Latest / Glovisor Podcast / How Clean Energy Is Transforming Communities in Ghana - Tangelic [Ep 95]

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How Clean Energy Is Transforming Communities in Ghana - Tangelic [Ep 95] · Glovisor Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What if access to clean energy could transform entire communities
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  Speaker 1: and create opportunities for generations to come? Welcome to the
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  Speaker 1: Globalizer podcast, where we explore business growth, communication, and personal
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  Speaker 1: development through real conversations with people who make an impact.
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  Speaker 1: Our guest is the executive director of Tangelic. He has
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  Speaker 1: led initiatives bringing clean energy to communities in Ghana, built
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  Speaker 1: partnerships to accelerate Africa's energy transition, and champions solutions that
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  Speaker 1: improve livelihoods and expands opportunities. Glowvisor welcomes Justin Williams.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, Joe, how you doing? Thanks for having me. Oh,
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  Speaker 2: you're welcome.
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  Speaker 1: All right, so Justin, please share with us, what is
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  Speaker 1: it that you do and who do you serve?
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  Speaker 3: Great. Well, as you mentioned today, I serve as the
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  Speaker 3: executive director of Tangelic, which is a nonprofit that is
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  Speaker 3: focused on advancing clean energy infrastructure as well as sustainable development.
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  Speaker 3: across West Africa, specifically Ghana at this time. And our
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  Speaker 3: work centers on bridging the gap and development between opportunities
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  Speaker 3: as well as actual implementation. So that essentially involves.
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  Speaker 2: Bringing together finance.
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  Speaker 3: Technical expertise, government stakeholders, as well as local partners. And
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  Speaker 3: to give you an example, Joe, our Sunrise Spectrum initiative
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  Speaker 3: in Ghana, where we've been implementing cleaner cooking solutions in
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  Speaker 3: rural communities, has been going phenomenally well since roughly July
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  Speaker 3: when we launched our phase one pilot where we distributed
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  Speaker 3: 150 clean cook stoves to rural communities in northwest Africa.
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  Speaker 3: And a significant part of my role is simply building
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  Speaker 3: relationships and creating alignment among various organizations that have different priorities,
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  Speaker 3: if you will. I've learned a lot of lessons over
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  Speaker 3: these last two years since we initiated our operations, and
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  Speaker 3: those lessons have taught me that leadership is more often
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  Speaker 3: about influence rather than, say, authority.
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  Speaker 2: Let's go back.
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  Speaker 1: What started this mission, and why specifically that area of Africa?
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  Speaker 3: We certainly did our due diligence in regards to the
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  Speaker 3: best country to start off with. Ghana is just the beginning,
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  Speaker 3: and we plan to scale from phase one to phase
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  Speaker 3: four through 2032, where we will affect a million people
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  Speaker 3: as well as 200 households in Ghana. But Ghana, they're
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  Speaker 3: very friendly to organizations such as Tangelic coming in and
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  Speaker 3: helping their people.
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  Speaker 2: A lot less, say, hurdles to jump, less red tape,
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  Speaker 2: et cetera.
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  Speaker 3: And they even launched an initiative in 2018 called Return
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  Speaker 3: to Ghana, where they encourage people from the diaspora to
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  Speaker 3: come to Ghana to live as well as start businesses.
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  Speaker 3: So with that, throughout my career, I worked in different industries,
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  Speaker 3: particularly healthcare, finance, as well as organizational leadership. And while
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  Speaker 3: I While those experience may be very different, one thing
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  Speaker 3: they taught me was about leading teams, managing resources, and
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  Speaker 3: turning strategy into results. I actually co-founded the organization with
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  Speaker 3: our chair, Dr. Justin Dargan. And when Justin and I
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  Speaker 3: started developing Tangelic, we recognized an opportunity to apply experience
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  Speaker 3: to challenges that have a much broader impact. Justin, he
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  Speaker 3: has 20 plus years of experience say, the energy industry.
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  Speaker 2: And I obviously have.
