management and
promote the pursuit of more sustainable livelihoods. These efforts have merged the region‘s most marginalized
communities with the market-based economy and created an incentive to conserve the region‘s dwindling
resources. The local community thus retains primary ownership over their natural resource base, further reducing
their dependency on government subsidies and hand-outs.
Ashok Khosla, Development Alternatives Group
http://www.ashoka.org/fellow/5896, www.devalt.org
Ashok Khosla‘s Development Alternatives Group innovates sophisticated technology, creates delivery mechanisms
for widespread scale and equips local entrepreneurs in India to manage small enterprises. Ashok has pioneered a
commercially viable model to integrate social development, economic development and environmental
preservation in the citizen sector. Development Alternatives today is one of the premier development institutions
in the developing world. They have conceived, manufactured, and introduced more than 15 new commercially
viable and environmentally sound technologies to the Indian market that have transformed productivity and
income in rural populations. Ashok employs a franchise model to deliver these technologies, further accelerating
the pace of wide-scale spread and adoption.
William Foote, Root Capital, USA
http://www.ashoka.org/fellow/4334, http://www.rootcapital.org/
Willy Foote is redefining risk assessment in a radical new way to bring capital and financial education to poor rural
communities and bring their products to a growing ethically-sourced and green world market. The vast majority of
the world‘s rural poor do not have access to either the finance or supply chains that would allow them to build
sustainable livelihoods and lift themselves out of poverty. A mechanism to directly address rural poverty is
emerging through the rapidly growing global demand for ethically-sourced and environmentally sustainable goods.
However, a chronic lack of access to capital stops supply from meeting this demand, preventing both sides of the
supply chain from unlocking the potential of this new market to address the issue of rural poverty. Willy has
transformed lending to the rural poor by making loans based on producers‘ future sales rather than their existing
assets, redefining risk assessment in a way that places value on emerging ethical supply chain relationships. This
provides a framework that allows for previously unbankable people to become bankable and is proving the
business case that rural communities are viable, profitable investment opportunities for mainstream financial
institutions.
Yuyun Ismawati, Bali FOKUS, Indonesia
http://www.ashoka.org/y_ismawati, http://www.balifokus.org/
For the past 35 years no city authority in Indonesia has properly managed, or successfully provided, public waste
management and sanitation services. Yuyun Ismawati has developed a model of community-based solid waste
management in Bali to address these improper practices and halt the expanding environmental degradation. Yuyun
works with garbage collectors in large hotels as well as community housewives, encouraging them to sort,
separate, and appropriately transport solid waste. Organic waste which can be used to feed livestock or compost
is salvaged, while the remainder of the waste is properly disposed of in local landfills.