Everlasting Technology

Macdonald Chirara is an inventor and social entrepreneur passionate about engineering technologies to solve socio-economic problems being faced in the community.  He is the founder and CEO of Everlasting Technology a social enterprise in Zimbabwe that aims to create green communities through innovative renewable energy solutions. He has worked on several projects and has received a number of awards and accolades that highlight his results-driven leadership in the world of innovations. He also currently serves as a World Literacy Foundation ambassador working towards eradicating illiteracy by reaching to marginalized communities through innovation and technology.

Over 60% of the sub-Saharan households are using firewood as the main source of cooking energy. This energy poverty results in massive deforestation, gradually degrading our environment. Incomplete combustion of firewood that occurs while cooking over open fires doubles the number of carbon emissions each year and also pollutes indoor air creating health problems. According to the cooking alliance, globally, up to 25% of carbon emissions come from household cooking, heating, and lighting. Most households are still using firewood because they do not afford other sustainable energy alternatives. I am committed to empowering marginalized communities with low-cost sustainable technology to easily access electricity and cooking energy through the use of the household waste powered electricity generator. This project will promote the reduction of organic waste, transitioning to renewable energy, and improving the health and living conditions for the millions of families that are still cooking on charcoal and wood.

Millions of people in most developing countries depend on burning wood, as the main source of cooking energy. This results in a high level of indoor air pollution. It corresponds to 3 billion of people undergoing potential threats from indoor air pollution. The domestic smoke is responsible for the death of almost 2 million children under the age of giving, for lung cancer in two-thirds of non-smoking women, and for 4 % of the global diseases. But the negative effects are not limited to the households. Excessive usage of wood implies deforestation, which leads to the emission of greenhouse gases that finally results in climate change. Moreover, 2.4 billion people live without access to toilets mostly due to expensive infrastructure costs. This leads to pollution of the environment and pathogenesis through open-air defecation.

We are introducing the household waste powered electricity generator.  This is a low-cost unit which directly converts any organic waste to cooking gas and electricity. The amount of organic waste used will be directly proportional to the output power up to the optimum point. With Ikg of organic waste, one can get up to 2 hrs of continuous cooking gas and power output of 240 Volts, 350 watts. The user-friendly system requires no construction, has anti-smell mechanisms and also can directly convert organic waste to electricity at the household level. For our innovations to reach the targeted communities we have created a campaign to empower people with new technology to easily access electricity and energy and training them on sustainable waste management practices. Over the last year through the campaign, we channelled our efforts to educate many communities on the effects of cutting down trees for firewood and climate change. We deployed our household waste powered electricity generators to different rural areas across Zimbabwe, enabling people to transform their lives while simultaneously protecting the environment. We are contributing to making an impact on sustainable development, environmental awareness and the healthcare of marginalised communities.

The project aim is to support the efforts to raise levels of social development and economic growth by increasing access to electricity and sustainable cooking energy in rural areas. Providing access to electricity in rural areas of Zimbabwe has been a major challenge. The most energy sources such as kerosene lamps and firewood are generally of poor quality, and energy is used inefficiently; the power supply is unreliable and access to it limited, with about 80% of households in rural areas still unable to benefit from modern energy services. This not only has an adverse effect on economic productivity; more importantly, it also affects people’s quality of life and is having a strong impact on the environment. The unsustainable use of locally sourced biomass and increasing dependence on fossil fuels are causing environmental degradation and greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change. We are engaging households through environmental educational campaigns. We are also creating employment opportunities as we are recruiting the youth and women from these communities as our agents in the distribution and consultation process. The project is going to allow rural communities to get access to sustainable energy simultaneously using a proper waste management process.

The project is well-aligned to the elevating opportunities for all people, especially those who are traditionally left behind dimension because it is allowing communities in rural areas of developing countries to also have access to electricity. Most rural households in developing countries are not yet connected to the national grid. The project targets to meet the energy requirements of rural people while raising economic productivity and thereby contributing to a sustainable improvement in living conditions in rural areas; this will provide inputs for further rural energy interventions and reduce carbon emissions by focusing on technologies not based on fossil fuels.