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  Speaker 3: The 20 plus leadership years, 20 plus years of leadership
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  Speaker 3: experience in various industries. So we make a very dynamic
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  Speaker 3: team and we built a very, very robust team over
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  Speaker 3: the last two years.
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  Speaker 1: It's great to have that partnership with someone that you
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  Speaker 1: know that could work and then you both seem to
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  Speaker 1: complement one another.
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  Speaker 2: There you go. Well said.
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  Speaker 3: One of the.
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  Speaker 1: Questions that I wanted to it's it's this is a
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  Speaker 1: huge undertaking.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, huge.
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  Speaker 1: I just it seems so big that I can't even,
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  Speaker 1: you know, contemplate even how to start something like this.
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  Speaker 1: And the two of you came together to start this
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  Speaker 1: off and to help a lot of people. So once
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  Speaker 1: you got to Ghana, how did you decide what you're
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  Speaker 1: going to work on first and how you're going to
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  Speaker 1: put it all together? And then you also mentioned this
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  Speaker 1: long plan all the way to 2032 already. So that
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  Speaker 1: means you have a much longer plan set out for
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  Speaker 1: your organization.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Absolutely. Phase four, like I said, 2032, that's our goal.
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  Speaker 3: One million people, 200 plus, 200 plus thousand households.
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  Speaker 2: So we are very ambitious with what we do. There's
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  Speaker 2: a need out there, obviously.
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  Speaker 3: My first trip to Ghana was in 2024, and I
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  Speaker 3: went on what I would like to call a fact-finding mission.
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  Speaker 3: I visited various communities. I was in touch with other
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  Speaker 3: NGOs as well. I was in the north, the south,
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  Speaker 3: the east, the west, and we settled with an organization
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  Speaker 3: called Green for Change Ghana. They are a phenomenal organization.
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  Speaker 3: They're located not far from the communities that we currently
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  Speaker 3: serve in the northwest region. They've been in business for
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  Speaker 3: roughly 10 years or so and very environmentally friendly NGO.
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  Speaker 2: So they introduced us to these communities.
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  Speaker 3: We decided after my trip that the biggest need within
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  Speaker 3: the communities would be clean cook, clean cook stoves, providing
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  Speaker 3: clean cook stoves to these communities because the traditional cooking
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  Speaker 3: methods cause various issues such as upper respiratory illness. and
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  Speaker 3: they let emissions into the environment. So our goal is
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  Speaker 3: to affect the health of the people we serve in
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  Speaker 3: a positive way, as well as help the environment by
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  Speaker 3: reducing the emissions.
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  Speaker 2: Again, a lot of these communities are off the grid
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  Speaker 2: as well, so no electricity.
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  Speaker 3: So with phase two, we will implement not only additional
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  Speaker 3: clean cook stoves and additional communities, but we will also
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  Speaker 3: implement home solar systems as well. And then there will
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  Speaker 3: be a piece, hopefully with phase three, where we will
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  Speaker 3: introduce mini microgrids, where we will be able to light
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  Speaker 3: up community centers and help farmers with irrigation for their crops,
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  Speaker 3: et cetera. So it's been a phenomenal journey thus far.
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  Speaker 3: And we certainly, like I said, are very ambitious to
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  Speaker 3: hit our goal in 2032.
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  Speaker 1: Can you describe what a clean cook stove is?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
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  Speaker 3: So I guess the best way for me to describe it,
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  Speaker 3: it is a component that sits maybe about two feet
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  Speaker 3: off the ground.
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  Speaker 2: It's round in nature. So it's not like a traditional stove.
