‘Be the change’ is not an empty phrase, even in these volatile geopolitical times. ‘For 25 years, the Ashden Awards have championed climate solutions that improve lives and build a fairer and safer future,’ remarked Ashden CEO Ashok Sinha at the prestigious Ashden Awards ceremony in June.   

What this means in practice is supporting challenging projects, often in very difficult and remote locations, to introduce clean energy, more sustainable buildings and transport, along with decarbonisation of schools and health facilities, while also protecting natural environments.  

It’s a wide agenda, broadly matched to UN Sustainable Development Goals. And it is no coincidence to find that significant health improvement goes hand-in-hand with imaginative micro-finance initiatives and technological innovation, as well as upskilling of individuals and rural communities, and improvement of gender balance with support of women in particular, in the face of very challenging circumstances.   

These are genuinely life-enhancing projects, working in collaboration with health and educational institutions, governments and non-governmental organisations, to provide renewable sources of power and life-saving equipment in the developing world.   

‘These inspiring organisations offer bold, practical visions that can unite people across political and cultural divides.’ – Dr Ashok Sinha, CEO, Ashden

UK winners 

In the UK, Ashden winners like RePowering London, Cotality, Emergent Energy and Advanced Infrastructure facilitate the retrofit of buildings or provide cheaper clean energy which is dramatically reducing fuel costs, as well as improving living conditions.  

Since the awards were launched over two decades ago, high impact programmes like the Powering Clean Energy Investment programme in Africa and the Energy Learning Network in the UK ‘have helped unlock policy and finance shifts for them and their peers with significant social and economic benefits that reflect local priorities’, said Sinha. With passion and a unique ability to deliver real world change, ‘these inspiring organisations offer bold, practical visions that can unite people across political and cultural divides’, he remarked.    

These stories are ‘powerful’ from all perspectives, with a focus on using clean, sustainable energy, often with tried and tested solutions that have scaled up significantly, changing people’s lives, attracting investors and policymakers to speed the growth of truly inclusive climate action.  

Food for thought 

Take the example of Ashden Award winner BURN Manufacturing, located in Kenya but now operating Africa-wide, bringing in the latest electric induction cookstoves and aiming to protect the health of 28 million people by replacing traditional wood-burning stoves that cause harmful air pollution and kill more than 460,000 people a year, according to Nature Sustainability.  

Since launching BURN in 2011, founder Peter Scott has led the company from offering an award-winning basic clean stove to selling over five million units, including low-emission induction stoves, manufactured in three countries with 3,500 employees (50% women). BURN is now said to be the largest vertically-integrated modern cookstove manufacturer, distributor and low-carbon project developer in Sub-Saharan Africa. It lowers fuel costs for families by 40–60% with an innovative pay-as-you-cook app and carbon finance initiative, while saving 14.7mn tonnes of wood.  

‘Our mission is to reduce customer costs, curb deforestation caused by traditional fuel use and help 600 million people with electricity access to transition to zero-emission electric cooking,’ says Scott.   

Solar success 

Over the last three decades, two-time Ashden Award winner SELCO has sold over half a million solar lamps and cookstoves, energising rural micro-businesses across India, bringing benefits to more than eight million people. Women in poverty, in particular, have been encouraged to become entrepreneurs and run small local businesses using and promoting clean energy. Today SELCO has offices in seven Indian states as well as activities in Africa and South East Asia.  

The organisation has also collaborated with four state governments to deliver solar energy at health facilities, for safer births and operations, better vaccine storage and other improvements to healthcare for more than six million people.  

CEO Mohan Bhaskar Hegde says: ‘We are focused on community development and solar technology expansion, funding projects that empower the rural poor. With a turnover of £10mn a year, the company has established a sustainable social enterprise, both socially and financially, which is transforming the energy access ecosystem in India, and could help scale climate-resilient livelihoods throughout the Global South.’ 

Climate smart villages 

Elsewhere, Sosai Renewable Energies has been transforming the lives of women and their communities in Northern Nigeria. Founded in 2010 by Habiba Ali, initially in response to the serious health impacts of cooking with indoor wood fires, Sosai has now deployed renewable energy solutions to over two million Nigerians in rural communities – including solar home systems, mini-grids and other solar production applications.  

