Cities Turning to Bicycles to Cut Costs, Pollution, and Crime - by Gary Gardner http://www.worldwatch.org/alerts/pr980826.html For safer streets, less congestion, and cleaner air, the bicycle is poised to become an integral part of urban transportation systems for the 21st century, says the Worldwatch Institute in a new report. Too often relegated to weekend jaunts and children's use, bicycles are emerging as a solution to some of today's most intractable urban problems. Contact Information: Gary Gardner, Senior Researcher WorldWatch Institute Telephone: 202.452.1992 x.521   Email: garygardner@worldwatch.org worldwatch@worldwatch.org Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting - by Jo Smet and Patrick Moriarty http://www.irc.nl/pdf.php?file=pprainwater.pdf Notable Feature(s): Useful directory of contact addresses for those involved in community water management around the world - Appendix 2. Contact Information: International Water and Sanitation Centre (DGIS) of the Netherlands P.O. Box 2869 2601 CW Delft The Netherlands Telephone: +31-15-219 29 39   Fax: +31-15-219 09 55 The treadle pump - An irrigation technology adapted to the needs of small farmers - by Ed Perry http://www.hrwallingford.co.uk/projects/IPTRID/grid/g8tread.htm The treadle pump has significant advantages over motorized pumps for irrigation of agricultural land of less than one hectare. The treadle pump is considerably less expensive than motorized pumps. Under typical market conditions, the treadle pump is about 25 percent of the retail price of motorized pumps of comparable flow rate capacity. The treadle pump costs much less to operate, having no fuel and only limited repair and maintenance costs. The treadle pump is much less tiring than other manual pumps that utilize the upper body and relatively weak arm muscles. In addition, the treadle pump is fabricated entirely from materials typically available locally and can be manufactured using welding equipment and simple hand tools. By reducing irrigation time from almost 12 person-hours per day to slightly more than 4 person-hours per day, while simultaneously enabling the typical market gardener to increase garden size by 40%, the treadle pump has had a remarked impact on the profitability of more than 1,400 agricultural enterprises in Senegal. Bright Lights, Small Villages: Why helping Africa get solar power is good for America. - by Nicholas Thompson and Ricardo Bayon http://www.newamerica.net/print.cfm?pg=article&pubID=1053&Prt=Yes In many developing nations, state-owned or -run utilities are corrupt and unreliable. In Ghana, for example, the one-third of the population that does have access suffers through periodic blackouts, energy spikes, and capricious policies such as a recent 60 percent increase in electricity taxes. The country largely relies upon a single giant dam. When rainfall is low, electricity is low. When a 1998 drought inflicted rolling blackouts, students at the country's top university clustered underneath solar-powered street lamps just off campus to study for their exams. The December 2002 article in The Washington Monthly includes many examples and analysis of the economics of solar development compared with burning fossil fuels to generate electricity. In Morocco, for instance, "more than half of the people who live off-grid already spend close to $100 dollars a year" on such fuels, notes Vikram Widge, a renewable-energy expert at the International Finance Corporation, the private-sector arm of the World Bank. "Meanwhile, a solar home system of 50 watts--enough to run two or three light bulbs, an electrical outlet, a TV, and maybe a fan--costs about $550 but has an estimated lifetime of 20 years." Also, in Timber Nkwanta, another Ghanaian village experimenting with solar energy, villagers already pay about 20 percent of their income for kerosene and batteries, not to mention the countless hours spent carrying firewood on their heads from increasingly remote forests. In a recent study, the International Energy Agency found that this figure compares to as little as 2 percent of household income paid for energy in countries like the United Kingdom. In the long term, solar is a cheaper option, and it's healthier, too. The World Health Organization estimates that 2.5 million people die prematurely each year in the developing world from inhaling biomass burnt indoors--deaths that could be averted in many cases through the use of cleaner energy sources. Clothes clean drinking water: Filtering with an old sari cuts cholera cases by half. - by Kendall Powell http://www.nature.com/nsu/030113/030113-2.html Filtering drinking water from rivers and ponds through a folded piece of cotton cloth could cut disease by half in cholera-plagued countries, a new field study suggests... Anwar Huq, an environmental microbiologist at the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute in Baltimore, explains how the group decided on sari cloth: "Being Bangladeshi, I had seen people using old sari cloth to filter insects out of a sugar drink made in the home." In lab tests the researchers found that old, cheap sari cloth makes a better filter than new, expensive cloth. The threads become smushy and loose, as a result the pore size becomes even smaller," says Huq. "It really works, and it doesn't cost a penny for poor villagers to use." Filtration might help to fight other waterborne diseases, such as dysentery and salmonella, he suggests. Notable Feature(s): Additional information in these remarks by Dr. Rita R. Colwell, "A Global Thirst for Safe Water: The Case of Cholera." Contact Information: Email: colwell@umbi.umd.edu Energy-producing playground - by Sheila Kinkade http://www1.worldbank.org/devoutreach/document.asp?id=148#energy http://www.developmentmarketplace.org/safrica3journal.html Roundabout, an outdoor advertising company based in Johannesburg, develops and markets children's "Playpumps." These simple merry-go-rounds installed above wells harness the power of children at play to pump water to a holding tank accessible by community members. In alliance with the World Bank, local businesses, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF), and the NGO Love Life, Roundabout's efforts are aimed not only at providing safe water for rural communities and enhancing recreational opportunities for children, but fostering greater HIV/AIDS prevention awareness. With US$ 165,000 (EUR 185,000) funding from Development Marketplace (DM), Roundabout installed Playpumps in 40 villages throughout South Africa. HIV/AIDS prevention messages aimed especially at young women, who are frequently charged with collecting water for their households, are displayed on the water tanks. Contact Information: Trevor Field Roundabout Outdoor (Pty) Limited PO Box 449 Rivonia 2128, D.C. South Africa Telephone: 27 82 600 7240   Fax: 27 11 803 163 Email: roundabout@roundabout.co.za. Food Security Through Rainwater Catchment - an essay on water practices in India by Sudhirendar Sharma http://www.cpatsa.embrapa.br/doc/gender/6_10_Sudhirendar_Sharma.doc Water management is a complex social exercise. It is managed by individual farmers as well as by communities in irrigation schemes and watersheds. The advent of water bureaucracies brought decline of the social institutions which, for centuries, had designed, developed, managed and protected their water systems. Unless the social institutions are revived and the control of water systems handed over to them, the poor will continue to be at the receiving end of this water crisis.... Contrary to conventional developmental process driven by external aid and supported by new institutions, a social movement called Swadhaya (meaning self-study) has brought community-controlled and community-managed model of sustainable natural resource use to fore. Within less than 50 years since it was launched, the movement has focussed its attention on revitalising the dominant Vedic thought of indebtedness. Missing from the conventional development vocabulary, this thought has triggered community response to social crisis. Communities in the affected villages have embraced the thought in transforming their lives. Contact Information: Sudhirendar Sharma Email: sudhirendar@vsnl.net Hope's Edge: The New Diet for a Small Planet http://www.small-planet.org/ In her 1971 best-seller Diet for a Small Planet, Frances Moore Lappé sparked a revolution in the way Americans think about food and hunger, teaching millions the social and personal significance of a new way of eating. Now, thirty years later, Frances and her daughter Anna pick up where Diet for a Small Planet left off. Travelling to Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe, and the heart of our own country, they met trailblazers who are crashing through limiting belief systems--practical visionaries carrying us into the new century with honest hope: from poor villagers in Kenya turning back the encroaching desert to landless peasants in Brazil facing down big landowners to create vibrant communities; from village women in Bangladesh taking life's biggest risks to lift their families out of poverty to renegade farmers in Wisconsin, undeterred by widespread hardship, learning to thrive while caring for the land. The product of those travels is Hope's Edge: The New Diet for a Small Planet...a far-reaching vision for social and environmental transformation. Notable Feature(s): Chapter-by-chapter description and profiles from the book, along with links to the country-specific organizations and leaders profiled. Contact Information: Anna Lappé Email: alappe@hotmail.com Lifelong Learning for the Third Age by Laurence Wolff, Inter-American Bank http://www.techKnowLogia.org./welcome.asp This article provides perspective and example of the importance of lifelong learning for aging populations throughout the world. Such learning and training offers opportunities for the health and economic well-being of the elderly, the handicapped, the chronically ill, families and the community at large. Contact Information: Wadi D Haddad, Ph.D. Editor-in-Chief TechKnowLogia Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. P.O. Box 3027 Oakton, VA   22124 USA