Washington — To Amal Kabalan and her fellow entrepreneurs, the plight of schoolchildren in Guinea presents a fairly basic need that inspired a simple but creative business response.
Guineans don’t have much access to energy for light. Kids wear backpacks. Why not attach a solar-powered device to the backpacks, collect energy on the walk to school, and then use the stored energy to power lamps so the children could study at night?
The idea earned the 27-year-old Lebanon native $3,000 in seed money to start the venture with her new business partners — people she had met just days before and who had been selected by Athgo International, a nonprofit organization that sponsored the competition in partnership with the World Bank Speakers Bureau.
Athgo’s mission is to empower young people aged 18–32 to develop business plans for ventures that are profitable while being socially beneficial and environmentally friendly. During the second week in August, the organization brought 100 young entrepreneurs from 30 different countries to the World Bank, where the participants huddled in teams to come up with small, green technology commercial plans.
The ventures show that profit and social responsibility can co-exist, said Armen Orujyan, chairman and president of Athgo. “Here, we take advocacy and apply it in real terms by way of entrepreneurship. We call it ‘constructive entrepreneurship,’’’ said Orujyan, one of the judges of the competition. For example, instead of simply doing advocacy work to counter the effects of climate change, Athgo encourages for-profit business ventures aimed at environmentally friendly goals.
In the case of the “Solar Brite’’ knapsacks — to be marketed with the slogan “Fuel for Thought’’ — the social impact is broad. Not only do the backpacks reduce the need for unhealthy kerosene lamps, but they will boost learning among female students in particular, the winning team said. Many students go outside at night to read by streetlamps or car lights, but girls are usually kept indoors for safety, Kabalan said, making it harder for them to keep up with homework. While the backpacks would be expensive — as much as $130 — the items could be purchased by governments as an education expense, by nongovernmental organizations or by American hikers in a position to pay full cost.
Second place (and $2,000 in startup money) went to a team that devised emPower, a smartphone application that will allow users to turn off appliances remotely. Further, the app would track consumers’ energy use and make recommendations for more energy-efficient appliances. “You get to basically energy-manage’’ with your phone, said 20-year-old State University of New York at Geneseo student Matthew Bower, one of the second-place team members. He said the price of the app would be greatly offset by energy cost savings.
A device to power up MP3 players and smartphones while exercising won the third-place prize and $1,000 in startup funds. The “U-Power’’ device, explained 23-year-old Emily Scarboro, a senior at Georgia College and State University, would be movable and attachable to a stationary bike or treadmill. The energy created by the exerciser would power up the mobile devices, sparing the need to power them up at home. The team said its target market would be universities and corporations, with San Jose — named one of the healthiest cities in the United States — an initial venue.
All the teams will continue working on their ventures once they return to their home countries and cities, working through Skype and email, Orujyan said. The teams were required to come up with financing plans separate from any award money as part of their presentations.
The forum was “a wonderful opportunity for young entrepreneurs to work together at finding common solutions to climate change,’’ said judge Diletta Doretti, operations officer at the Development Marketplace at the World Bank Institute. “I was impressed by the quality of projects and the level of enthusiasm and commitment,’’ she said.
