Past Projects

 

 

Art for Water (Fall 2008):
In Santa Ana, Ecuador, there is a lack of potable water for drinking.  Art for Water is a startup that sells the local, original artwork for profit, and the profits go to funding the water filtration system to bring clean water to the community.  However, the entrepreneur was looking a way to grow sales by an order of magnitude.  The SEID team recommended a strategy for business expansion, both domestically and internationally.   They included recommendations on strategic partnerships with global retailers who could expand the market reach of the original artwork, as well as recommendations on how to best market the products. 

 

Kenya Biogas Project (Fall 2008 – Spring 2009):
In northeast Kenya, socio-economic growth is currently constrained by lack of a reliable source of power, as the stand-alone energy grid powered by diesel fuel does not meet the regional energy demand.    Families and small enterprises thus lose quality of life and productivity after dusk, and often rely on harmful fuels such as kerosene, diesel, and firewood as their only alternative to darkness.  Enabled by the Government of Kenya’s recent policy changes in support of renewable energy and rural electrification, the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Centre / UNDP identified the region’s abundance of animal waste (manure and slaughterhouse waste) as a potential source of alternative energy generation.  The SEID team collaborated with village community leaders, the MDG Centre, a carbon asset management group, and Kenya Environmental Ministries to develop:

1. A business plan for implementation of a locally-owned biowaste-to-energy plant, converting animal waste to methane gas to energy via combustion
2. A completed application for Clean Development Mechanism carbon credits registration process
3. A profit and loss model incorporating revenue streams from three sources generated by the plant: Electricity tariff for feed-in to the grid, carbon credits, and organic compost.
4. Recommendations for increasing aggressiveness of feed-in tariff policies for biowaste-to-energy applications, to increase financial viability and make them more competitive with diesel supply.

 

Camel’s Milk Project (Fall 2008):  
In northeast Kenya, camel’s milk is a primary source of food for northeast Kenya, but upwards of 40% of the milk is spoiled or contaminated by the time it reaches customers.  The cause of spoilage is due to poor hygiene practices in the milking process, combined with hot temperatures throughout the milk’s long, complex, and unrefrigerated distribution chain to reach its customers.  The SEID team worked with rural Kenyans and the Millennium Villages Project team to create:

1. Supply chain innovations for improving hygiene in camel’s milk process
2. Economically viable cooling points to prevent milk spoilage
3. Business plan for funding rural cooperatives to improve distribution process
4. These changes will enable cleaner, safer milk to be delivered to customers, as well as better surety of income for the women selling the milk because they will have less waste.

Café Lovo (Fall 2008)
The Agora Program’s Café Loco initiative sought to grow coffee sales of its Nicaraguan farmer cooperatives, and charged the SEID team with the task of landscaping the US market as a possible entry point for expansion.  Through its research and collaboration with coffee experts, the SEID team delivered:

1. A quantitative assessment of the US import coffee market, price volatility, and consumption patterns
2. Proposal for a route to market, including distribution options and consumer-relevant product packaging
3. Recommendations on legal requirements and the Fair Trade certification process

Nicaragua Biogas Project (Fall 2008 – Spring 2009)
A team of MIT alums developed a novel three-stage bio-digestion technology in an MIT class, Development Lab (D-Lab) III taught by Susan Murcott.  These entrepreneurs requested SEID’s help in identifying a way to develop a sustainable enterprise using its technology in their pilot country of Nicaragua.  The SEID Team created a business model for converting household biowaste to energy, and made recommendations for alternate product forms that could better meet local customer needs.

 

 

Pure Water Ghana (Fall 2007)
In Northern Ghana, 50% of people typically collect water from highly turbid and contaminated surface sources.  The SEID team worked with a new venture focused on water purification to develop a Feasibility Assessment, including:

1. Market evaluation for consumable water treatment product
2. Recommendations for a sales and distribution process

 

Project CHIVE (Fall 2007 – Spring 2008)
China Ventures in Energy (ChiVE) aimed to explore the landscape for early stage clean energy related ventures in China.  The SEID team performed research and collaborated with China government officials, identifying and documenting opportunities in government, technology, and funding.