Meet Eco-Inclusive Enterprises

Innovating business models for socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable products and services.

Enterprise Brief: Appropriate Energy-saving Technologies Ltd.

Published: 05 September 2014
The enterprise sells and distributes biomass charcoal briquettes and cook stoves in Teso region, Uganda. Formed to help address local deforestation and environmental degradation, the staff put emphasis on partnering with local groups to provide the region with clean, sustainable cooking fuel. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Wana Energy Solutions

Published: 05 September 2014
Bringing gas nearer to people, undertaken by WANA Energy Solutions, markets and sells LPG. The company focuses on finding financial solutions for those who struggle to afford clean energy - offering hire-purchases, creating pay-as-you-go community kitchens and allowing rural customers to pay for gas with produce. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: BUWOBE

Published: 05 September 2014
BUWOBE is a co-operative beekeeping enterprise producing honey and beeswax products. In mobilising women in the Masindi region to become beekeepers, the enterprise uses the honey business as a vehicle for community development, including promotion of sustainable land use and climate change adaptation. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Green Bio Energy

Published: 05 September 2014
Green Bio Energy (GBE) offers low-income Ugandan families cost-saving, safe and environmentally-friendly energy solutions including energy-efficient cookstoves and eco-friendly charcoal briquettes. The enterprise’s Briketi Charcoal Briquettes and Eco Stoves replace inefficient products that contribute to deforestation. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Green Heat (U) Ltd

Published: 05 September 2014
Green Heat offers an alternative to conventional waste management and environmentally destructive use of charcoal and firewood for home cooking and heating. Household and agricultural waste is funnelled through biogas digesters producing a low-cost, safe and reliable source of energy. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: KadAfrica: Girls Agro Investment (GAIN) Project

Published: 05 September 2014
The Girls Agro-Investment (GAIN) Project trains rural school-aged girls to manage and run small-holder agricultural businesses in passion fruit farming. Empowering the girls to pass on their knowledge to their communities, the project offers an economic alternative to rural exodus. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Kataara Women’s Poverty Alleviation Group

Published: 05 September 2014
Kataara Women’s Poverty Alleviation Group runs an innovative small-scale enterprise selling handicrafts made from elephant dung paper, and energy-efficient cookstoves. The enterprise aims to not only alleviate regional poverty but also to conserve its environment for future generations. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: KingFire Briquettes

Published: 05 September 2014
KingFire is an urban recycling initiative using organic material otherwise considered waste to create briquettes. Sourced from local materials, the briquettes offer an alternative energy source to firewood or charcoal and provide quality, affordable, sustainable fuel for heating and cooking. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Southwestern Women Bean Growers and Marketing Cooperative Union

Published: 05 September 2014
The enterprise works to rally together the existing smallholder sugar bean women farmers in South Western Uganda. Women joining the co-operative marketing union are empowered to increase production, value addition and sales through training, social support, and wide market access. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: The Mobile Solar Computer Classroom

Published: 05 September 2014
Mobile Solar Computer Classroom is helping to bridge the digital divide in Uganda by making computer skills accessible, affordable and relevant to rural schools and community libraries in Uganda. The enterprise uses solar-powered computers to bring its technology to its trainees Read more
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Enterprise Brief: The Sustainable Mushroom Farming Initiative

Published: 05 September 2014
Oyster mushrooms are often illegally harvested in Kanungu’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, threatening the local gorilla colony as people disturb their habitat. The enterprise provides an alternative commercial source of mushrooms, creating a new local industry and conserving the gorilla’s native habitat. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Elegance Company Ltd.

Published: 05 September 2014
Together with local farmers, Elegance Company Ltd. has developed a zero-waste and closed-loop agricultural system that increases agricultural yields substantially. A demonstration farm in the area serves to showcase the system and to provide consultancy to farmers interested in adopting it. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Precious Life Foundation’s Outgrower Project

Published: 05 September 2014
Vulnerable women living at Precious Life Foundation’s farm centre are taught bio-intensive agricultural techniques like sack potato production in order to become self-sufficient. The women then provide training, support, and resources to their community to increase yields and thereby food security. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: JITA Social Business Bangladesh Ltd.

Published: 31 August 2014
JITA generates income opportunities for poor women through an innovative and commercially viable rural distribution network while providing product access for communities. Initially run as a financially sustainable CARE Bangladesh project, JITA now is a reincorporated social enterprise empowering around 8,000 women. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Diseclar

Published: 31 August 2014
Diseclar has developed a method to create furniture made from recycled plastic and agro-industrial waste including sugar cane pulp, coffee and rice chaff. Customers benefit from long-lasting products, while the local community benefits from job creation and positive environmental impacts. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Fundación Huellas Verdes

Published: 31 August 2014
Fundación Huellas Verdes offers enterprises and institutions a means to offset their carbon emissions by planting vetiver, a grass storing carbon in its roots. When introduced to areas with slopes at risk of landslides, vetiver protects neighbouring communities by preventing erosion. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Proplanet

Published: 31 August 2014
Proplanet transforms materials that are hard-to-recycle, such as long-life Tetra Pak and plastified paper, into paper fibre, sustainable construction materials, and urban furniture, thereby reducing pressure on landfills. Through biodegradable food packaging with FSC certification, it helps to substitute plastics. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Asrat and Helawi Engineering Partnership

Published: 31 August 2014
The enterprise manufactures clean cookstoves for homes, businesses and institutions such as prisons and universities. The products – which reduce indoor air pollution and fuel costs – are sold mainly by a network of independent urban retailers. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Frontier Markets

Published: 31 August 2014
Frontier Markets (FM) is a sales and service distribution company that provides access to affordable clean energy products. By creating service and repair centres, focusing on education and following an end-to-end supply chain, FM improves energy access in rural India for low-income families. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Last Forest Enterprises

Published: 31 August 2014
Last Forest provides a marketing platform for 68 kinds of organic and forest-based products and spreads the message of fair trade principles, sustainable harvesting, biodiversity and value-added indigenous products. Incubated by the Keystone Foundation, the enterprise also provides business development services. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Switch ON- ONergy

Published: 31 August 2014
The enterprise overcomes the obstacle of last-mile distribution of solar energy products by providing solar energy solutions to rural communities using a full-service distribution infrastructure. Through partner collaboration, the enterprise trains rural entrepreneurs, funds innovative development projects and provides after-sales services to customers. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Electricity4all

Published: 31 August 2014
Electricity4All provides solar battery kits that can power households and small-to-medium businesses, independent from the grid, by using renewable solar energy. By implementing a network of solar energy kiosks, Electricity4All improves access to affordable and sustainable electricity in rural communities Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Energy Unlimited

Published: 31 August 2014
Powered By Nature (PbN) provides affordable clean energy devices for households by importing and locally sourcing products, training entrepreneurs and sub-distributors in marketing them, and retailing through its own stores. Through its activities, the enterprise reduces energy poverty in Malawi. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Honey Products Industries

Published: 31 August 2014
Honey Products Industries creates an agribusiness value chain out of high-quality honey. The honey is sourced from independent smallholder beekeepers, packaged and processed in factory hubs and distributed across the country via a franchise model. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Kumudzi Kuwale

Published: 31 August 2014
Kumudzi Kuwale Ltd. supplies sustainable energy independent from the national power grid. Rural communities thus gain access to energy through solar devices and systems installed by the enterprise, by renting battery packs or by purchasing solar products and efficient cookstoves. Read more
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