Climate Friendly web enquiry

Thanks very much for your email. I’ve also had a quick look at your website and it sounds a great idea.

However, unfortunately, we are not really in a position to help with either the tree-planting or laptop idea right now. Re tree-planting, although we too love trees, I’m afraid we have no expertise in this area as we only sell credits from renewable energy project verified by either VCS or Gold Standard. I wouldn’t really know where to look for sponsorship – perhaps the EU or World Bank? Or a corporate sponsor with interests in telcos and a desire to integrate something like this into their CSR strategies?

Sorry I can’t be of more assistance but it’s just not really our area.

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Thanks for your email and your interest in myclimate. Unfortunately we can’t support you as your project ideas don’t fulfil our criteria (http://www.myclimate.org/en/carbon-offset-projects/project-standard.html).

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Wanted to respond separately for this one. This is awesome – I’m glad you’re getting excited about this – that’s when good stuff happens 😉 I think immediately you just need to start moving and getting the word out. Later, think you want to take further steps to keep expanding the name and establishing your record. I.e. set up a non-profit. People are going to want to see something in return for their investment to you. Also, you probably want to be aware (and suggest) that people claim against their tax when they donate to you. I think you need to be an entity for this. Other thought in terms of expanding the word is that you can put together some brochures and talk to the churches on what you’re planning. I think if a church endorses you, it gives an added level of credibility. Anyway, these are just ideas. I think you’ve got a good plan, you probably want to do a combination of networking with like minded people, and just start moving. Things have a way of clicking together once you do so.

Let me know how this goes and if you need help!

heybro, thanks for the encouragement and will try to charge something more to the market rate. In the past I guess I always felt I was serving God better by charging a lower price, and assumed that everything would just fall into place, but I guess if I charge a fair market rate to regular clients and dedicate my resources and spare time to charity, I’m doing better. Gotta get into this frame of mind more.

Anyway, been getting really interesting responses concerning the Africa thing and slowly formulating a plan. Will update the website with all the responses, as search engines like this, and I think people will see that I’m actually doing something and enjoy the reading. Once that is done I figure I will have accomplished stage 2, which is to get a better idea of how to go about this and create some strategy.

Yes, I definitely want to be very transparent and show the first name, amount and date of any contributors, and then exactly where all the money will be spent. Not sure if I know what to do to become a registered charity but certainly is a good idea.

Perhaps if you could forward my email or post it at your church etc. for networking purposes only. Right now I’m trying to build things up from the bottom. Sure if someone wanted to donate I’d take it and store it in a special account I have set up for that, but for now I’m primarily interested in ideas and contacts to relevant organisations.

Man would it be SO cool to drive down to Kenya. All my people in Africa suggest that I contact the governments in every country to get their approval. Then they can help and maybe supply support in some way and they say I should be safer. I’ve also got some contacts for a Norwegian organisation which could donate used laptops, so things are happenin! But a year can certainly go by quickly so I want to keep on this.

Thanks for the input bro! k

Glad to man J don’t worry about the non-profit – when you feel you’re going to need it, I can help you with it. I’ll think about how to word this to the church audience. I think right now it’s more an informal “hey, my bro is doing xyz” to put the seeds out and potentially get some interest. When there’s more substance, I can approach with something more actionable. I could then use that as a template for approach to other churches or organizations in Europe. Let me know how this goes. I’ll try to help you as I can. Btw, we got Gracia a new laptop so her old one is up for this. You said you’re thinking open source? I could invest some time to help you put together an installation profile for your computers (I’m assuming you want to template it such that when you have to get into a support role down the road, it is easy for you to know what went wrong and fix it). Anyway – sounds awesome. Let me know how this goes!

yah, my eventual vision is that I/we etc. would set up the template computers with all my knowledge how to teach oneself PHP, get translations, design websites etc and everything to employ oneself, like I’ve been doing all these years, and then find translators to translate it locally for each country/language. It would be in English and then the other languages, so they could teach themselves English as well – very important obviously. I would be “on ground” to help them on hand, at their location. Would be so cool if I could get involved and hang out in little villages like that. Will send you a link to the website once I update it with all the info I’ve been collecting from others. Quite interesting stuff! :0)

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Public-sector projects are financed through IBRD loans or IDA credits to governments that are members of the World Bank Group (WBG). The WBG lending arm for the private sector is the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the largest multilateral source of loan and equity financing for private sector projects in the developing world. The IFC participates in private sector projects financing in the developing countries and helps private companies in the developing world mobilize financing in international financial markets. To apply for IFC financing, please consult the following web page:

http://www.ifc.org/proserv/apply/application/application.html
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The African Project Development Facility (APDF) is a donor-funded facility which provides a full range of services to the African SME sector. It includes business advice and services. For additional information, please consult their website at:

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The African Management Services Company (AMSCO) supplies experienced managers and technical personnel to small and medium-sized private companies in Africa. Customized training services to local managers and staff are offered to upgrade their skills and improve performance and productivity of their company. For additional information, please consult their website at:

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Umou
Public Information Services Team
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