Fax: 703.242.2279 Email: TechKnowLogia@KnowledgeEnterprise.org Making Waves: Stories of Participatory Communication for Social Change http://www.rockfound.org/display.asp?context=1&Collection=1&DocID=420 http://www.rockfound.org/Documents/421/makingwaves.pdf This Rockefeller report (published in March 2001) on some of the most innovative experiments in participatory communication worldwide details many examples of community radio reaching marginalized people and villages. Through 50 case studies written by Alfonso Gumucio Dagron, Making Waves examines innovative communication for social change projects from African, Latin American and Asian regions. With useful information on the background and context of issues addressed, the report provides insightful analyses on aspects of social change, the medium and methods used as well as their constraints. With data organized by year, medium and country, the report is informative to academics and practitioners alike. Radio Sutatenza - Colombia Miners' Radio Stations - Bolivia Radio Huayacocotla - Mexico Radio Quillabamba - Peru CESPAC - Peru PRODERITH - Mexico Teatro Kerigma - Colombia Teatro La Fragua - Honduras Video SEWA - India Kayapo Video - Brazil TV Maxambomba - Brazil Radio Margaritas - Mexico Aarohan Street Theatre - Nepal CESPA - Mali Community Audio Towers - Philippines Kothmale Community Radio - Sri Lanka Teatro Trono - Bolivia Wan Smolbag - Vanuatu, Solomon Islands La Voz de la Comunidad - Guatemala Labor News Production - Korea Tambuli - Philippines Popular Theatre - Nigeria Radio Izcanal - El Salvador Soul City - South Africa Action Health - Nigeria EcoNews Africa - Regional, Africa Nalamdana - India Radio Zibonele - South Africa Televisión Serrana - Cuba Bush Radio - South Africa Community Media Network - Kenya Radio Chaguarurco - Ecuador Radio Gune Yi - Senegal Radio Kwizera - Tanzania Púlsar - Regional, Latin America Moutse Community Radio - South Africa Radio Sagarmatha - Nepal Chiapas Media Project - Mexico Gasaleka & Mamelodi Telecentres - South Africa Grameen Village Phone - Bangladesh Kiritimati Radio - Republic of Kiribati Maneno Mengi - Tanzania Nutzij - Guatemala Radio Mampita & Magneva - Madagascar InfoDes - Peru The Lilac Tent - Bolivia Video & Community Dreams - Egypt Village Knowledge Centres - India Local Radio Network - Indonesia Nakaseke Telecentre - Uganda Notable Feature(s): PDF and Word versions of the report online. Contact Information: Brian Byrd The Rockefeller Foundation 420 Fifth Avenue New York, NY   10019 USA Telephone: 212.852.8412   Email: bbyrd@rockfound.org New Agriculturalist http://www.new-agri.co.uk/ http://www.wrenmedia.co.uk/ This initiative of WRENmedia is a mine of useful information about projects and research around the world addressing agricultural and rural development issues. The appropriate technology approach yields practical advice on seed selection, aquaculture, livestock handling, pesticides, fruit trees, fish catches, agricultural science policy, and more. Notable Feature(s): Archive of back issues; country profiles; news briefs; featured books on revelant topics. Contact Information: Michael Pickstock, WRENmedia Email: m.pickstock@wrenmedia.co.uk Producing Essential Oils in West Africa - by Honoré Blao http://www.idrc.ca/reports/read_article_english.cfm?article_num=280 Solar Power Is Reaching Where Wires Can't - by David Lipschultz http://www.changemakers.net/library/temp/nyt090901.cfm This September 2001 article from The New York Times addresses solar energy's good prospects in the developing world. Solar power has become the energy of choice in many rural markets, in large part because the price has dropped considerably in the last few years. Prorating over roughly 10 years, the upfront cost of solar panels and accompanying batteries gives the energy a cost of roughly 18 cents a kilowatt-hour, competitive with any off-grid power. TechKnowLogia http://www.techknowlogia.org/ http://www.knowledgeenterprise.org/ TechKnowLogia is an international online journal that provides policy makers, educators, strategists, practitioners and technologists at the local, national and global levels with a strategic forum to: (1) Explore the vital role of different information technologies (print, audio, visual and digital) in the development of human and knowledge capital; (2) Share policies, strategies, experiences and tools in harnessing technologies for knowledge dissemination, effective learning, and efficient education services; (3) Review the latest systems and products of technologies of today, and peek into the world of tomorrow; (4) Exchange information about resources, knowledge networks and centers of expertise. Notable Feature(s): Large archive of articles on policy and research on use of technology in education, in the classroom, in training programs. Contact Information: Wadi D. Haddad, Ph.D. Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. P.O. Box 3027 Oakton, VA   22124 USA Fax: 703.242.2279 Email: TechKnowLogia@KnowledgeEnterprise.org The Promise of Principled Design: Reflections on the Hannover Principles - by Teresa Heinz http://www.mbdc.com/features/feature_apr2003.htm http://www.mbdc.com/ Teresa Heinz provides a firsthand look at "green" design's promise: I first became aware of William McDonough's work in 1984, when he redesigned the national headquarters of the Environmental Defense Fund. The redesign of the EDF office was a watershed event. Not only was it the first "green" office in New York City, it also laid the foundation for a new design philosophy: a commercially productive, socially beneficial and ecologically intelligent approach to the making of things that Bill and his colleague Michael Braungart would come to call eco-effectiveness. The approach underlies all the work of MBDC. MBDC is articulating and putting into practice a new design paradigm; what Time calls "a unified philosophy that—in demonstrable and practical ways—is changing the design of the world." Instead of designing cradle-to-grave products, dumped in landfills at the end of their 'life,' MBDC transforms industry by creating products for cradle-to-cradle cycles, whose materials are perpetually circulated in closed loops. Maintaining materials in closed loops maximizes material value without damaging ecosystems. Notable Feature(s): Eco-Effectiveness: Nature's Design Patterns. Contact Information: McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry, LLC 401 East Market St., Suite 201 Charlottesville, VA   22902 USA Telephone: 434.295.1111   Fax: 434.295.1500 Email: info@mbdc.com The Specter of Fuel-Based Lighting - A Dramatic Opportunity for Technology Leapfrogging in the Developing World - by Evan Mills and Stephen Johnson, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory http://eetd.lbl.gov/emills/PUBS/PDF/FBL_1-pager.pdf Contemporary questions of energy, environment, and equity converge in unusual and unexpected ways around a technology that seems to be of the past but is very much a part of the present: fuel-based lighting in the developing world. ... Emerging, 1-watt high efficiency lightemitting- diode (LED) technologies could significantly improve the quality and quantity of illumination, while reducing costs and emissions dramatically from present levels. A 1-watt LED cluster requires 95% less power than energy-efficient compact fluorescent lamps and can be run on approx. one square foot of solar photovoltaic panels or small pico-hydro systems. This represents an unprecedented opportunity for technology leapfrogging in developing countries, and would help condition world markets for the impending LED lighting revolution. Notable Feature(s): Additional context: "The $230-billion Global Lighting Energy Bill" from the Proceedings of the First European Conference on Energy-Efficient Lighting, International Association for Energy-Efficient Lighting, Stockholm. Contact Information: Email: emills@lbl.gov sgjohnson@lbl.gov The treadle pump - An irrigation technology adapted to the needs of small farmers - by Ed Perry http://www.hrwallingford.co.uk/projects/IPTRID/grid/g8tread.htm http://www.itdg.org/home.html As part of its programme on the Optimization of Components for Small-scale Irrigation, IPTRID is promoting the use of treadle pumps in West Africa as a means to increase small farmers' income at low cost. (In the same programme, it is also promoting the use of low cost technologies for wells.) Although the treadle pump was initially developed by International Development Enterprises in Bangladesh where about one million have been sold, Appropriate Technology International (ATI) and the World Lutherian Relief have been very successful in disseminating the use of treadle pumps to small farmers in West Africa. Contact Information: Email: enquiries@itdg.org.uk The Xtracycle Carries Its Weight - by Brandon D. Chase http://www.asme.org/mechanicaladvantage/November2000/xtracycle.html http://www.xtracycle.com/splash.html Through Xtracycle, a unique cargo-capable bicycle, and a startup company of the same name, Evans and a few dedicated business partners are peddling a means of transportation, which they envision as a viable solution to many of the world's transportation problems. Contact Information: Xtracycle LLC USA 14618 Tyler Foote Road Nevada City, CA   95959 USA Telephone: 530.292.1401   Fax: 419.735.1427 Email: infousa@xtracycle.com Whole Earth Magazine http://www.wholeearthmag.com/ http://www.wholeearthmag.com/ArticleBin/ReviewsNew.html Published by Point Foundation, Whole Earth is the successor to the Whole Earth Catalog, first published in 1968 by Stewart Brand. Originally titled Co-Evolution Quarterly, the magazine was first published in 1974. When it appeared, it stood apart from other publications for its fresh, pragmatic and principled editorial purpose. It furthered social change and heralded new movements by introducing ideas such as the gaia hypothesis, watershed consciousness, whole system thinking, appropriate technology, and voluntary simplicity to readers. It featured many of the catalog's facets: access to information, book and tool reviews, essays, interviews with, and articles by seminal thinkers of the day. Today's Whole