| Why Boond? |
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Boond plans to solve big challenges faced globally and believes that they can be solved by incremental efforts of ordinary individuals. In order to do so, we connect those who have the resources and the capacity, to those who still lack the basic necessities of life. We are not a charity but a social enterprise where we will accomplish not just our goal of reaching development good to the remote areas but also promote business development and entrepreneurship at a micro individual level. Boond employs locals on a commission basis as social entrepreneurs who spread awareness and conduct education campaigns in villages. These entrepreneurs (also known as Boond officers) are residents of a village that he / she operate in. They are recruited for us by several of our partner NGOs working in the area. At the macro level, the Boond Officer plays the role of a micro entrepreneur and his / her personal development is an equally important goal for Boond. Boond’s experience till date has primarily been in the rural areas catering to the needs of many consumers live below the poverty line. By offering them with necessities like light and clean water; we at Boond create an opportunity for them to carve a better future for themselves. This has been a learning curve for us as well and one aspect that has come to the forefront consistently is the fact that even the most unfortunate ones cherish respect. We have deemed this need as a high priority and the model, accordingly, does not constitute charity. By creating social entrepreneurs, they acquire respect and ownership as well.
While on field trips to remote areas of India, we identified key challenges that are faced by the poor. We found that the three main challenges were of lighting, access to clean drinking water and pest prevention. To solve these problems, we enlist the help of similar minded people and make this movement one which is of the people and for the people.
Boond’s goal is to reach 1 million people by the end of 2015. 1 million people means about 200,000
households or about 150 villages (on an average a village in India has about 1200-1500 families).
We will do this by empowering our NGO partners and developing a smooth supply chain delivery mechanism. Our target for this year end is to reach at least 35 villages through 6-8 NGO partners and 50-60 Boond Officers nationwide.
Boond is a 100% india entity with all products manufactured in india, ensuring high quality & best priority.
Boond Environment Commitment
- Along with social development, Boond is also promoting and advocating effective measures against climate change through our distribution of Solar Lamps.
- Solar Lamps are a very effective substitute for kerosene lamps that are presently employed by those without access to electricity. Numerous researches and models suggest that this helps in reduction of green house gases substantially, helping significantly in the fight against climate change.
- Since our products are all made in India, our carbon footprint is negligible for transportation and logistics and we also educate our Boond Officers to advocate better energy management techniques to those they reach out to.
- Boond is also in the process for measuring quantitatively the carbon savings through the substitution of kerosene lamps by solar lamps. We alsp hope to package the carbon savings to sell as carbon credits on the Chicago Climate Exchange or the Clean Development Mechanism (Kyoto Protocol) markets if possible in the future.
- See sample UNFCC project on effectiveness of solar lamps
- See UNFCC paper on carbon reduction with emphasis on effective lighting
- See sample carbon saving document from Carbon Neutral
- See carbon measurement efforts by Boond to quantitatively measure carbon savings
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