Hello readers,

My travels around West Africa, community and affordable housing development work in the Pacific Northwest, and my studies in sustainable business have brought me to a new chapter.  Yesterday I started as a “Fledgling” in the conscious company incubator, Fledge.

The concept is Learning Lights: empowering people in developing countries to create their own renewable energy solutions by equipping them with the tools and knowledge to innovate exciting, new and appropriate products, such as a Solar Learning Light.  In my three and a half years living in Niger, I encountered the problem of a lack of access to renewable energy curriculum and the tools of implementation first hand.  Instead, villagers either stayed in the dark when the sun went down, had the light and smoke of a cooking fire as their only source of light, used highly toxic kerosene lanterns, or purchased cheap, battery-powered lights whose batteries died quickly and littered the landscape.  What could they do equipped with the knowledge and tools to create their own renewable energy reading light, and what other innovations could a Learning Light ignite?

Please visit Learning Lights or learn more about Fledge.  Like Learning Lights on facebook, or follow us on twitter.

More to come soon about my latest bridge building venture.