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  Speaker 3: I guess if you can imagine a crock pot, a
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  Speaker 3: bit larger than a crock pot, if you will, or
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  Speaker 3: slow cooker that some people call it. And with these
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  Speaker 3: clean cook stoves, it reduces the cooking time. by the
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  Speaker 3: women of the community. So it may, say with the
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  Speaker 3: traditional cooking methods, it may take two, three, four hours
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  Speaker 3: cook time for certain meals. So we're able to cut
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  Speaker 3: that in half. But the biggest win I would say
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  Speaker 3: for the people that use the clean cook stoves is
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  Speaker 3: not only reducing emissions in the environment, as well as
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  Speaker 3: the health part that I mentioned previously, But another big
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  Speaker 3: win would be less time searching for charcoal or even
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  Speaker 3: wood because the stoves run on charcoal or wood. So
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  Speaker 3: women and young children, they spend sometimes up to eight
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  Speaker 3: hours a day, you know, in the field and going
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  Speaker 3: to various areas collecting charcoal and wood. So they still
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  Speaker 3: need to do that, but they don't have to do
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  Speaker 3: as much. And we did for phase one as well,
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  Speaker 3: provide the charcoal.
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  Speaker 2: And wood to these communities too.
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  Speaker 3: And We even have sensors on them and those sensors
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  Speaker 3: tell us how often they're being used and the emissions
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  Speaker 3: reduction into the environment as well. And the feedback has
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  Speaker 3: been phenomenal. So as I mentioned, we deployed in July
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  Speaker 3: and the community members cannot say enough about how it's
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  Speaker 3: positively impacted their lives since.
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  Speaker 1: Now, do you go back to that specific community again
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  Speaker 1: and again to try to scale to the next level
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  Speaker 1: or do you try to spread those services throughout different communities?
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  Speaker 2: Well, both. It's a combination of both.
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  Speaker 3: So we will certainly go back to those communities and
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  Speaker 3: scale within the communities.
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  Speaker 2: Because it was selected households during the pilot.
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  Speaker 3: So we definitely plan to open up to other households
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  Speaker 3: within those communities once we have our data collected, etc.
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  Speaker 3: And then we expect those homes to also receive home
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  Speaker 3: solar systems when we deploy those for phase two. And
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  Speaker 3: we will certainly look for additional communities as well as
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  Speaker 3: we scale phase two, three, and four.
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  Speaker 1: You mentioned that you select certain families. I suspect that
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  Speaker 1: the communities are pretty much within the same situation or condition.
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  Speaker 1: What makes one family more up to receiving one of
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  Speaker 1: these stoves than another?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great question, Joe.
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  Speaker 3: And as you can imagine, with some people in the
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  Speaker 3: community that were not selected, unfortunately, they would, you know,
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  Speaker 3: have to have the mindset of why not me, why
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  Speaker 3: not me, etc. You know, Grants for Change Ghana, our
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  Speaker 3: on the ground partner, they did a phenomenal job with
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  Speaker 3: selecting the appropriate households to launch. phase one with the
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  Speaker 3: clean cook stoves. You know, it was an interview process.
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  Speaker 3: You know, that's what it came down to in the
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  Speaker 3: collection of data. So they had people, let's say, boots
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  Speaker 3: on the ground in the field. interviewing these homes, doing surveys,
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  Speaker 3: et cetera. And then with the data gathered, they then
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  Speaker 3: decided which homes would be best to implement the first
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  Speaker 3: round of twin-click stoves.
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  Speaker 1: Now, did you get an opportunity to see some of
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  Speaker 1: these surveys?
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 3: So we collected information in regards to, say, how many
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  Speaker 3: people live in the household, whether it be anywhere from
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  Speaker 3: two to seven. We collected information in regards to household
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  Speaker 3: income as well. based off what type of jobs they
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  Speaker 3: had or ways that they collect their income, number of.
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  Speaker 2: Children in the household as well.
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  Speaker 3: So those were pretty much the determining factors in regards
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  Speaker 3: to who obtained the first round or phase one of
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  Speaker 3: the clean cook stoves.
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  Speaker 2: And it was a variety. You know, it was a variety.
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  Speaker 3: So we want or we need all types of data
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  Speaker 3: as we move forward in scale.
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  Speaker 1: Just for point of reference, what income levels are we
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  Speaker 1: talking about?
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely poverty level.