Earth magazine continues its challenging editorial path by addressing virtually all of the subjects of interest to those committed to achieving environmentally sustainable (rural and urban) communities, occupations, and development. Contact Information: Whole Earth Magazine 1408 Mission Avenue San Rafael, CA   94901 USA Telephone: 415.256.2800   Email: info@wholeearthmag.com World Wind Generating Capacity Jumps 31 Percent in 2001 - by Lester R. Brown http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update5.htm From the Earth Policy Institute comes this latest report on wind energy. Since 1995, world wind-generating capacity has increased an astounding 487 percent, or nearly fivefold. During the same period, the use of coal, the principal alternative for generating electricity, declined by 9 percent. Notable Feature(s): Links to wind energy organizations and related resources. Contact Information: Email: epi@earth-policy.org A Directory of Solar, Wind, and Other Renewable Energy Resource Information Wind Power Set to Become World's Leading Energy Source - a June 2003 report by Lester R. Brown Open for Business: Entrepreneurs, Clean Energy and Sustainable Development Solar Energy Directory of Off Grid Markets Around the World Solar Development Group Selling Solar: Financing Household Solar Energy in the Developing World Soluz The Challenge of Rural Energy Poverty in Developing Countries Solar Electric Power Association News of Solar Power in Communities Renewable Energy Policy Project NAPS Systems CASE International Centre for Application of Solar Energy NREL Solar Household Energy, Inc. Drinking Water Supply using Solar Pumps in Uganda Solar Electric Light Fund: SELF Solar Electric Power System Nonprofit Organizations in the World American Solar Energy Society Rural Electrification with Solar Energy as a Climate Protection Strategy Solar Power is Reaching Where Wires Can't - By David Lipschultz Go Solar Mexico: A Pilot Project for Improving Access to Electricity in Off-Grid Rural Areas And Then There Was Light - Solar Energy Project in Vietnam B-REED Brazil Rural Energy Enterprise Development (similar programs in Africa and China) BP Solar - Rural Village Projects Asia Alternative Energy Program (ASTAE) http://www.worldbank.org/astae/ The Asia Alternative Energy Program (ASTAE) was established in 1992 to mainstream alternative energy (renewable energy and energy efficiency) in the World Bank's power sector lending operations in Asia. Since its inception, ASTAE has and continues to support a broad portfolio of alternative energy projects and activities throughout Asia. While lending operations are funded primarily by the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Notable Feature(s): Large collection of reports and papers on alternative energy resources, including passive solar energy, wind, and more; useful links to other organizations and initiatives. Contact Information: Mr. Mohammad Farhandi Asia Alternative Energy Program 1818 H Street, N.W. Washington, DC   20433 USA Telephone: 202.458.1405   Fax: 202.522.1648 Email: mfarhandi@worldbank.org Canopus Foundation http://www.canopusfund.org/index.html The mission of Canopus is to promote the implementation of sustainable development, a concept outlined in AGENDA 21, the final document of the EARTH SUMMIT in Rio de Janeiro, 1992. The enterprise's range of activities is exclusively international and its funding policy focuses on the following three thematic areas: Promotion and support of poverty reduction strategies, particularly through the use of sustainable and appropriate technologies; Sustainable energy use, particularly applications of renewable energies; Research and education on urban sustainable development, including the promotion of youth organisations, networks and projects related to sustainable development. Notable Feature(s): The Quiron Project on rural solar renewable energy; more information: Fabio Rosa, President IDEAAS Rua Leopoldo Fróes 23 – Floresta Porto Alegre, RS 90220-090 Brazil +55 51 3346 8166 e-mail - ideaas@plug-in.com.br Contact Information: Sandra Makinson Canopus Foundation Grünwälder Straße 10 - 14 79098 Freiburg Germany Telephone: +49 761 20 20 172   Email: makinson@canopusfund.org Center for Resource Solutions (CRS) http://www.resource-solutions.org/ http://www.resource-solutions.org/programs.htm The Center for Resource Solutions (CRS), based in San Francisco, is dedicated to promoting renewable energy and economic and environmental sustainability. CRS administers national and international programs that preserve and protect the environment through the design of sustainable energy strategies and technologies. Notable Feature(s): Green Pricing initiative; program of expert international assistance; details of other CRS programs in appropiate technology and renewable energy issues. Contact Information: Jan Hamrin, Executive Director Center for Resource Solutions Presidio Building 49 P.O. Box 29512 San Francisco, CA   94129 USA Telephone: 415.561.2100   Fax: 415.561.2105 Email: mlehman@resource-solutions.org Centre for Alternative Agricultural Media (CAAM) http://www.farmedia.org/ http://www.indiatogether.org/stories/caam.htm A novel venture in the field of agricultural communication has been initiated in Dharwad, Karnataka. The Centre for Alternative Agricultural Media (CAAM) was established to focus on farmer friendly communication system. The first of its kind in India, CAAM is the model of various alternative communication efforts, which are need-based, pro-farmer and involving farmers' participation, that have sprung up all around the world. The alternative agricultural media, which stresses the need for pro-farmer ideologies and practices in agricultural research and communication, is encouraging the farmers' self- respect and self-reliance. The CAAM mission has encouraged the 'farmers first' approach in the overall agricultural development process. Accordingly there is a 'paradigm shift' in extension system away from the terminology -'transfer of technology'- towards an interactive approach entirely subordinate to the needs of the farming community. Thus, along with this emerging phenomenon, agricultural communication process has also been altered radically. While presenting facts as established by research as well as in-situ findings, attention was given to need-based information, defined in farmers' own medium. With the farmers first approach, the focus was on to encourage farmers to learn, adopt and do better analysis not by outsiders' help - scientists, extensionists - but on their own. Notable Feature(s): Excellent collection of practical solutions and applications for agricultural and rural development needs; opportunities for writing about farm problems; valuable archive of past bulletins; cross-cutting global comparison of approaches, e.g., A Fukuoka There, A Cherkadi Here. Contact Information: Shivaram Pailoor, Director Centre for Alternative Agricultural Media (CAAM) Krishnalaya, 1st Main, 4th Cross Narayanapur Dharwad, Karnataka State   580 008 India Email: spailoor@satyam.net.in Design that Matters http://www.designthatmatters.org/ Design that Matters (DtM) is building a worldwide system that enables the citizen sector, university students, and businesses to jointly innovate for social change. DtM acts as bridge to bring problems identified by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and members of underserved communities into the classroom for university engineering and business students to tackle in their courses and research. DtM works with NGOs, corporate partners and local entrepreneurs to ensure that promising design innovations result in products and services for communities in need. Since its launch at MIT in 2001, DtM has worked with hundreds of university engineering and business students on four continents to develop dozens of prototypes that promise to improve thousands of lives. Design that Matters incorporated as an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit in June 2003. Design that Matters works within the educational system to engender enthusiasm and commitment to working with underserved communities among university students in engineering and business. Its strategy to achieve this is to capitalize on recent changes to the accreditation requirements for university engineering programs that directly impact 2,500 U.S. programs and influence programs around the world. These changes have created a strong need among faculty and students for real world problems to solve. They have also created an opportunity to engage thousands of young engineering and business students--a group with the skills and ability to make a difference, but who often have little exposure to the needs of underserved communities. Design that Matters fills this need with Design Challenge Portfolios containing a well-defined problem in areas like clean water, healthcare and renewable energy identified by citizen sector organizations and stakeholders. Notable Feature(s): Programs: DtM Design Challenge Portfolios are curriculum materials that DtM provides to faculty and students in industrialized and developing countries to use in their courses and research. It solicits its network of collaborators for well-defined problems in areas such areas as clean water, health care, and renewable energy. DtM then packages these problems into design challenge portfolios; Community leaders, NGOs, inventors or entrepreneurs are invited to suggest a new DtM design challenge. Contact: challenges@designthatmatters.org Contact Information: Timothy Prestero and Neil Cantor, Co-CEOs Design that Matters One Broadway, 14th Floor Cambridge, Massachusetts   02142 U.S.A. Telephone: 877.820.8479   Fax: 877.820.8479 Email: dtm-admin@designthatmatters.org Ecosage http://www.ecosage.org/ http://solarquest.com/schoolintro.htm EcoSage is a Vermont-based private educational services company, creating experience-based environmental education programs in America's schools, with a curriculum structured around students' relationships to people in their community. The program emphasizes solar energy education. The SolarQuest™ Virtual SchoolHouse is a system to