As I was growing in an urban community, and sometimes going to the rural areas to spend my holidays, I noticed a big difference between the two communities.I concluded that life was rather difficult in rural areas.Most basic needs are met with difficulty in rural areas of Zimbabwe and the phenomenon remains the same looking at Africa at large.These include reliable sustainable energy and clean water.What touched me most was how most people in the rural areas of Zimbabwe are living most of their lives in darkness. During my stay at the rural areas, we usually slept early because there was no lighting or any form of entertainment.I sometimes experienced the challenges wrought by looking for firewood in bushes.I just imaged how this system is moving from generation to generation though to most of the rural people like my grandmother it’s now a norm.This is what inspired me to also contribute to the research for energy innovations using locally available resources.One of the science teachers, in my high school, had taught me how to use the scientific method in research after discovering my science research curiosity. Hence I had a backbone for the research and engineering design for the project.

I’m passionate about contributing to a sustainable future as part of what I see as an energy revolution — moving from traditional forms of energy generation to renewable forms. I want to be part of a future where everyone from any community has an equal opportunity to sustainable energy access. I also chose the renewables industry due to my own concerns around climate change and the future of energy supply. Renewable energy creates access to clean energy without destroying the environment, particularly for marginalized people living in remote areas. When created sustainably, it helps to alleviate poverty, improves living conditions and propels economic development. When I started working on the project, my dream was that everyone in my grandmother's rural area Hurungwe, in Zimbabwe to mitigate from cutting down trees and shift to move sustainable energy source.

I have always been keenly aware of the challenges we face globally, hence I direct my focus towards solution-oriented initiatives.I am currently a student at the African Leadership leadership Academy studying Entrepreneurial Leadership. I am also the founder of Everlasting Technology a social enterprise in Zimbabwe empowering people with new technology to easily access electricity and energy and training people on sustainable waste management practices.The recent project I led at Everlasting Technology was the distribution of biogas systems across Zimbabwe in partnership with Homebiogas with funding from SNV Netherlands Development Organisation and UNICEF. We set up portable centralized biogas plants in different remote farming communities.I am also a member of the Green Institute initiative.My role involves working with communities on conservation projects and educating them on how to conserve their environment and benefit from it in a sustainable manner.I was part of the environmental champions programme in Zimbabwe which created threads of awareness on the effects of deforestation and campaigns to restore ecosystems, empower environmental stewards through reforestation, urban greening, sustainable development, and environmental projects across Zimbabwe.I also published a research paper which I presented in forums such the London International Youth Science forum on how we can utilise the Water hyacinth (Eichhorniae crassipes) an alien floating water weed as a potential source of bio-energy and prevent its spread which has recently caused negative environmental impacts.I was also part of the UNICEF Generation green working on different solutions to create awareness and campaigns in our countries to protect our planet.

One of the challenges we have faced was the adaptation process of our unit during the implementation stage. Most of the people tended to inherently prefer to continue using firewood as their main source of cooking energy rather than the new technology we had introduced. We had to go back to the drawing board and find what was the main cause of this new problem. We designed different data collection methods so that we would get more insights into the problem causes. From that, we realised that despite the excitement of the people to shift to newer technology, there were still cultural hindrance factors. Some people felt that the new technology did not fit with their traditional values.For instance, it has been a cultural norm in some families that girls and women should go and fetch firewood during certain days of the month. Also, another thing was that people did not have the full knowledge to operate with the unit. To solve this problem we designed an educational curriculum on the advantages of sustainable energy and partnered with community leaders to deliver it. This allowed people to see the effects of firewood and the need to shift to cleaner energy.

I have led the Everlasting Technology team in creating impact in the lives of different people across Zimbabwe. Everlasting Technology has been recognised as being part of the Next 100 Startups in Africa by the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Everlasting Technology has also been awarded the Green Innovation Award by the SNV Netherlands Development Organisation among other achievements. I also served as the Science Club President at my high school, leading projects which have been selected to national and International Science fairs. I am also currently working on an Environmental Leaders Programme for Schools and Colleges in Zimbabwe. The Environmental Leaders Programme will be student-led clubs with a mission to help youth leaders at schools understand environmental and social problems in Zimbabwe and the world. The program will include workshops based on selected sections on waste management and community recycling, climate change understanding and environmental action. I also serve as a World Literacy Foundation ambassador working towards eradicating illiteracy by reaching to marginalized communities through innovation and technology.

