In the poorest developing countries, indoor air pollution from burning solid fuels is the largest cause of disease and death after malnutrition, unsafe sex, and lack of safe water and adequate sanitation. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that indoor air pollution causes 1.5 million deaths annually in developing countries due to pneumonia, chronic respiratory disease, and lung cancer. This situation is particularly prevalent in Mali and Ghana, where the overwhelming majority of households cook with charcoal and fuelwood. In addition to health effects, cooking with these fuels causes deforestation and releases large quantities of greenhouse gases.
E+Co’s model leverages the private sector and market forces to promote clean energy sources that address these issues. E+Co has invested in Toyola Energy Limited in Ghana and Katene Kadji in Mali, two companies that manufacture and sell efficient household cookstoves that burn about 40% less charcoal than their inefficient counterparts. These stoves mitigate indoor air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and curb deforestation. In addition to traditional financing, E+Co is helping Toyola and Katene to develop and sell carbon offsets from the stoves. The offsets will be sold to a major investment bank to offset their climate change impact as part of their corporate social responsibility efforts, while the funds generated from the sale of offsets will subsidize the cost of stoves to end users and to grow these businesses.
The intern should address how Toyola and Katene can completely saturate the efficient stove markets in Ghana and Mali. As is consistent with E+Co’s mission, this will require an analysis of private sector industry growth potential. More specifically, E+Co hopes to leverage Toyola’s and Katene’s organizational strengths and anticipated carbon revenues to quadruple sales over the coming year. Students will be asked to identify barriers to industry growth and propose solutions to overcome those barriers. This could include, but should not be limited to investigations around mechanization, broadened distribution channels, marketing, industry growth bottlenecks, pricing sensitivity analyses, etc.
The final deliverables and recommendations should be similar to those of a management consulting engagement. In addition to a written report outlining the recommendations, students should present recommendations directly to the managers of Toyola in Ghana and Katene in Mali at the conclusion of their fieldwork. Prior management consulting experience is highly desirable and written and oral fluency in French is required (all communication in Mali will be in French). The internship will include fieldwork in Mali and Ghana during the 2009 summer break.
If our partner companies in Ghana and Mali are convinced of its value, the final product will be implemented in those two nations to help expand access to fuel efficient cookstoves nationwide.
E+Co is a non-profit company that couples business training with affordable investment capital to establish and grow sustainable energy companies in the developing world.
Number of Interns Needed: Two (work as a team to assess two companies in Mali and Ghana)
Languages: French and English a must
Compensation: This is an unpaid internship.
Please send letter of interest and resume to: Erik Wurster, Carbon Finance Manager, erik(dot)wurster(at)eandco(dot)net
Deadline: April 30, 2009
E+Co
383 Franklin Street
Bloomfield, NJ, 07003 USA
Tel: +1.973.680.9100
Fax: +1.973.680.8066
Email: EandCo.USA AT EandCo Dot Net