communicate and maintain information about all aspects of solar energy technology and development. The information is created by school administrators, teachers and students around the world -- in order to share their experience in an open format with others who are committed to the Quest for Sustainability. Notable Feature(s): Solar SchoolHouse; Mobile Solar Education Stations; Solar Quest's iNetNews Service, a multi-media, project-based, experiential learning program for students. Serving as iNetNews Team correspondents, students with a demonstrated interest in sustainable development participate in and report on local, national, and international events. Contact Information: Allan E. Baer, President and Co-Founder EcoSage, Inc. P O Box 274 Chester, Vermont   05038 USA Telephone: 802.685.3450   Fax: 802.685.3450 Email: aeb@ecosage.com webmaster@inetnews.org EcoSystems - Energy and Transport Solutions in Nepal http://www.ecosystemsnepal.com/index.html EcoSystems was started in 1996 by Bay Area expatriates David and Haydi Sowerwine. The company works to improve the welfare of Nepal's rural people by offering transport and energy systems that are safe, efficient, inexpensive, and environmentally sound. To date, EcoSystems has successfully installed 21 WireBridges throughout Nepal, and is nearing completion of the WireRoad, an innovative transportation system that utilizes banana farm cableway technology to transport people and cargo. EcoSystems does not have a factory. The company prefers to subcontract fabricating work such as welding and galvanizing to local shops. The quality of the work is excellent, and EcoSystems supports small business whenever possible. Notable Feature(s): Design and construction details for the WireBridge; photos of sites throughout Nepal. Contact Information: Email: sowerwine@wlink.com.np Engineers Without Borders http://www.ewb-isf.org/ Engineers Without Borders is a growing registered charity dedicated to international development. Specifically, it seeks to have a significant impact on improving the quality of life in developing communities. It does so by focusing on the role of technology in fundamental areas: water, food availability, health, energy and communications. In short, EWB undertakes development-driven technical innovation and technical capacity building. Notable Feature(s): An article from the Globe on EWB, its origins and development; various information technology (IT) and other project descriptions, including this one for water: Water Desalination in the Aral Sea. Having been approached by doctors working on a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) team in the Aral Sea to examine water desalination, EWB will begin phase one of a project to bring potable water to residents. In 2003, there are plans to work with local partners to construct two water purification units for MSF hospitals, while simultaneously undertaking a capacity assessment to determine local manufacturing opportunities and partners for large scale rollout of a community potable water solution. Contact Information: Engineers Without Borders (Canada) 5650 Yonge Street, Suite 207 Toronto, ON M2M 4G3 Canada Telephone: 416-481-3696   Fax: 416-222-0166 Email: parker@ewb.ca FogQuest http://www.fogquest.org/ FogQuest is an innovative, international, non-governmental, nonprofit organization, that implements and promotes the environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable use of fog, rain and dew as sustainable water resources for people in arid regions of developing countries. Notable Feature(s): Valuable newsletter of fog collection projects and installations around the world. Contact Information: FogQuest P.O. Box 151 1054 Center Street Thornhill, Ontario L4J 8E5 Canada Telephone: 416.225.7794   Fax: 416.225.9801 Email: FogQuest@rogers.com Freeplay Foundation's Weza Microenterprise Pilot http://www.freeplayfoundation.org/ Driven by its core purpose: "To make energy available to everybody all of the time," Freeplay Energy Plc. seeks to maintain its leadership in creating and developing the market for self sufficient energy products internationally. Freeplay is accomplishing this through both the establishment of its own products in the market, and the formation of strategic alliances with partners that bring compatible technology and market leadership. The Freeplay Foundation won the World Bank's 2006 Global Development Marketplace prize with its Weza Microenterprise Energy Source Pilot for Rwanda. Objective: To establish a decentralized supply of dependable renewable energy services throughout Rwanda through a network of commercially viable Freeplay Weza micro-enterprises. Decentralized energy is the key to establishing immediate, sustainable rural energy solutions. The Freeplay Weza is a state-of-the art, decentralized (i.e. grid-independent), portable energy source, offering dependable power anywhere and at anytime. Its innovative step treadle uses human energy to produce the power needed to sustain low energy devices. An innovative private-public alliance of five international and local partners will select, train and support fifty Weza ‘Pioneers’ to establish self-financing Weza micro-enterprises. These entrepreneurs will provide fee-based energy services where it is most needed - in the peri-urban and rural communities. Notable Feature(s): Descriptions of the full range of Freeplay products, including radios, lights, Lifelines, chargers. Contact Information: Kristine Pearson Freeplay Foundation 56 - 58 Conduit Street London W1S 2YZ United Kingdom Telephone: +44 20 7851 2600   Fax: +44 20 7851 2675 Email: kpearson@freeplayfoundation.org Global Ideas Bank http://www.globalideasbank.org/ http://www.DoBe.org The Global Ideas Bank hosts imaginative and feasible ideas and projects for improving the quality of life, more than 2719 schemes from different sources and publications organized in lists by category. The Ideas Bank is accessed over a million times a year at present and already contains several thousand best ideas submitted by members of the public worldwide. Readers can vote on the ideas. The Global Ideas Bank offers a total of 1,000 pounds (UK Sterling) in awards (annually, with a deadline of June 1st) for the best non-technological ideas or projects sent in. The Global Ideas Bank is an initiative of the Institute for Social Inventions. Contact Information: Institute for Social Inventions 6 Blackstock Mews Blackstock Road LONDON N4 2BT UK Telephone: + 020 7359 8391   Fax: + 020 7354 3831 Email: ideas@alberyfoundation.org Grameen Dialogue http://www.grameen-info.org/dialogue/ http://www.grameen-info.org/ The Grameen Trust of Bangladesh, created to promote awareness and action for the elimination of poverty and hunger, publishes this on-line journal of articles on different aspects of microenterprise, including grassroots experience, the legal climate, and possibilities and models for replication. Notable Feature(s): Country reports (Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Vietnam, Mexico) and special features, including, in the October 2001 issue, the report "Microcredt: Grassroots Capitalism"; information on all Grameen programs, including credit for the poor, telecommunications, fisheries, handloom industries, newsletters, the Grameen Trust, the Grameen Foundation USA, and more; archive of past issues of the newsletter. Contact Information: Grameen Foundation USA 1709 New York Ave., NW, Suite 101 Washington, DC USA Telephone: 202.628.3560   Fax: 202.628.3880 Email: info@gfusa.org GreenBlue http://www.greenblue.org/ GreenBlue acts as a catalyst to transform the making of things... encouraging and enabling the widespread adoption and implementation of sustainable thinking and design. The nonprofit enterprise provides the theoretical, technical, and information tools required to transform industry into an economically profitable, ecologically regenerative, and socially empowering activity through intelligent design. GreenBlue began as a nexus of projects at McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC), the private sustainable product and process design consultancy co-founded by American architect William McDonough and German chemist Michael Braungart in 1995. As a private-sector agent dedicated to social and environmental goals, MBDC has consistently allocated the majority of its profits to internal research and development that advance intellectual understanding and practical application of sustainable design principles. GreenBlue was founded in November, 2002 with the conviction that a nonprofit platform will allow broader leveraging of these assets into a comprehensive open-source system of resources for the widespread adoption of cradle-to-cradle principles. Contact Information: GreenBlue P.O. Box 2001 Charlottesville, VA   22901 USA Telephone: 434.817.1424   Fax: 434.817.1425 Email: info@greenblue.org Greenstar http://www.greenstar.org/ http://www.greenstar.org/bios.htm Greenstar brings basic services, including electricity, Web connections, micro-finance, employment, health and education, to "off-the-grid" communities around the world. In a unified hardware system, which is highly portable, Greenstar can deliver a self-contained, self-powered, Web-connected community center anywhere. The Greenstar enclosure includes a segmented room enclosing a medical clinic with basic equipment and telemedicine connections, a classroom, an ecommerce and computer workstation, all powered by a commercial-grade photovoltaic solar power array, and connected to the Web through a satellite dish or digital cellular modem for high-speed telecommunications. Greenstar is establishing self-contained, solar-powered community centers in remote villages around the world. Each center has Internet connections, health facilities, a classroom with distance learning equipment, and a business center, through which the community members will operate e-commerce in native cultural products. The solar array powers the unit and also purifies water. E-commerce sustains the facilities and brings economic development into the community. Centres have now been established in Jamaica, Palestine and India. Notable Feature(s): Archive