Hanke

Summary

Sistema.bio is a Mexican social enterprise that has been operating since 2010. We manufacture, sell, distribute, install, and finance high-quality biodigesters as turnkey packages for small-scale farmers. Our mission is to create value from waste all around the world: renewable energy (biogas) and organic fertilizer.

The problem: smallholder farmers produce almost 80% of the worldwide food. However, they are also the population that faces important barriers such as climate change, soil degradation and lack of access to financial services to improve their lives. 

The solution: biodigesters and full wrap-around service allow farmers to benefit from what used to be a problem (manure) to transform it into renewable energy. The digester also is a waste management system and contributes to eliminating pollution spots and reducing greenhouse gases. In that way, farmers can cook without smoke, avoiding pulmonary diseases, and also increase the productivity of their farms with organic fertilizer.

Sistema.bio has a holistic approach to address poverty, food security, and climate change, we work through three axes: technology, capacity building and financing. This solution allows us to solve problems efficiently and end the circle of disadvantages that previously seemed impossible to break, to create a more sustainable, equitable and empathic world without waste. 

The project

Our goal is to ensure that our clients reap all the possible benefits from their Sistema.bio digester by ensuring long-term adoption and strong return on investment.

How do we do this? Our approach consists of 6 steps: https://goo.gl/fB12nX

With their loan, farmers can pay the system with the savings they are making in fertilizer, wood, charcoal or LP gas; allowing them to pay for the whole system and service within 9-10 months on average, maximizing their return on investment.

With a loan of EUR 150,000 Sistema.bio will be able to manufacture and export 375 biodigesters from our manufacturing plant in Mexico to our clients in Kenia. After the half-day installation provided by Sistema.bio, farmers will start displacing fossil fuels, powering their farms with renewable energy and increase their crop production with organic fertilizer. 

The loan addresses the gap between the moment the biodigester is produced and the moment it is installed and paid by small farmers. Each euro we´re going to receive from Lendahand community will cover the cost of manufacturing, shipping and installing biodigesters ordered by our clients. Once the biodigester is ready to be used, after an approximate 6-month cycle, our client pays it. Therefore, the euro lent by Lendahand to Sistema.bio is given back to the community.

Awards

●       Social Business of the year, 2010 Businesses in Development (BiD Network)

●       Switzer Environmental Leadership Fellow

●       Fellow Ashoka, New Ventures Mexico

●       Buckminster Fuller Challenge 2017 Finalists

●       Endeavor entrepreneurs

●       B Corp

●       GIIRS Company

●       UBS Visionaries