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  Speaker 3: Um, you know, the, the great people of the communities
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  Speaker 3: that we serve, um, they have all types of different,
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  Speaker 3: different jobs as they do, whether it be a farming,
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  Speaker 3: whether it be a trade, uh, whether it be, um,
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  Speaker 3: working for local businesses as well, where they would have
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  Speaker 3: to travel an hour plus from the villages that they,
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  Speaker 3: they live in. But that area in Northwest Ghana, um,
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  Speaker 3: A lot of farming is done. A lot of farming
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  Speaker 3: is done. So that's the main job that most of
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  Speaker 3: the men in the villages partake in.
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  Speaker 1: I could only imagine that this requires a lot of
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  Speaker 1: money to fund this process. Now, how do you raise
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  Speaker 1: capital as an organization?
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  Speaker 2: That's a great question.
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  Speaker 3: So phase one, we received catalytic funding, but we are
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  Speaker 3: currently in conversations with the major donors. major investors as well,
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  Speaker 3: to get us to the point where we are able
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  Speaker 3: to deploy phase two and beyond as we scale through
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  Speaker 3: the upcoming years. So obviously, there's a carbon credit piece involved,
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  Speaker 3: which is very attractive to investors. Now, I'm no expert
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  Speaker 3: in that field. There are people on my team that
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  Speaker 3: are much more versed in that. But that is the attraction, say,
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  Speaker 3: to investors that are looking to invest in Africa, specifically Ghana,
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  Speaker 3: with our energy deployment projects.
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  Speaker 1: What is a carbon credit and how does that benefit me?
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  Speaker 1: I'm a business in U.S. and how would that benefit
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  Speaker 1: me to get a carbon credit in Ghana?
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Absolutely.
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  Speaker 3: So with the clean cook stoves and even the home
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  Speaker 3: solar systems that we will deploy during phase two, they,
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  Speaker 3: how can I say, they collect data. in regards to
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  Speaker 3: emissions that is released into the environment. So ideally, depending
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  Speaker 3: on the sun for energy, with the home solar systems,
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  Speaker 3: and then with the clean cook stoves that release less, say,
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  Speaker 3: smoke emissions into the environment, that data is collected. And
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  Speaker 3: once you reach a certain point with that data, then
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  Speaker 3: a carbon credit is earned. So ideally, investors want technologies
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  Speaker 3: that reduce the most emissions into the environment, because what
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  Speaker 3: happens is that builds the greater amount of carbon credits.
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  Speaker 3: So if you can imagine, once we get to phase
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  Speaker 3: four and we're serving 200,000 households and a million people
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  Speaker 3: through various means such as clean cook stoves, home solar systems,
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  Speaker 3: community microgrids, We're going to.
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  Speaker 2: Have a lot of carbon credits. Right.
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  Speaker 3: And what they can do is then cash those carbon
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  Speaker 3: credits in for for actual money, you know, U.S. dollars.
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  Speaker 2: You know, so it's like an investment.
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  Speaker 3: I don't want to say, you know, think of it
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  Speaker 3: as I guess I would say I don't want to
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  Speaker 3: compare it to Bitcoin.
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  Speaker 2: You know, obviously, that's something totally different where it's a cryptocurrency.
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  Speaker 3: But, you know, you can if you have Bitcoin or
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  Speaker 3: any type of cryptocurrency, you can, you know, cash it
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  Speaker 3: in for for money.
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  Speaker 2: So carbon credits kind of act in the same manner.
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  Speaker 1: And what's the life cycle of a carbon credit?
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  Speaker 2: The life cycle?
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  Speaker 3: So they go in quarters. You receive, you collect data
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  Speaker 3: every quarter and you hold on to those. And then
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  Speaker 3: you can hold on to them for a period of
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  Speaker 3: time or continue to collect them.
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  Speaker 2: And then eventually you would be able to cash them
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  Speaker 2: in for money.
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  Speaker 1: Does their value reduce over time?
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  Speaker 2: No, they do not.
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  Speaker 1: If you have a carbon credit from 2024, you can
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  Speaker 1: still trade that carbon copy today?
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  Speaker 2: You got it. That's correct.
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  Speaker 1: Now, why are businesses, let's just say in U.S. or Canada,
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  Speaker 1: so interested in amassing some of these credits?