Its flagship ‘Climate Smart Village’ model provides clean energy access, training and financial support to rural communities in Nigeria and is now expanding to urban settings. Sosai partners with national and international agencies, and its inclusive, locally rooted approach is now shaping national electrification efforts, bringing clean energy to local medical facilities, improving access to healthcare and saving lives. 

 ‘This is truly a women’s empowerment story and rural clean energy success that has gone national,’ enthuses founder Ali. As Country Chairperson of African Women in Energy and Power, she says: ‘Working in the renewable energy industry in Nigeria since 2005, I am focused on the implementation of energy efficiency practices and advocating for gender inclusion in the Nigerian energy sector.’   

Transforming e-waste to solar 

Global South award finalist Quadloop Technologies, located in Yaba, a suburb of Lagos, Nigeria, claims to be breaking barriers through the conversion of electronic waste into solar products, such as second-life batteries, which are designed and manufactured in Africa.  

As a social enterprise, Quadloop is developing affordable solar lanterns and home systems with a low environmental impact. The entire operation is based on sourcing 70% of its material from electronic waste (e-waste), based on the principles of a circular economy, which close the loop on battery production. 

Products include the ìdùnnú solar lamp, which is produced from 2.5 kg of e-waste that would otherwise go to landfill, and avoids the use of kerosene or other dirty fuels.  

In a similar vein, Ashden award finalist Kenya-based d.light is producing affordable solar lanterns and home systems that could also impact millions of people, empowering communities and offsetting millions of tonnes of CO₂. The company offers a suite of solar energy products, home systems, solar inverters and appliances to meet the needs of off-grid communities, which it says: ‘Provide clean energy that fosters education, improves health and drives economic opportunity – aiming to transform one billion lives.’ Since finance is also a concern in poor rural communities, d.light offers flexible financing options like its ‘Pay As You Go’ service.  

Rural electrification 

Togo, West Africa-based AT2ER provides a government programme for rural electrification and renewable energy. As recently as 2017, only 40% of the Togolese population had access to electricity, with rural areas often as low as 8%, with many disadvantaged households using candles, battery torches and kerosene lamps for lighting.  

To meet this challenge, government body the Togolese Electrification and Renewable Energy Agency (AT2ER) was tasked with ensuring that all of Togo had access to electricity. By offering a combination of electricity grid expansion, rural mini-grids and solar homes, AT2ER managed to overcome some of the regional and access challenges faced by the rural population.  

Realising that disadvantaged rural households were struggling to afford solar systems, AT2ER commissioned two surveys to explore the reasons behind lack of take-up, and recognised that a subsidy was needed to support the poorest households. In 2019, it launched the Cizo Project, which offers a subsidy to households to access clean energy through their own solar system, with payments made through mobile banking technology. In partnership with five distributed energy service companies, the Cizo Project is now being rolled out across the country, having trained 3,000 local people to be energy technicians and another 3,000 as mobile banking agents.  

Togo aims to have 100% access to energy for its eight million citizens by 2030. The project is deliberately aimed at the rural population, addressing the development inequality between the urban and rural areas. ‘The project mechanism promotes inclusion, so as to leave no one behind,’ says this Ashden Award finalist.  

Cooling it 

Across the Atlantic, in South America, after years of enduring high crime and violence, Medellín in Colombia faces a new threat – rising urban temperatures driven by climate change. In response, people have been planting vegetation to create a better environment.  

The Medellín mayor’s office won an Ashden Award for ‘The Green Corridors’ project which covers 18 roads, including Avenue Oriental, one of the city’s main roads, and 12 waterways, providing shade for cyclists and pedestrians, cooling built-up areas and reducing air pollution along busy roads. The city’s botanical garden trains people from disadvantaged backgrounds to become city gardeners. Some 8,300 trees and 350,000 shrubs have been planted. The results speak for themselves: temperatures have fallen by 2–3°C, with bigger reductions expected in the future.  

‘The programme came from the need to connect people to nature – recovering spaces that were occupied by concrete,’ says Sergio Orozoco, Secretary of Environment for Alcaldía de Medellín.  

• Further reading: ‘How to bring energy to underserved communities’. A fundamental part of the energy transition should involve its justness: ensuring no one is left behind as the world shifts to renewable sources of energy. Nick Imudia, CEO at d.light, discusses how expanding energy access and decarbonisation are aligned, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.  
• Find out how Nigeria is pushing for a switch to clean cooking, despite energy market challenges.