promoting sustainable practices

[Guest]

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[Laurel]

While shopping for loan recipients I was struck by the need to assist with global efforts for sustainable practices. Organic, or more accurately non-GMO, sourced foods is a critical issue at stake. Alternative energy sources and hybrid transportation will keep needy folks from having their chances and their health ruined.  Is there a way we can begin to encourage such efforts?

[Marley]

Laurel, when I was looking at some of the businesses wanting loans, I too was concerned about their impacts. There are sellers of wood and charcoal, both likely to be environmentally damaging practices. I looked at some of the photos where cattle were desired and wondered about the arid landscapes and the impact of more grazing cattle. I've followed (and supported) the work of Heifer, International. Part of what they do in many areas is teach confining the stock and bringing cut forage to feed them in order to protect vulnerable landscapes. I sent an email to Kiva to say I had these concerns and wondered if they addressed sustainability issues. I got a nice reply saying that it was up to the lenders to decide what they felt comfortable supporting.
So, I guess this comes down to marketplace forces. The MFIs are looking for small busineses that they think make sense in the context of the needs of thier locale. And Kiva's lender pages are another marketplace of a sort. So long as enough individuals are willing to subsidize a loan, it's made.
I know this isn't quite the point you were making, but it's perhaps a paralell issue.

[AGullen]

One characteristic of growth is that as nations become richer, they are able to spend their money and resources in ways that are more environmentally sustainable. That means that for the moment being these poor individuals in developing nations just do what they can to prosper, and when they reach a certain point they begin investing in ways that are sustainable for growth. This is illustrated by the Kuznets Curve, which implies "that many environmental health indicators, such as water and air pollution, show the inverted U-shape: in the beginning of economic development, little weight is given to environmental concerns, raising pollution along with industrialization. After a threshold, when basic physical needs are met, interest in a clean environment rises, reversing the trend. Now society has the funds, as well as willingness to spend to reduce pollution" (Wikipedia.com, April 18, 2007).

So I would say that these non-environmentally sustainable endeavors are inevitable unless richer nations step in and mold behaviors. You could think of it like this: Since you are helping the economies of these poor countries (even in non-environmentally friendly ways) you are speeding up the process for them to become environmental do gooders. Its all in how you look at it

[Fred]

I've seen many loan requests from Africa, to fund the production of palm oil. Knowing it's not healthy, I wonder about the wisdom of supporting this. However, at this point they seem to really need this oil.

I have a friend at work who is from Accra, Ghana. He told me charcoal is used for cooking, because gas is so expensive. It's hard for me to believe, but if I understood him correctly, the majority of people in the capital city of Accra, use charcoal. However, he's hard to communicate with, since he doesn't spreak English very well.

[Pondering Pig]

People do what they gotta do to survive.  But with so many borrowers looking for a loan, I think we can choose businesses we are sympathetic with, and be sure the others will ultimately be funded too.  For me - and this is not about a sustainable practice - my sticking point was when I saw the photo of a nice lady in West Africa surrounded by stacks of Pepsi-Cola.  She wanted to expand her soft drink business. !  Help!  Not even home grown soft drinks, but Pepsi-Cola!  Support more obesity, diabetes and tooth rot in Africa!  I don't know - God bless her and her family and her entrepreneurial spirit, but I just couldn't go there.

[Ramón]

@Fred... I have some neighbors here in the affluent suburbs of Boston that used the wood pallet stoves all winter long, which (they argue) is cheaper than oil or gas heat.

In many rural areas in the developing world, charcoal is the fuel of choice for cooking. It probably adds less to global warming than our SUVs and it won't need a huge logging industry either.

And... we should look into Palm Oil as a replacement fuel for diesel or home heating oil! If it were only that cheap to produce...

[Pondering Pig]

According to the UN, "Africa's tiny share of man-made greenhouse gases, put at just 2-3 per cent of the estimated 6 mn metric tonnes emitted globally as of 1990, makes the continent one of the "cleanest" parts of the world."  So I guess Ramon is right - it takes a whole lot of charcoal fires to equal, for example,  the output of one American city's SUVs on one morning commute.

[Fred]

I've seen many loan requests from Africa, to fund the production of palm oil. Knowing it's not healthy, I wonder about the wisdom of supporting this. However, at this point they seem to really need this oil.

I have a friend at work who is from Accra, Ghana. He told me charcoal is used for cooking, because gas is so expensive. It's hard for me to believe, but if I understood him correctly, the majority of people in the capital city of Accra, use charcoal. However, he's hard to communicate with, since he doesn't spreak English very well.

@ramon & Pondering Pig

LOL about the Palm Oil!

I talked to my friend from Ghana today, and he told me only about 20% of the people in Accra use charcoal for cooking. The rest use propane. The 20% are the very poor, or people who are afraid of propane. However, the use of charcoal is very common in villages, as is the use of raw wood, cut from trees by people on their own land.

He also said Pepsi and Coke are very expensive and people don't drink them on a daily basis, at least not in Ghana. They both are considered a treat. Sometimes they are also served at weddings and other special occasions.

[Johan]

I am watching every TV documentary I can about environment and new technology/energy, so I have recently seen a couple of very interesting things:
India is the largest growing market for wind and solar energy right now.
Remote rural villages in south asia are installing factories that use fermented cow dung to convert into cheap gas that is then used in cooking stoves.
The mobile phones are spreading fast throughout third world countries, and the need for installing old-fashioned telephone lines is disappearing.
Simple home kits with a small solar panel and a small wind turbine can be distributed (with or without subsidies) and make families/villages self-sufficient with electric energy to recharge batteries for all appliances.

Our fast development of new technologies will hopefully help to make most people in the developing world skip past a couple of the stupid steps that were very dirty and un-friendly to the earth, (for instance the coal based industrialisation of western europe from 1850 up until now) and perhaps evolve much faster into a more environmentally safe life.
I hope that most Chinese and Indian families will not feel the need to buy 2-3 cars and SUV's that are run on fossil fuels.
Maybe we are able to create free collective transport networks, run entirely with free green electricity?
And I also hope the production of palm oil will not grow any further...

[abc]

Here's a loan that seems to fit this thread.



In Villanueva municipality, located in the city of Chinandega lives Santiago Álvarez. He works very hard to better his living conditions.

Santiago and his family have endured a lack of electricity in their home for a long time because they live in a very remote area. For this reason, Santiago bought a solar panel that allows them to have power in their home. Now Santiago has come to Ceprodel requesting a loan to pay for the solar panel and in this manner continue to make improvements in his home and support his family.


http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=54677

Mr. Santiago Alvarez Lindo of Chinandega, Nicaragua:

Check out the photo -- you can see the battery and the wires that must go to the solar panel.