Sustainable technologies
Hubert Reeves
Current situation
Over two billion people have no access to electricity, and millions of families cannot afford decent housing. Many of those concerned resort to solutions that are often expensive and unsuitable - a short-term approach that perpetuates the vicious circle of poverty. And yet technology is constantly evolving, in ways that can improve users' living conditions while still respecting their environment.
Scope of the projects funded
In this focus sector, the Foundation provides particular support for the development of innovative technologies that the very poor can afford, and which improve their access to energy, to decent living conditions and to more environmentally-friendly means of production. Innovative technologies based on a sustainable development model can generate microenterprises within communities.
The projects funded by the Foundation take the following factors into account:
1. access to renewable energy
2. reduction in consumption of non-renewable or expensive fuels
3. use of agricultural, animal or human waste for energy production
4. sustainable use of local and ecological materials for housing or for the manufacture of objects or equipment
5. recycling of materials
6. scaling up through a serious implication of local and/or national authorities, and support and advocacy actions to promote policies favorable to the replication of these sustainable approaches
7. other cross-cutting themes highlighted by the Foundation in its Selection Criteria, such as promoting entrepreneurship, a rights-based approach, innovation, a gender perspective, and sexual and reproductive health needs, particularly of women and girls.
