Land Rovers versus Toyotas

Kurt has a great analogy.  Products can either be Land Rovers or Toyotas.  Land Rovers are indestructible.  You can use and abuse them.  They are hard to break.  Toyotas are ubiquitous.  They are everywhere.  The parts are everywhere.  When they break you can almost always find a replacement part for them.  He suggested making products one or the other.  Either make them indestructible so that you don't have to fix them often, or make then easily fixable with a supply chain that seeps into every corner of the world.

Accra consists of two hotels

This, my first visit to Africa is short, intense and full of activity.  The whirlwind of activity starts as soon as we land.  Participants gather on board a bus for the ride to the hotel.  The hotel is clean and modern, along the lines of 70's Scandinavian Design inspiration.  It's about 30 minutes from the La Royal Palm where the conference is being held.  There is a pool, a bar, and internet connection.  Essential elements for comfort.  The drive between the hotels will be the most of Accra that I see over the course of the next three days, excluding the trip to the market. We travel through the more upscale part of Accra.  There are nice houses with manicured lawns and walls with razor wire.  The commercial areas are studded by outdoor work areas displaying products.  Signs are hand painted and hung where ever it is convenient.  On the other end of the spectrum are broken down cars, gutted of usable parts,  and litter & burning piles of garbage along the road.  There are few cars on the road.  Most people walk the road to and from their homes.  

The first night I sit at the bar drinking the local beer chatting with Phil from Pico Hydro and a local woman named Princess.  We discuss the excitement we feel to be part of this conference. It feels big and important to be surrounded by smart, passionate people, focused on solving this problem of lighting for and with the people of Africa.   As if we are on the edge of something so explosive and alive that we may burn in the process.  Listening to others who have been working, in some capacity, in Africa for the preceding years is enlightening.  Many people have been working to understand the problems of low cost lighting and how to create sustainable models which provide it. The Lumina Project, Evan Mills, Arne Jacobson,  LUTW, Russell Sturm having been living and breathing lighting for many years before w came here to this conference. Without their work, understanding the damage of kerosene, the possibility of low load LED bulbs, the needs and desires of the people, and access to innovative manufacturing, we would be back ten years still discussing what people wanted.  Instead, at this conference we are talking about what the sustainable enterprise models look like.   Modular products and financing, charging stations, solar lanterns that help kids study for school and shop owners light their products and quality control.  These are the new problems to solve.  This is not to say that an understanding of the market is a "done deal".  Just that we are now working on getting the products into the hands of people in ways that make economic sense for all stakeholders.

Dave's flight gets cancelled

After setting up the booth and meeting the other finalists at lunch, I head back to the hotel.  I prepare to travel to the airport to pick up Dave.  He, Jill and baby Ava are in Capetown. Little business and vacation. He's to catch a flight to Accra Monday night so that he can be here for the event.  

Back at the hotel I receive phone message marked Urgent slipped under my door.  Holy shit! What happened?!  I don't even want to begin thinking of all the possibilities that could occur.  I call his cell and find out that his flight has been cancelled.  He is obviously upset and disappointed.  His first flight from Capetown to J'oburg is running late.  The airlines tell him that he won't make the connection so they cancel his whole flight.  The next available combinations of flights will get him in the same day that he'd have to leave to go back to J'oburg for meetings.  I can't imagine what he is feeling and we have a long conversation about it. Tom's best line is that this is a good, small example of what working in Africa will be like.  If you can't handle this, then think about other career paths.

He attends the conference in spirit.  (He'd probably steal the show from me anyway!)

Appropriate Technology: Efficacy versus efficiency

Appropriate Technology is often described as having:

1) Limited impact on the environment

2) Sensitivity to ethical, cultural, social and economical aspects of the targeted community

3) Fewer resource requirements which can decrease maintenance and reduce overall costs

AT can be small scale, use small manufacturing & use footprints, which in turn can make it ecologically and socially benign.  AT can also include "leapfrog technology", benefitting from the hard lessons learned in the developed world: avoid polluting technology such as coal fired plants, decrease cement usage, limit carbon output, etc.

