Solar Powered Social Business, Little Sun

by Startacus Admin

Little Sun- A Solar Powered Social Business

World leaders in Paris have just signed an historic agreement to cut carbon emissions and thus decrease the rate of global warming. Whether collectively the nations are able to do so remains to be seen, but nevertheless there are entrepreneurs and innovators everywhere, who are already doing their bit to make the dream of a low carbon world a reality. People like Olafur Eliasson and Frederik Ottesen.

Olafur is an artist, and Frederik an engineer and together they have developed a product called Little sun; an aptly named little solar powered led light that has the potential to deliver energy to over 1 billion people worldwide without access to electricity- and look rather splendid whilst doing so.

But this social impact business is about a lot more than providing just providing a sustainable source of light, it is seen as a vehicle through which young people can to become entrepreneurs through training as Little Sun sales agents through access to seed capital of Little Sun lamps, which helps them to get their small business off the ground and lay the foundations for a sustainable and profitable enterprise.

Impacts and Investments

Having launched in 2012 the team have so far distributed Little Sun Lamps to over 10 nations in Africa including Kenya, Ethiopia, and Ghana as well as places within Europe, Australia, and North America.

In 2014 the team were the recipients of a $5M impact funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, an investment fund that distributes funds to projects that can have a real, meaningful, and lasting change around the world. This funding has allowed the team to crank up their efforts, especially in Africa, delivering light and a better future for people across the continent.

Little sun lamps can be bought from anywhere in the world, and each one sold to people who already have access to electric light, makes it easier for the team to deliver them to areas which don’t.

Maybe a nice Christmas present for a socially conscious pal of yours?

The video below shows Olafur discussing Little Sun at the Venice Architecture Biennial in 2012.

• #little sun
• #solar powered
• #social business

Published on: 15th December 2015