or articles and news about the possibilities of taking communications technology into remote areas; Subscribe to the free Greenstar Newsletter about programs around the world. Contact Information: Jock Gill Greenstar Foundation 6128 Blackburn Avenue Los Angeles, CA   90036 USA Telephone: 323.936.9602   Fax: 323.936.7203 Email: email@greenstar.org directors@greenstar.org Hunger Site http://www.thehungersite.com The Hunger Site was founded to relieve world hunger using the Internet in an innovative way. Site visitors are greeted by a world map that shows an individual dying every 3.6 seconds by a darkening spot somewhere on that map. Clicking a button on the site provides a free donation of food through a program administered by the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). More information is available from Public Affairs Service, World Food Programme Via C.G.Viola 68, Parco dei Medici, 00148, Rome, Italy. Tel: (39-06) 6513 2623 Fax: (39-06) 6513 2840 Email: francis.mwanza@wfp.org Notable Feature(s): Hunger Facts & Resources; record of donations; press releases and reviews. Contact Information: The Hunger Site PO Box 3520 Bloomington, IN   47402 USA Email: comments@thehungersite.com Innovative Lives: UV Waterworks: Ashok Gadgil - by Martha Davidson http://www.si.edu/lemelson/centerpieces/ilives/uvwater.html Every hour, more than four hundred children in the developing world die from water-borne diseases. Now there is hope that many children's lives will be saved and the health of other children improved with the introduction of an innovative water disinfection device developed by Dr. Ashok Gadgil of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. UV Waterworks is a portable, low-cost, low-maintenance, energy-efficient water purifier that utilizes ultra-violet light to render viruses and bacteria harmless. It is also an outstanding example of an invention created in response to an urgent environmental health problem by a concerned and dedicated scientist. Notable Feature(s): Additional links on Gadgil's work: Forbes magazine; Invention at Play. Institute for Transportation & Development Policy (ITDP) http://www.itdp.org The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) was set up in 1985, to promote environmentally sustainable and equitable transportation policies and projects worldwide. ITDP was organized by leading advocates for sustainable transport in the US who realized that the US was exporting its model of automobile dependence to developing countries and, most recently, Central and Eastern Europe. ITDP chose to focus on counteracting this development. ITDP's mission is to make transportation systems around the world more environmentally sustainable and equitable through improving transport and land use governance, strengthening the human powered (HPV) vehicle industry, and by improving non-motorized (NMT) safety and planning. Notable Feature(s): TransportActions; full-text bibliography of papers, reports, and policy documents from around the world; links directory; annual magazine Sustainable Transport, including an archive of articles dating back to 1993; Newsroom. Contact Information: ITDP 115 West 30th Street, 12th Floor Suite 1205 New York, NY   10001 USA Telephone: 212.629.8001   Fax: 212.629.8033 Email: mobility@igc.org Intentional Communities http://www.ic.org/ Since 1994, the Fellowship for Intentional Community (FIC) has been a primary source of information on community life. Intentional Community is an inclusive term for ecovillages, cohousing, residential land trusts, communes, student co-ops, urban housing cooperatives and other related projects and dreams. Notable Feature(s): What's True about Intentional Communities, a report dispelling myths about the movement; Directory of intentional communities. Contact Information: Jillian Downey Fellowship for Intentional Community RR 1 Box 156-W Rutledge, MO   63563-9720 USA Telephone: 660.883.5545   Fax: 660.883.5545 Email: jillian@ic.org Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) http://www.itdg.org/home.html Intermediate Technology (ITDG) is an international development agency and British registered charity which works with rural communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Its aim is to enable poor people in the South to develop and use skills and technologies which give them more control over their lives and which contribute to the sustainable development of their communities. Founded in 1966 by Dr E.F. Schumacher, author of Small is Beautiful, IT believes that sustainable development is achieved only if the participants in the process are its architects. It regards 'development' as a process of increasing people's economic power by improving their access to technologies appropriate to their skills, incomes and environments. Notable Feature(s): The Technical Enquiry Service (TES) draws on the expertise of programme and country staff. It is available as a free service to individuals and organizations everywhere. The main objective is to support local development initiatives through the supply of high quality technical information and professional advice on its use. Contact Information: Intermediate Technology Development Group Ltd The Schumacher Centre for Technology and Development Bourton Hall, Bourton on Dunsmore Rugby, Warwickshire   CV23 9QZ UK Telephone: +44 (0)1788 661100   Fax: +44 (0)1788 661101 Email: itdg@itdg.org.uk International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) http://www.icimod.org.sg ICIMOD promotes the replication and dissemination of innovative, low-cost, local resource-based, productive options and appropriate technologies for the sustainable development of mountain areas. Best practices and appropriate technologies are management and cultural practices that allow people to get the most beneficial use out of the land and other available natural resources in a sustainable manner. Contact Information: Tej Partap Head Mountain Farming Systems International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development 4/80 Jawalakhel, G.P.O. Box 3226 Kathmandu Nepal Telephone: (977 1) 525313   Fax: (977 1) 524509 Email: tej@icimod.org.np icimod@icimod.org.np International Development Enterprises (IDE) http://www.ideorg.org/ International Development Enterprises (IDE) is a nonprofit organization that employs market principles to strike at the roots of rural poverty in the world's least developed countries. By taking advantage of market forces, IDE is able to have widespread impact using minimal resources. Founded in 1981 by Dr. Paul Polak, IDE has worked for decades helping rural farm families to increase their agricultural productivity, providing them with a basis for food security, income generation, integration with markets, and the beginnings of an upward spiral out of poverty. Notable Feature(s): Details on IDE country programs; Out of Poverty brochure; Case studies; worldwide staff directory. Contact Information: Dr. Paul Polak IDE-International 10403 W. Colfax, Suite 500 Lakewood, Colorado   80215 U.S.A. Telephone: 303.232.4336   Fax: 303.232.8346 Email: info@ideorg.org International Development Research Centre (IDRC) http://www.idrc.ca/ http://www.idrc.ca/institution/index_e.html This outstanding site from Canada's International Development Research Centre helps communities in the developing world find solutions to social, economic, and environmental problems through research. Notable Feature(s): Reports - Science from the Developing World; an extensive collection of specific research reports on every conceivable topic of interest to grassroots practitioners and policymakers around the world; global address list of IDRC offices. Contact Information: IDRC 250 Albert Street PO Box 8500 Ottawa, Ontario   K1G 3H9 Canada Telephone: 613.236.6163   Email: info@idrc.ca,mag@idrc.ca,reference@idrc.ca KickStart (formerly ApproTEC) http://kickstart.org/e_index.html KickStart is a nonprofit organization that develops and markets new technologies in Africa. These low-cost technologies are bought by local entrepreneurs and used to establish highly profitable new small businesses. They create new jobs and new wealth and allow the poor to climb out of their poverty forever. KickStart’s mission is to promote sustainable economic growth and employment creation in Kenya and other countries by developing and promoting technologies that can be used by dynamic entrepreneurs to establish and run profitable small scale enterprises. KickStart believes that self-motivated private entrepreneurs managing small-scale enterprises are the most effective agents for developing emergent economies. Notable Feature(s): The KickStart technologies. Contact Information: ApproTEC-USA 2435 Polk Street San Francisco, CA   94109 USA Telephone: 415.346.4820   Fax: 415.346.4818 Email: approtec-usa@approtec.org approtec@approtec.org info@kickstart.org National Wind Coordinating Committee (NWCC) http://www.nationalwind.org/ A U.S. consensus-based collaborative formed in 1994, the National Wind Coordinating Committee (NWCC) identifies issues that affect the use of wind power, establishes dialogue among key stakeholders, and catalyzes appropriate activities to support the development of an environmentally, economically, and politically sustainable commercial market for wind power. NWCC members include representatives from electric utilities and support organizations, state legislatures, state utility commissions, consumer advocacy offices, wind equipment suppliers and developers, green power marketers, environmental organizations, and state and federal agencies. RESOLVE, a non-profit environmental dispute resolution organization, provides a full range of facilitation services to create opportunities for NWCC members and other wind stakeholders to build long-term relationships, and to develop a number of landmark products. Notable Feature(s): A comprehensive collection of publications on wind energy planning, prospects, and policies; news and opportunities resources; free email announcement list for subscribers. Contact Information: National Wind Coordinating Committee (NWCC) c/o RESOLVE 1255 23rd Street NW Suite 275 Washington, DC   