By the same token AT can also be labor intensive versus capital intensive.  This idea of efficacy versus efficiency is an important one.  When the nearest grid connection is 25+ km, away a pedal generator will be one of the best way to create electricity to power battery driven LED lights (for example).  An operator will be earning an income.  User fees can support the operator.  The enterprise will be effective in creating a fairly benign form of power. The power created, compared to the power we get from the socket in our walls, will not be efficient.  But the US had 100 years to develop the infrastructure to create and deliver that electricity efficiently, and thus cheaply.

Intermediate Technology can be a synonym for appropriate technology.  This phrase was coined by EF Schumacher to describe technology which is significantly more effective and expensive that traditional methods, but still an order of magnitude (10 times?) cheaper that developed world technology.  It is technology that proponents argue can be easily purchased and used by poor people and according to proponents can lead to greater productivity while minimizing social dislocation.  Much intermediate technology can also be built and serviced using locally available materials and knowledge.

Russell Sturm's speech

The LADM 2008 opens with a speech by Russell Sturm.  His passion for social change, his humor and experience certainly inspire me to take action.  He talks about all the things that dissigno believes is important.  Market based solutions, LEDs today are like cell phones 8 years ago, must do something to eradicate poverty, enable people to build their own wealth, world stability depends on all people having opportunity.  He talked about the specifics of the lighting market; provide lights that the market values, in a way that the consumer can access, small packages = small prices.  

The CEO of Philips Electronics spoke about an undefined market.  "It's early enough that the market is not defined.  Now is your chance to help define it with products that serve needs in ways that make sense."

LADM 2008

Phil and I board the shuttle that takes us to the La Royal Palm Hotel where the conference is being held.  We gather in the lobby of the surprisingly comfortable hotel and wait for the second floor to open.  The first floor is where the business to business trade show and the speaking events are to be held.  The 54 LADM finalists will set up displays on the second floor.  The booth positions are handed out and and we begin setting up.  dissigno's booth is in the back corner of the back room.  The air conditioner is broken, and I break a dripping sweat standing there in the dark corner.  It doesn't bode well for me!  Despite these inauspicious beginnings I persevere and set up the dissigno display.  

The pride of the booth is a map of Karagwe Tanzania with small Christmas lights indicating generator locations.  Dave thought this up and I must admit I thought it dumb at first.  I ran all over San Francisco looking for the small Christmas lights in March and couldn't find them anywhere.  Finally, about to give up I stop at Cliff's Variety ( I will always go here first) and found a set.  Over a beer in my kitchen I diligently stick the lights through holes in the map and glue them into place.  It was a little difficult to get the whole display to Accra.  I thought for certain I was going to get stopped at the airport (wires and batteries certainly don't seem like something the TSA will let on a plane).  However, all the effort was worth it as it was a perfect visual display of our plan.

Phil's bags visit Italy

British Airways loses Phil's bags. Phil is attending the conference through his company Pico Hydro.  They do small scale hyrdo installs.  It's ironic because he has boarded the plane in Heathrow and gets off in Accra.  No stops, no plane changes but the bags end up in Italy.  At the hotel we agree to meet for breakfast in the morning and visit the market across the street from the hotel so that he can shop for a few essentials. 

The market stretches along the street and curves into a parking lot where booths and alleyways have been built from rough plywood.  The wood walls create a snaking labyrinth of shops.  Similar to what I saw in India, products are grouped together.  Vendors selling men's clothes are all along one row, women's clothes another, children's toys yet another, etc.  After Phil buys his toiletries, underwear and shirts we walk back towards the hotel to catch the bus which will shuttle us to the conference.  On the way out of the market I see a knock off "Barefoot Power" (www.barefootpower.com) light.  It's made of a very light weight plastic (one of the lights I look at is broken through the packaging.)  We cause a bit of a row as I examine it closely and end up buying it for $5.00 USD.  Suddenly we are surrounded by vendors trying to sell us kerosene lanterns, batteries, food, etc.  We politely decline and head for the street. 

"Tail light warranty" - The light breaks as soon as we start down the street!  I wonder how these lights will poison the market?  $5.00 USD is not as significant for me as it is for someone living on $1-2/day.  These products could make it harder (or perhaps easier?) for Barefoot Power to sell their expensive, but better products?  Also the "knock off" light uses 4 double "A" batteries instead of a rechargeable battery making the cost of ownership higher over the long term