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  Speaker 2: Well, that's another great question, Joe.
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  Speaker 3: So there is something called Article 6 within the Paris
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  Speaker 3: Agreement where a collective of.
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  Speaker 2: Countries have came together.
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  Speaker 3: To fight climate change and to obviously reduce emissions in
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  Speaker 3: the environment. And that's the attractive thing. And when they're
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  Speaker 3: able to do that, they then receive money in regards
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  Speaker 3: to loans and grants, et cetera. And, you know, it's
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  Speaker 3: just a huge initiative that has been going on for
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  Speaker 3: several years now that makes it very attractive for businesses
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  Speaker 3: such as Tangelic, or I should say organizations such as Tangelic,
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  Speaker 3: and for these countries such as Ghana, even the United States,
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  Speaker 3: to meet the requirements set forth by the Paris Agreement.
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  Speaker 1: Now, who would be the ideal individual that should be
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: contacting you right now?
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  Speaker 2: Great question.
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  Speaker 3: So the ideal individuals that would be ideal to contact
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  Speaker 3: Tangelic right now would be private institutions, anyone interested in
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  Speaker 3: investing in Africa, private investors, organizations that are looking to
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  Speaker 3: provide glance for climate change projects as well.
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  Speaker 1: If someone wanted to work with you right now, uh, what,
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  Speaker 1: what would be the process in getting that started?
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  Speaker 2: Well, they, the first step obviously would be to just
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  Speaker 2: reach out to us.
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  Speaker 3: Um, you know, we have a website, tangeliclife.org. Uh, we
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  Speaker 3: have social media as well, but I would say a
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  Speaker 3: good start would be, um, tangeliclife.org. Um, you know, find
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  Speaker 3: our email on there, send us a message with what
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: type of idea they may have in regards to working
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: with us. And then we would simply set up a
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  Speaker 3: meeting with the leadership team and have a conversation. That
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: would be the first start. And again, that could be,
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  Speaker 3: you know, corporate sponsors, funders, strategic partners, or anyone simply
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  Speaker 3: wanting to make an impact in Africa or the environment
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  Speaker 3: as a whole.
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  Speaker 1: Now, is there a takeaway that you want our listeners
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: to remember from this conversation?
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  Speaker 3: I would say if there's one thing that my journey
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: has taught me, it's that leadership is not about having
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: all the answers. OK, I would say it's about being
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: willing to make difficult decisions and bringing people together around
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: a shared purpose. And that that's really important to me
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: and remaining adaptable as well. when circumstances change, because what
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: we did, we started Tangelic without a playbook and we've
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: had to pivot.
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  Speaker 2: We've had to build relationships. We've had to do a
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: lot of.
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  Speaker 3: Things to get us to where we are today. It's
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: been quite the challenge, but it's certainly a very rewarding one.
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  Speaker 3: And ultimately, I think that anyone's goal should be to
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: build something meaningful and that lasts beyond their own involvement.
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  Speaker 2: So that is certainly.
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  Speaker 3: What I would like to share with the people and
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: definitely what makes it worthy to myself.
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  Speaker 2: That's a great takeaway.
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  Speaker 1: Now, where can people connect with you and find out
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: more about your work and continue this conversation?
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: Definitely our website, tangeliclife.org, T-A-N-G-E-L-I-C-L-I-F-E.org. We're also on all the
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: social media platforms. We also host a a weekly podcast
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: as well titled called Tangelic Talks. So there are various
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: ways to get in contact with us. But I certainly
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: encourage everyone to visit our website. That way they can
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: view our leadership team. They can read more about our
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: projects we have going on. They can read more about
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: some of the other things that we've participated in as
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: well over the last couple of years.
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  Speaker 1: Justin, thank you so much for joining us and for
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: all your work in Ghana.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Joe. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me.
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: You're welcome.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: Thank you everyone for listening. If this episode inspired you,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: make sure you share it with someone. And don't forget
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: to follow the Glowvisor podcast for more conversations that make
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: an impact.
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: Till the next time.