20037 USA Telephone: 202.965.6398   Fax: 202.338.1264 Email: nwcc@resolv.org Photon International http://www.photon-magazine.com/index.htm This publication and Web site provides excellent news and information on the photovoltaic (solar electricity) industry around the world. Notable Feature(s): Calendar of international solar conferences and trade shows; new products and installations; clearinghouse site for renewable energy news from specific regions, including Africa, Europe, Asia-Pacific, America, Australia, as well as worldwide; Industry Registry of suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and research organizations. Contact Information: Anne Kreutzmann, Executive Editor, Photon International Solar Verlag GmbH Wilhelmstrasse 34 52070 Aachen Germany Telephone: 49/241/4003-0   Fax: 49/241/4003-300 Email: editorial-office@photon-magazine.com PowerFlour Action Network - nutrition for infants in the world's developing countries http://www.powerflour.org/ http://www.powerflour.org/default.htm Each year in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, 14 million infants perish due to malnutrition and related disorders. A significant factor contributing to this unfortunate situation which constitutes the gravest emergency facing children today, is the mothers' inability to find liquid foods for weaning their babies. Weaning foods must be liquid to be effective. Babies reared on mother's milk can suck or drink, but have difficulty swallowing solids. a technique that is potentially effective for feeding those children at highest risk: the ones born to the poorest of the poor, the ones whose mothers are themselves badly malnourished, and the weanling orphans with no mothers at all. The new technique is notably promising for use in remote locations, in times of need, and in the aftermath of natural or man-made disasters. It can thus reach the populations where mortality from malnutrition is greatest. It complements breast feeding and makes the weaning process more successful for the most threatened individuals in locations where milk and baby formula are unavailable. The prime "tool" in this new technique is food-grade malted barely. This white powder is nothing more than ground-up sprouted barley grains. It is a flavoring ingredient in malted milk, corn flakes, Grape Nuts, Wonder bread, English muffins, pizza crusts, Milky Way bars and many more foods. The United States produces thousands of tons of it annually, but little is now used to help starving babies survive. In this project, PowerFlour Network is bringing to world attention a technique that is potentially effective for feeding those children at highest risk: the ones born to the poorest of the poor, the ones whose mothers are themselves badly malnourished, and the weanling orphans with no mothers at all. The new technique is notably promising for use in remote locations, in times of need, and in the aftermath of natural or man-made disasters. It can thus reach the populations where mortality from malnutrition is greatest. It complements breast feeding and makes the weaning process more successful for the most threatened individuals in locations where milk and baby formula are unavailable. PowerFlour would be employed solely to turn a portion of the family food staple into a form babies can be nourished with. Children have difficulty swallowing corn mush, rice, potato, sorghum, and dozens of other "solids." PowerFlour converts these boiled staples into liquids to be drunk. In other words, solids that infants struggle to ingest become suddenly easy to handle with a baby's natural born instincts. Contact Information: PowerFlour Action Network P.O. Box 503 Sheboygan, Wisconsin   53082-0503 USA Email: powerflour@briess.com Rainwater Harvesting http://www.rainwaterharvesting.org/ http://www.cseindia.org/ This water initiative in India aims to harness the power and knowledge of individuals and communities to revive and develop the ancient techniques of water harvesting together with modern inputs from scientific knowledge for conservation and better management of freshwater resources. Notable Feature(s): Valuable newsletter Catchwater; examples of indigenous water collection systems and modern ones. Contact Information: Centre for Science and Environment 41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area New Delhi-110062 India Telephone: +91 (011)-260-81110   Fax: +91 (011) 260-85879 Email: cse@cseindia.org Roundabout http://www.roundabout.co.za/main.htm Roundabout Outdoor, founded in 1997, is internationally recognized as one of the world's most innovative providers of clean water and vital community messages. Cavorting on a roundabout has always been a source of fun and play for children. Now pure, clean borehole water can be pumped into water storage tanks while the playground roundabout equipment is in use. The Play-Pump is a specifically designed and patented playground roundabout that drives conventional borehole pumps, keeping costs and maintenance to an absolute minimum, while entertaining the children. Playing on a roundabout or merry-go-round has always been fun for children, so there is never a shortage of 'volunteers'. As the children spin, water is pumped from underground into a 2500 litre tank, standing seven metres above the ground. A simple tap provides easy access for the mothers and children drawing water In 1999 Roundabout Outdoor entered a PPP (public private partnership) with the Department of Water Affairs & Forestry to assist the Department in its commitment to deliver water to all of South Africa by 2008. Roundabout Outdoor made a pledge to carry public health messages and currently carries the loveLife national HIV prevention campaign for South African youth into the rural areas. Contact Information: Roundabout Telephone: + 27 11 807 4280   Fax: + 27 11 803 1639 Email: roundabout@roundabout.co.za Safe Water Systems for the Developing World: A Handbook for Implementing Household-Based Water Treatment and Safe Storage Projects http://www.cdc.gov/safewater/manual/pdf/sws_manual.pdf This comprehensive, 221-page manual was produced by the CARE/CDC Health Initiative, the Estes Park Rotary Club and the Gangarosa International Health Foundation through a contract with Patricia Whitesell Shirey, ACT International, Atlanta, Ga. USA. The technical advisor was Robert Quick, MD, MPH, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2000, just 10 years after the end of the Water and Sanitation Decade, the lack of access to safe water remains a problem for more than a billion people in the developing world. Annually, 2 to 3 million children less than 5 years old die of diarrheal diseases, a large proportion of which are acquired through exposure to contaminated water. In addition, after 39 years, the 7th pandemic of cholera continues unabated, claiming the lives of a high percentage of children and adults who acquire the disease. There are a number of reasons for the persistence of these problems, in spite of the investment of billions of dollars in safe water by donor agencies and governments. Population shifts from rural to urban areas have stressed existing water and sanitary infrastructure and exceeded the capacity of most countries to keep up with demand. Large population dislocations caused by armed conflict and natural disasters have created enormous logistical problems in providing water and sanitation services, as have dispersed populations and poor transportation infrastructure in many rural areas. While larger scale projects, such as the construction of deep wells or piped water systems, remain an important objective of many development agencies, a shortage of time and resources will leave hundreds of millions of people without access to safe water into the foreseeable future. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Pan American Health Organization developed the household-level water quality intervention described in the manual to help bridge the enormous gap in developing countries between populations served by existing water projects and those most in need. The handbook, produced by the CARE/CDC Health Initiative, is a valuable tool for providing inexpensive and feasible appropriate-technology alternatives in situations where resources are not available for improvements in infrastructure. Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) http://www.self.org/ The Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) is a nonprofit charitable organization founded in 1990 to promote, develop, and facilitate solar rural electrification and energy SELF-sufficiency in developing countries. Acting as a catalyst, SELF provides technical and financial assistance for solar energy and wireless communication systems in the developing world. SELF has launched solar rural electrification programs and enterprises in China, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Vietnam, Indonesia, Brazil, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, and the Solomon Islands. Notable Feature(s): Links; Perihelion SELF's e-newsletter; current program descriptions; Solar News. Contact Information: Solar Electric Light Fund 1775 K Street, NW Suite 595 Washington, DC   20006 USA Telephone: 202.234.7265   Email: solarlight@self.org Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) http://www.seia.org/ SEIA provides information on its member companies in response to inquiries from potential investors, partners, distributors, and suppliers. Over the years, the association has developed a close relationship with the World Bank, the Export-Import Bank of the United States, and several foreign governments' Washington delegations as a trusted source of reliable industry and market contacts. SEIA is a national and international focal point for inquiries regarding solar energy products and services. Contact Information: SEIA 1616 H Street NW, 8th Floor Washington, DC   20006 USA Telephone: 202.628.7745   Fax: 202.628.7779 Email: info@seia.org Solar Household Energy, Inc. (SHE) http://www.she-inc.org The mission of SHE, Inc. is to harness free enterprise for the introduction of solar cooking where it can add quality to life and relieve stress on the