Our solution is innovative because it is bringing up new technology that will allow the direct conversion of waste to electricity without any mechanical moving parts on a household level. We have also developed a pay as you go model so that our units can be accessible to all.

Everlasting Technology is providing rural communities with waste powered electricity generators allowing a transition to renewable energy. Adaptation of our system by a household will result in the reduction of deforestation for firewood by 90% and also save up to 100% of Kerosene house lightning expenses. Rural households will also save up to 50% of fertilizer expenses through the organic-based fertilizer produced as output from the unit. Also, the project will generally Improve public health and odour issues through waste management and reduces cases of ALRI (acute lower respiratory infection). Some of the long term outcomes include rural employment creation through training locals as technicians. Also, the direct reduction of carbon emissions (each system will save 5T of carbon emissions per annum) - Reducing Zimbabwe’s widespread deforestation – in 2018 only 1.7% of Zimbabwe was forested, compared with 10% in 1960. With the rate of deforestation reducing -  there will be an increase in water tables, reduction of soil erosion and reduction in the frequency of droughts, ultimately contributing to the reduction of global warming. To date, we have already our units to 37 households through our pilot program. We are targeting 10,000 units installed by the end of 2021 – 0.5% of the theoretical market of 1.8m rural households in Zimbabwe In the long term, we plan to grow across all of rural Zimbabwe, into the East African region and India.

How many people does your project currently serve
The project is currently serving approximately one thousand people. In the next year, the project will be serving Ten Thousand people. In the next five years, the project will be serving five hundred thousand people across different parts of the world.

The project is currently serving approximately one thousand people. In the next year, the project will be serving Ten Thousand people. In the next five years, the project will be serving five hundred thousand people across different parts of the world.

The first goal of the project is to reach across 10 000 people across Zimbabwe by the end of 2021 and eradicate different social problems being faced.

Gender: There will be a decrease in the workload of rural women hence giving them more time to engage in other economic activities by reducing the time and labour required to collect fuel and cook meals.

Economic- Create rural employment through training and employing locals in all the communities we serve. 
Climate: Reduce the rate of deforestation for firewood by 90% in the target communities
Actions to achieve the goals;

1.Problem identification and needs analysis by involving all the key stakeholders(communities, NGOs/CBOs operating in the area, potential funders, etc)
2.Getting authorisation and permission from relevant government authorities/regulatory bodies
3.Development and introduction of strict quality control measures and standards
4.Training of both women and men technicians and skilled labour
5.Designing proper Monitoring and Evaluation/inspection programmes that are gender-sensitive
6.Establishment of extension services and other related support services

Cultural- some marginalised communities tend to be resistant to technological changes due to cultural reasons and ignorance

Economic- Zimbabwe has been undergoing economic fluctuation making it difficult to raise scaling capital.

The main barriers currently existing to accomplish our goals are:

Cultural- some marginalised communities tend to be resistant to technological changes due to cultural reasons and ignorance

Finacial- Zimbabwe has been undergoing economic fluctuation making it difficult to raise scaling capital.

Cultural barriers: Create more educational and awareness campaign in the target communities and partner with local community leaders.

Economic barriers- Apply for risk-free capital and grants and strategic partners

United Nations Development ProgrammeZimbabwe- mentorship , technical and field experts

SNV Netherlands Development Organisation- Seed capital, mentorship and strategic evaluations 

Ministry of Youth, Sports Arts and Culture Zimbabwe- Strategic partner

Green Institute- Educational curriculum development

Everlasting Technology is going to sell the waste powered electricity generator through direct sale and pay as you go, model. We are also going to sell Carbon Credits to large manufacturing companies to provide sustainable energy to marginalised communities. The waste powered electricity generator units will provide clean energy to rural communities.  Also creating a safe waste management practice. The time and energy saved by women to collect fuelwood would be utilised elsewhere to generate other sources of income, e.g food crops. The local technicians will also get income when installing and servicing/maintaining the units.

The initial seed capital is raised through grants and sustained donations. For the scaling up of the project will raise equity investment capital. In the long term we will be selling a commercial based waste powered electricity generator to sustain the low income production model.

We received a green innovation grant from SNV Netherland Development Organisation.