Fa-brick-it

Problem :High level of pollution and carbon credits generated by construction industries especially in finishing and subdivision panels amidst availability of tonnes of resources which can be exploited to make next generation construction material .

As of January 2023 ,kenya had a housing deficit of around 7,000,000 houses and the gap was increasing by 200,000 houses each year. 80% of these houses are required for middle and low income earners .Government of kenya launched a robust affordable housing project targeting to build over 700,000 houses each year. But these came with its own shares of problems .  the cost of building rose by 0ver 300% with many suppliers targeting government tenders . supply of building material became low(especially finishing boards and panels) with importation of synthetic boards ( which are not sustainable ) being too high .

These affordable housing project is also moving too slow and seem to target high rise housing for upper middle earners in city living slum dwellers and locals looking for affordable houses in villages at their own mercies .

From research ,

60% of total construction carbon footprint   is  emitted as a result of unsustainable finishing and  subdivision mainly due to dependent of wood based boards and sythetic boards . Apart from these footprints , these boards are expensive to locals and only serve the structural feature. 

on the other end there are High level of pollution caused by end of life second hand clothing imported to africa (kenya).Kenya import saround 177000 tonnes annually with 80% of these fast fashion ending up in dumpsite wihin an year, these causes lots o fwater pollution (microfibre shedding) and air pollution when burnt to reduce volume. these is in additional carbon credits

imported as most are made of non convectional fabrics.

As an innovator in housing sector , having worked is solving the external shell  of building sustainability  model through ssbs saw  an opportunity to save hundreds of thousands of textile waste  while bridging the gap of sustainable housing  material making .

For last 5 years , we have being working as a sustainable housing solution. Starting as an ssbs (stabilized soil blocks)making company in 2018 , the company grew in 2019 to make its own ssbs making machine that have ability to make 1500 blocks a day with only 2 litres of diesel . These innovative machine was meant to reduce the bulkiness that came with hydrafoam machine, weakness in hand pressed blocks and make it possible for women and plwd to be involved in housing .the hydraulic powered machine was a success and allowed is to scale  to an end to end housing where we designed  houses, trained locals on how to make ssbs and together with them build the houses through lease to own model.

Its during these business that we established  that finishing house is the stage where most money , material and carbon emission  happens . finishing materials became expensive ,and non sustainable. These called for innovation.

Though we worked beliefly with mycelium based boards , we found a solstice in waste clothe boards which could be produced in bulk , year round and hand more structural and functional benefit.And we do these through our fa-Brick-it project

fa-Brick-it absorbs all end of life clothing an recycle them into an innovative acoustic and thermal insulator bricks used in housing sector .by doing these we are able to prevent hundreds of tonnes of clothing from reaching dumpsite fire or water pollution and create jobs to micro entreprenuers who does slum and rural aggregation for us . our final product ( clothe based sustainable building bricks and panels) is a safe alternative to polluting and energy intensive material used in construction industry. with us dealing with end of life clothe we take what no one need.

Our boards are infused by long term insect reppelants to ensure the build house is not only decent and affordable but also disease safe .

The resultant boards and panel are fire retardants, custom to size and colour and are infused with fluoresce material that reflects little lights making them fuctionally ideal fro Africa rural and slum areas as structural and functional element of the building .

local and regional : Kenya like many African countries is a net importer of second hand clothing with177000 tonnes imported and wasted in dumpsite yearly. with highest growing population ,low local manufacturing capabilities , these challenge seems to be growing each year. however the growing population also offer a unique opportunity, the demand for housing and decent ,affordable and sustainable housing material is on rise amidst increased advocacy against synthetic wood and tree felling. our aim is to solve the growing problem in waste cloth dumping while bringing the growing gap of sustainable construction material supply in market. our target market at scale is Nairobi ,Mombasa and Nakuru cities where dumping and burning happens at slum based community dumpsites affecting millions of locals around. on success , we aim to scale to entire country and Africa where our solution is much applicable.our boards target low income earners looking for decent and affordable housing solution .

currently we are testing of interior panel with a group of engineers and interior designers to see its applicability. we are optimist these will be suscessful and that by end of trials on june 2023, we shall be able to get a chance to provide subdivision panel to 160 housing project inua uwezo builders our pilot partner is running,. with these , we shall be able to atleast move to scale production and recycle 16 tonnes of fabrics into construction boards and be able to analyze our cost

structures, profits and operational structure. we hope to finalize and designing of market fit product by year 2 and hopefully move to commercial production by year 2025.

The overall impact that we envision apart from low cost and decent housing , insect repellant house finishing is on planet. these through ensuring :zero end of life clothe burning in kenya slums and villages dumpsite which leads to carbon and other pollutants emissionin the air . on average 1kgs of polyester clothe burnt leads to production of 4kgs of co2 considering 75% of total clothingimported are made of polyester, we shall measure primary impact by equating the total weight of clothing recycled bythese.

However our planet impacts are more by these, by preventing dumping of sythetic clothing at end life , we safe the planets and water way much of microplastics that are shed over years as these clothing tries to compose .synthetic dyes used in these clothes also washes away and pollute water ways . our planet impact goes beyond textile sector, the resultant products(brick and panel) are carbon negative and are used as replacers of polluting and energy intensive product that are currently used in construction sector eg synthetic plastic boards and wood based panel whose production requires tree felling.

we are a diverse team of professions brought together by passion and a need to see a green planet safe from textile pollution amidst increased usage as population increase.

The team is led by James kamau , a mechanical engineer graduate with 5 years experience in product design and

innovation . previously ,james have worked in innoavtive textiles industry as a technical person and was largely involved

in making natural fibre decorticating machine for banana waste,fibre processing line from pineapple waste and is currently

leading these team to solve end of life problem which occurs irregardless of how production process was sustainable .

peter maina is a industrial chemist and a co founder of the venture . with 8 years experience in enviromental pollution

control , chemical material transformation he is key in product design

Nathaniel and john are both social innovators working in designing and building affordable houses using sustainable

material.they advice us on the quality.

To ensure sustainability , the team is working with a team of advisors from Kenya industrial research  and development institute ,Thika technical training institute and Technical university of Mombasa .

To learn: MIT provide a platform through which   entreprenuers learn from each other, through these we are able to learn how the challenge we are targeting is solved in the other parts of the world , adopt the solutions which can be applied to kenya , and possibly customize and replicate the idea which can help scale our model of operations .

To network : with fellow entrepreneurs , trainers and most important with successful sustainable venture in the usa. With us being a startup in housing sector , we could be much interested to learn how big organizations like habitat from humanity breaks even and are able to deliver their solution sustainably.

To be mentored : to learn from expert , evaluate my solution in global lens and be able to change and modify my venture to be in a way that it can be understood by a third party.

To scale: through financing  and credibility I will get from these venture just by being a   solver and my idea being approved as innovative with a potential to sustainably help the planet.