environment. SHE Inc. identifies and supports promising entrepreneurs in geographically suitable areas of the developing world interested in distributing solar ovens. The experience of SHE Inc.'s founders is that the most effective means of propagating solar cooking technology is via the private sector, using local small enterprises. This strategy works on two levels: The profit motive is the strongest and most enduring inducement to sustained promotion and distribution from the “supply” side; When individual consumers are required to pay a price (even a relatively modest price) for a product, they are much more likely to value and make use of it. Notable Feature(s): Solar energy cooking product development and information, e.g., the HotPot, useful for developing and displaced communities and people; media reports on solar cooking initiatives and developments around the world; collection of dispatches and other articles about successful grassroots solar projects and resources. Contact Information: Solar Household Energy, Inc. P.O. Box 15063 Chevy Chase, MD   20825-0063 USA Email: inquiries@SHE-Inc.org Solar Water Pumping http://tv.oneworld.net/tapestry?story=292 http://www.thesustainablevillage.com/ A comprehensive, step-by-step guide to solar water pumping, with Windy Dankoff, one of the most experienced experts in the field. In his workshop, and in the field with actual installations, Dankoff talks informally yet precisely about the how's, why's, and what's of solar water pumping, takes you through calculations of capacity and resources. He has been working with solar water pump systems around the world ssince 1982. From watering livestock in India, to irrigating crops in Mexico, to domestic user in the United States, Dankoff has been involved in over 3500 systems. Contact Information: Scott S. Andrews The Sustainable Village PO Box 3027 Sausalito, CA   94965 USA Telephone: 415.332.5191   Email: info@sustainablevillage.com Solarnet http://www.solarnet-ea.org/ Solarnet is an East Africa regional Non Governmental Organization founded in 1996 and registered in Kenya in 1999. Solarnet's vision is to work with partners to promote and encourage the use of renewable energy resources as a means of enhancing economic, social and environmental benefits to the region's end-users and the wider global environment. The organization is the East and Central Africa ISES regional representative, and the advisory council member to the G8 Task Force on Renewable Energy that advices G8 leaders on appropriate actions to enhance the supply, distribution and use of RE in developing countries. Solarnet has been actively involved in "public service" activities such as, information sharing, market development, broader networking, training, standards development, and technical programme support to community groups, facilitating community participation in project development, raising consumer and donor awareness, and policy advice to governmental and inter-governmental agencies. Towards this end, Solarnet has created a strong Solar Energy Network in Kenya comprised of manufacturers, importers, suppliers/installers, retailers, technicians, end-users, government departments, institutions, educational institutions, NGOs, donors, financial institutions, print and electronic media, etc that are actively involved in the organization promotional programs. Contact Information: David Otieno, Programme Manager Solarnet P.O. Box 76406-00508 Nairobi Kenya Telephone: 254-20-572656   Email: info@solarnet-ea.org SRISTI http://www.sristi.org/ http://www.sristi.org/honeybee.html SRISTI, the society for research and initiatives for sustainable technologies and insitutions, is a non-governmental organisation in India set up to strengthen the creativity of grassroots inventors, innovators and ecopreneurs engaged in conserving biodiversity and developing eco-friendly solutions to local problems. Notable Feature(s): Excellent news page of innovations in grassroots problem-solving from leading journals and news sources around the world; The Right to Good Ideas; bibliography of online and PDF publications on traditional knowledge and practices and contemporary grassroots creativity and innovation, biodiversity, agriculture, natural resource management, intellectual property rights, and more; Honey Bee newsletter and database of local innovations by farmers, pastoralists, artisans, horticulturalists and others in the campaign for protection of Intellectual Property Rights of Grassroots level innovators. Contact Information: SRISTI c/o Prof. Anil K Gupta Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad 380015, Gujarat India Telephone: (91-79) 6324927   Fax: (91-79) 6307341 Email: info@sristi.org Stanford University Social Entrepreneurship Startup: Business Plan and Recommendations http://ses.stanford.edu/reports/global.pdf http://www.lutw.org/ An estimated 2 billion people do not have access to even the most inefficient electric lighting systems. The majority of these people are still using fuel-based lighting in the form of kerosene or propane lamps, candles, or wood. These fuel-based systems are over 500 times less energy efficient than emerging electrical lighting systems (based on useful light output per $) and have a wide range of adverse social and environmental impacts ranging from cancer-inducing smoke inhalation to deaths from accidental fires. Traditional incandescent lighting systems have had limited success in replacing fuel-based lighting because of the lack of consistent access to the electrical grid, reliability issues and other factors. Current electrical lighting solutions therefore have relied on battery-powered systems that are much more expensive to purchase compared to fuel-based alternatives. This 2003 report looks at Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) that offer efficient lighting at relatively low power, thereby reducing battery powered operating costs to a level that is competitive with current fuel based lighting. LED lighting is fast becoming a most efficient technology able to provide sufficient illumination for common tasks such as reading with less than 1 Watt of electrical power. This ‘global' business plan primarily focuses on the opportunity presented by LED lighting and the role that Light up the World (LUTW) foundation and other entrepreneurs could play in making LED lighting a widespread reality. Detailed strategies and implementation plans are presented in three individual, stand-alone business plans for China, India and Mexico. Notable Feature(s): Technical Research and Design Report; China Business Plan and Recommendations; India Business Plan; Mexico Business Plan. Contact Information: Ken Robertson, Executive Director Light Up the World Foundation Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering Univ. Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW Calgary, Alberta   T2N 1N4 Canada Telephone: 403.220.4230   Fax: 403.282.6855 Email: info@lutw.org Strengthening the Human Powered Vehicle (HPV) Industry http://www.itdp.org/programs/programs_2_b.html A report on improving human-powered vehicle technology in India, Indonesia, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana and Senegal. Sustainable Architecture, Building & Culture http://www.SustainableABC.Com/ The SustainableABC.com Web site provides information to the general public interested in sustainable and ecological architecture, building and culture and as an aid to locate environmental professionals and products. Notable Feature(s): Free newsletter about projects, energy efficient lighting, water, natural pest control, conservation, and more; interviews, including one on earth building in Thailand; eco-education programs and organizations. Contact Information: SustainableABC.com P.O. Box 41728 Santa Barbara, CA   93140-1728 USA Telephone: 805.898.0079   Sustainable Development Networking Programme (India) http://sdnp.delhi.nic.in/ This constantly updated Web site is a joint programme of United Nations Development Programme, Canada's International Development Research Centre and the Ministry of Environment and Forests in India. It provides practical information on projects around the world. Over the years, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has focused on impacting sustainable human development by creating and supporting the Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP). A direct result of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) or the Rio Earth Summit held in 1992, the SDNP has already linked together government organisations, the private sector, universities, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and individuals in over 80 countries spread over Asia, Africa and Latin America through electronic and other networking vehicles for the express purpose of exchanging critical information on sustainable development. The section is a virtual repository of information on sustainable development and related topics. Information is collected and presented online on a range of topics : agriculture, biodiversity, biotechnology, climate change, forestry, energy, marine ecology, pollution, population growth, human rights, waste management, etc. The list of topics is constantly expanding to cover issues of significance in the coming years. The information presented in the resource section is compiled from various national and international sources, some of which are the partner linkages of the Sustainable Development Networking Program (SDNP), India. Notable Feature(s): Online volunteering; feature that allows for translating pages into German, French, Italian, Spanish and Portugese; Best Practices Case Studies; publishing opportunities for organizations . Contact Information: SDNP Secretariat Room 1023 Paryavaran Bhawan CGO Complex Lodi Road New Delhi   11 00 03 India Telephone: 91 11 436 2140   Fax: 91 11 436 1147 Email: sdnp@envfor.delhi.nic.in The Global Impact of Vetiver Systems http://www.frameweb.org/pdf/VETIVERSYSTEMS.pdf Vetiver grass is used around the world in countries like Vietnam, Ecuador, Senegal, Madagascar, Zambia and a number of Caribbean islands to stabilize embankments, preserve soil and water, and