by Keith Sutter, Green Around the Globe
Successful environmental sustainability efforts keep the local political, social and environmental factors under consideration. It is for this reason that Keith and Amy Sutter set off for a 1-year trip around the world to document efforts by green entrepreneurs in building a more environmental sustainable future. While in Cambodia in February they met with Rin Seyha, managing director of SME RE, an E+Co partner company that is selling environmentally friendly biomass gasifiers that provide electrical power for small and medium companies such as rice mills and brick factories.
“We were interested in meeting with Seyha, because we wanted to get a point of view from a company that was operating in the private sector in Cambodia,” said Keith. While there are thousands of international NGOs and non-profits working in Cambodia to help build the badly needed infrastructure to meet the basic needs of citizens, the drawback with reliance on NGOs is that the funding is often unpredictable. Building a profitable business, as SME RE has, eliminates this issue, keeping control at the local level.
Amy added, “Seyha and his team are helping to build an environmentally sustainable energy infrastructure for the critical brick industry. As a real estate attorney and LEED AP, I can see how SME RE customers will have an advantage when Cambodia begins to offer incentives for green technology as Thailand and Vietnam already have.” While SME RE customers are largely making the switch to biomass gasifiers for the financial savings ($0.07-$0.10 kw/h with SME RE technology as compared to $0.20 kw/h for electricity from the grid), the long term environmental and competitive advantages are substantial.
To read more about Keith and Amy’s trip please check out their blog, www.GreenAroundTheGlobe.com