Innovation

The company founded by Geoffrey manufactures briquettes from agricultural waste, such as palm kernel husks, rice husks and coffee husks, to obtain a cheap and efficient alternative fuel. These briquettes have high calorific value and can seamlessly replace the traditional household fuels, such as charcoal and firewood (the current fuel used in most parts of the country). The company has been able to develop two versions of briquettes, carbonized and non-carbonized. Additionally, to minimize the carbon footprint as much as possible, solar power is used as a renewable energy source during the production of briquettes.

Geoffrey, also with this mission, aims to improve the lives of fellow citizens and generate income for farmers, thus, creating an atypical and innovative business model. Although the company is producing the final products and selling them in the market, the first step of using raw waste creates a first phase of work-in-progress material. This initial step has been outsourced to farmers by renting them required equipment in a postpaid module. Through this model, the company pays farmers to use their own waste, which also generates additional income for them. The company further envisions to improve farmers’ lives by teaching them how to produce the end products by themselves using cheap and easily workable methodologies.

Inspiration

There were three main inspirations for Geoffrey and Silvanus:

1. The national statistics of Uganda stated that 90% of the energy consumption in Uganda is through biofuels, primarily firewood or charcoal (production estimated at 0.85 metric tons per year).

2. Witnessing the speedy deforestation in the country.
Geoffrey and company believe that the dependency on firewood as fuel is not sustainable in the long term. In this regard, Geoffrey said: “We started seeing the trees disappearing, because a number of secondary schools were increasing, a number of bakeries were increasing… lot of pressure was put on forests and the trees… so, in 2016, we thought of doing something. Me, together with my friend, we started thinking, what are the alternate energy we can provide, so that is when we started in a small way by acquiring some manual machines for making briquettes.”

3. Geoffrey and Silvanus saw abundant usable spare rice husks and palm kernels in Uganda due to their large-scale production.

Thus, Geoffrey started researching on available technologies and methods to use these wastes for fuel production, and by numerous iterations and learning Geoffrey was able to build simple and effective methods and mechanisms to produce highly efficient briquettes.

Overall impact

There have been several impacts of this business and these are highlighted below:

• Geoffrey has been able to create an alternative source of energy. With his initiative, many parts of rural Uganda use firewood as fuel for cooking and other activities. The briquettes manufactured have several benefits such as zero emissions and are cheap.

• This shift of fuel has also prevented the cutting down of trees. With the currently available statistics, there have been about 130,000 trees saved to date and this shows the environmental friendliness of the initiative.

• There is an abundance of unused husks and palm kernel waste, which are being creatively utilized for the production of briquettes.

• The farmers are generating additional income through waste products like rice husks.

Business benefit

With their distinguishing business model and standing on their for-profit ambitions, it is very interesting to note the business benefits reaped by Green Charcoal. The company is truly embarking on the triple bottom line of sustainability – People, Planet and Profit.

Starting from 250 tons of production and $67,000 revenues in 2016, Green Charcoal has reached the scale of 1,500 tons of production and $255,000 revenues. The profit margin has been a steady 25% figure and they are aiming to hit the target of $1 million in revenue by 2022, aided by the strong demand for biofuels in urban Uganda and thus the company has the “first-mover advantage”. The company is currently chalking out plans to build franchises around the country, in order to boost the usage of this sustainable alternative energy source.

Social and environmental benefit

SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy – The developed carbonized briquettes burn in a smokeless manner and thus form a clean source of energy. The company is promoting carbonless briquettes as an affordable and efficient source of fuel for households and institutional needs.

SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth – Geoffrey aims to improve the lives of farmers and has been able to provide economic benefits to almost all the employed farmers (men and women) through additional value generation. He said “this used to be the work of man, but now youth and women can also participate”.

SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities – With the utilization of spare rice husks and palm kernels, the Company has impacted the environment with proper waste management of these materials. Also, the local materials are being utilized and, in this respect, the Company has schools and hotels as its clients, and it promotes the clean and sustainable energy to help build sustainable communities.

SDG 13: Climate Action – The business itself has been built on acting to save the climate and has been able to save around 130,000 trees since inception and is further growing. The long-term implications of saving trees would prevent climate-related hazards.

Interview

Geoffrey Okoth Yoga, CEO / Founder