To compensate for our CO₂ emissions, Nordic Capital supports Solar Sister, an independent charity which provides solar lights to poor rural households. Solar Sister uses an innovative and entrepreneurial model to recruit and train women to provide clean energy to last mile communities in Sub Saharan Africa, where over 600 million people lack access to energy.
Lack of access to power locks societies and people into poverty and affects all areas of life. In addition, it contributes to large amounts of CO2 emissions. During 2018, some 600 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa light their homes with kerosene lights. As well as being ineffective, expensive and harmful to people’s health, kerosene lights contribute heavily to CO₂ emissions.
Thanks to Nordic Capital’s contribution, Solar Sister, among others, can provide access to energy and empower women and girls in local communities through better health, education, and economic opportunities. The female entrepreneurs are provided with business coaching, one-to-one mentoring, and marketing support to enable them to effectively sell solar lights within their communities. Solar Sister entrepreneurs typically experience a 20% increase in family income, with approximately 80% of the additional earnings reinvested into their families, thereby enhancing access to education and healthcare for their children.
Since 2017, Nordic Capital’s engagement with Solar Sister has:
- Allowed Solar Sister to spread their model to new districts in Tanzania
- Enabled recruitment and training of almost 800 new Solar Sister entrepreneurs
- Spread 60,000 clean energy products to almost 300,000 people in rural areas
- Mitigated over 76,000 tons of CO2 equivalents.