Yeah,
I studied at the school sustainability and got my master's of science
there graduated in 2011 and I focused mainly on kind of the playoff
between economics and environment and social justice. So kind of the
realms of sustainability and how they interact in kind of the modern
business world, especially in the developing room. Ryan was one of the
master students in our program and he came to us with experience in mining
and one of the things that he found is that it really wasn't satisfying
his mission to make the world a better place. He understands that money is
important for providing raw materials and resources that can advance
livelihoods. But he thought that there might be other ways to help us
achieve human well being. So as a graduate student in our program, he had
the opportunity to take a systems perspective on what's necessary to
improve human well being and also to maintain and protect life supporting
ecosystems. So with that systems perspective, he was able to bring that to
this organization and find ways to create and develop these win win
situations. My biggest influence came from my professor said I had a
wonderful group on my thesis committee and they worked very diligently
with me to really help me find my focus with my studies. And when I said I
wanted to go to Haiti and start working there, they said, well that's a
little crazy you realize that but they were very good at working with me
to kind of shape my expectations and prepare me for what it was like to
start a new company in a country like Ryan came up with this idea, it's
called the biochar and it can be made from food waste, you know like sugar
cane after it has been processed, you can get those waste from the
refinery. So he came up with a method to process that waste into charcoal
and involve the local people in the production of the charcoal. And then
they also found out that that same charcoal could also be applied to the
soils. So in this way they were trying to tackle to environmental problems
, deforestation and then the problem also of restoring soil fertility.
Right now we have a factory on the outskirts of patients in Northern Haiti
Right there were employing in total about 150 people. So at this factory
right now in our first factory we have capacity for about 20 tons of
charcoal per day. Uh but that's the first of many factories and by the end
of the year we hope to have two more factories in Haiti closer to Puerto
Prince, which is the biggest market and therefore the biggest consumer of
charcoal. And the biggest reason for deforestation. A issue to me really
means that that community that support that that collection of interesting
dynamic people who bring ideas together and then make them happen in the
real world
godevils