mitigate pollution. This report details the range and potential of vetiver systems applications. Top Ecology http://www.topecology.co.jp/e/ The 21st century is referred to as "a century of water" and serious troubles related to water are occurring in global scale. TOP ECOLOGY was established to cope with these "Water" issues. Top Ecology's basic approaches to meet the challenges are to utilize natural energy and build for easy maintenance requiring no special techniques. TE recognizes that water problems are especially critical in developing countries and that electrically operated water producing products are of no use in those areas. TOP ECOLOGY thus aims at the global market with its products "BIO PARK" and "AQUA KIDS." The firm has also announced a strategic alliance with Duke Solar to integrate their solar technologies with Top Ecology's water solutions for comprehensive systems solutions worldwide. Notable Feature(s): Link to Duke Solar programs and initiatives. Contact Information: TOP ECOLOGY INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION G-5083 Miller Road Flint, MI   48507-1075 USA Telephone: 810.732.0937   Email: mnovak@mnovak.com Toxics Link http://www.toxicslink.org/ Toxics Link was formally set up in March 1996 by a group of like-minded NGOs, voluntary organizations, and individuals concerned about toxic pollution in India. The goal is to develop an information exchange mechanism that will strengthen campaigns against toxics pollution, help push industries towards cleaner production, and link groups working on toxics issues into a National Toxics Movement in India. The work has generated an informal network of over 350 members, individuals and organizations that subscribe to the mission: We are a group of people working together for environmental justice and freedom from toxics. We have taken it upon ourselves to collect and share both information about the sources and dangers of poisons in our environment and bodies, and information about clean and sustainable alternatives for India and rest of the world. Toxics Link has information outreach nodes in Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai. Notable Feature(s): Success Stories; information request service on toxics related issues; newsletters, reports, and many useful fact sheets on relevant topics. Contact Information: Ravi Agarwal H-2 Jungpura Extension New Delhi 110 014 India Telephone: +91 11 4328006/071   Email: tldelhi@vsnl.com Water Pyramid http://www.geocities.com/waterpyramid/history1.htm http://www.geocities.com/waterpyramid/index.htm The supply of water, clean water in particular, is a serious problem in many parts of the world. Ground water levels sink, severe droughts occur, landscapes dry up and desert spreads. Other places have plenty of water, but it is highly polluted and not potable. Coastal areas don't have enough fresh water. All of these problems lead to disease and disaster among both people and animals. During the string of natural disasters hitting the African continent in the early 1990's, the Norwegian inventor, Per Krumsvik, set out to find a practical remedy to address this acute need. He visualized the creation of water from air without the need of an external power source. He was inspired by the amazing capabilities of the desert flowers. They have built-in mechanisms that enable them to survive in the harshest climates. At night they open and absorb humidity from the air and during the day they close up, retaining the life-giving water. In 1996, a 12' experimental water pyramid was installed in the Middle East. This pyramid, loaded with instrumentation, collected data necessary for evaluating construction and design, choice of materials, fiber composition and density as well as the impact of varying atmospheric conditions. The results were very encouraging. In 1998, an improved water pyramid was sent to the Gobabeb Desert Research Institute in Namibia. The tests conducted here proved that even under the most extreme conditions, the pyramid produced water. Research was also conducted using the water pyramid to convert seawater and polluted groundwater to clean, potable water. The water pyramid was created conceptually to produce clean water from high air humidity. Through the evolution of the concept and experimentations, however, its use and potential for desalinization and purification became clear. Notable Feature(s): Technical information on construction and operation of a water pyramid. Contact Information: Email: waterpyramid@home.com Web-Agri: The Agricultural Search Engine http://www.web-agri.com/ Billed as "the smart farming site," Web-agri's search engine generates a massive amount of information, tools, and practice for those involved in rural or urban agriculture anywhere in the world. The database yields everything from seeds to soil erosion, solar or wind energy and provides the contact details for practitioners to build networks and get answers to their questions. Contact Information: Hyltel Multimédia 12a Rue de Brest 35000 - RENNES France Email: contact@hyltel.fr Whirlwind Wheelchair International (WWI) http://www.whirlwindwheelchair.org Whirlwind Wheelchair International works to make it possible for every person in the developing world who needs a wheelchair to obtain one that will lead to maximum personal independence and integration into society. In order to fulfill this mission, WWI seeks to give wheelchair riders a central role in all of its projects and activities. Whirlwind is the communications hub of the Whirlwind Wheelchair Network of independent wheelchair-producing workshops in developing countries. Notable Feature(s): Notable Feature(s): network/country list of Wheelchair Shops Producing the Whirlwind Wheelchair; project to promote international wheelchair standards in developing countries; open source design initiative to reach beyond the WWI network, opening its design process to anyone who may be interested in offering opinions, feedback, and suggestions, not just limited to wheelchair design, but to all of the technical challenges facing a wheelchair rider. Contact Information: Marc Krizack, Director of Operations Whirlwind Wheelchair International San Francisco State University 1600 Holloway Ave., SCI 251 San Francisco, CA   94132 USA Telephone: 415.338.6277   Fax: 415.338.1290 Email: Info@whirlwindwheelchair.org Whole Foods Market and Its Solar Energy Initiative http://www.wholefoods.com/cgi-bin/print10pt.cgi?url=/company/pr_BRKsolar.html Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Market, Inc., the world's largest natural and organic supermarket, and PowerLight Corporation, the leading manufacturer of commercial-scale solar electric products teamed up with Nextek Power Systems to create an integrated on-site solar electric power and lighting system. Under the management of Princeton Energy Systems, the system was installed in March 2002, at the Whole Foods Market store in Berkeley, California, making it the nation's first major food retailer to introduce solar energy as its primary lighting power source. Contact Information: Whole Foods Market, Inc. 601 N. ,Suite 300 Austin, TX   78703 USA Telephone: 512.477.4455   Working Group on Development Technologies (WOT) http://snt.student.utwente.nl/~wot/index.html The WOT is active in the field of sustainable energy and international development. WOT gives free advice on these subjects to people and organizations in the global South: solar energy, wind energy and hydro power. Notable Feature(s): A service provided by a Canadian development organization and research institute: A how-to guide for receiving Web pages by E-mail. Contact Information: Working Group on Development Techniques Vrijhof 205/206 P.O.Box 217 7500 AE Enschede The Netherlands Telephone: +31 53 489 2845   Fax: +31 53 489 2671 Email: WOT@tdg.utwente.nl World Neighbors In Action http://www.wn.org http://www.wn.org/Programs.asp World Neighbors is a 48-year-old grassroots, international development organization working side-by-side with rural villagers in remote corners of Asia, Africa and Latin America. World Neighbors works with the rural poor in 18 countries to strengthen the ability of individuals and communities to solve their own problems of hunger, poverty, and disease. Rather than offering direct material relief, World Neighbors works to address the root causes of problems, helping people find practical solutions to the challenge of meeting their own basic needs. World Neighbors programs integrate improved agriculture, community-based health and family planning, environmental conservation, water and sanitation, and small business. Contact Information: World Neighbors International Headquarters 4127 NW 122 Street Oklahoma City, OK   73120 USA Telephone: 405.752.9700   Fax: 405.752.9393 Email: info@wn.org World Space Foundation http://www.worldspace.org/default.htm Working with international, national, and non-governmental organizations, the WorldSpace Foundation has a unique capability to provide access to education and information programs to large audiences in remote areas, using new communication technologies. Its mission is to help improve the lives of disadvantaged persons in developing regions of the world by providing access to education and other information broadcast directly to radios from satellites. In Africa, WorldSpace Foundation helps bridge the digital divide by partnering with African education and development groups to deliver distance education and social development information via the Africa Learning Channel. The AfriStar™ satellite has three beams that cover the entire continent of Africa and the Middle East. In addition, the foundation has channel capacity on two additional WorldSpace satellites: AsiaStar™, which will serve Asia Pacific, and AmeriStar™, which will cover Latin America and the Caribbean. AsiaStar™was launched on March 21, 2000 and launch of AmeriStar™ is scheduled for early to mid 2001. Notable Feature(s): Articles on using communication technology for social development. Contact Information: WorldSpace Foundation 2400 N Street, NW Washington, DC   20037 USA Telephone: 202.861.2261   Fax: 202.861.6407 Email: gmhillman@worldspace.org