Gadgetory

this is how 1.2 billion people on earth live in the dark when the Sun Goes Down over many developing nations the percentage of the population that has no electricity has to fend for itself they battled the night using kerosene lamps and other inefficient methods productivity goes down and they're unable to study or work factors that perpetuate inequality in poverty can anything be done to lift these people out of the darkness it has been a horrifying week here in port-au-prince a week were the dead the injured and the homeless are sharing a city largely reduced to rubble the earthquake rocked this impoverished Caribbean nation late this afternoon three hundred and sixteen thousand people died and many more lost their homes in the winter of 2010 Haiti was devastated by the most powerful earthquake to hit the island in two centuries between two hundred and thirty thousand and three hundred and fifteen thousand individuals were killed and more than a million were displaced the country's infrastructure never robust to begin with had been ravaged by severe tropical storms and hurricanes in previous years after the earthquake many were left without basic necessities food water shelter and not least of all like in many of those parts of the world a lot of the violence occurs in places of darkness so we knew we wanted to start with light I was born in New York but I spent every summer nating and after the earthquake I brought seven delegations of influencers and people who I thought could be helpful to the development efforts and it was clear given that Haiti's about 80 percent off-grid there's a preponderance of solar and so if we can bring those things together we could have tremendous impact and we will areas where we work that day and basically 6 p.m. and many kids cannot read at night unless the plants are able to buy left to light in their houses and and and even many families do not have the means to do that born out of a desire to eradicate these problems and power developed Lucille enter a compact lightweight inflatable LED light that harnesses small solar panels to illuminate the darkest corners of these developing areas so their pitch was that they wanted to develop a lighting product that could be sold for a profit and really do good but also be a business model so the goal was could we make a solar charge product that could provide as much light if not more and a cost that was lower than what it would be for kerosene so the Lucille answer is lightweight super compact weighs about four ounces waterproof and your provides significantly more light than other products that cost five to ten dollars more but it also does so in an elegant manner it's something that you can have in any room whether it's developing or developed market and it's beautiful simple press of the button turns the unit on a normal output setting which lasts about 12 hours and in a high setting which lasts about six hours on the bottom side you can see the solar panel we came up with a very reliable design which is easy to produce the battery stores the energy here the solar panel on this side the LED is around and then the control electronics for controlling both the charging and discharging in the battery and also the various lighting modes it's completely waterproof submersible to more than a meter you would think actually it's pretty minimal but really you know it's an incredible amount of stress and remains very very rugged and reliable part of our focus is create the best-in-class solar-powered products in the space we want to be clear that at least initially we're focused on getting the best technologies to the people who need it most the type of feedback we get is incredible maybe the people who are seeing our product and they're like wow my life is gonna change in so many ways people are for the first time experiencing these lanterns and and the reaction is just incredible I mean they cry they literally break down and cry over something that you and I look at as a toy but it's because we haven't ever had the opportunity to really be in the dark our whole life and for the first time ever actually have a really quality Lantern inside the home or in a school the impacts are enormous I witnessed firsthand the importance of these lights for this for the children and other families so then what happened is the developed markets are like wow that's super cool I wanted to now what the developed started to pick it up that quickly increases revenues lower costs allow us to pour morn's R&D and develop products that were resonate with that base of the pyramid even more so that we can come back to market with products that are as impactful if not more so but even at a lower cost so our sales here do enable us to do good in the developing world because we're such a large consumer market in the United States the the ability to generate volume here enables us to fund what we want to do elsewhere in the world for every order we get from one of our major retailers whether it's Lowe's or EMS that in turn it affords us to be able to give more through our NGO partners and what I hope to see is a continuation of that kind of relationship right the days of simply maximizing profits are behind us information flows too quickly it's understanding that we live in an interconnected world and figuring out what each part of that world can offer to the other in order to ensure that everyone benefits you