«Teaching people about solar technology should be as simple as a game»
How Asia 21 young leader Govinda Upadhyay uses solar lamps to educate children on renewable energy
This fall Govinda Upadhyay, founder and CEO of LEDsafari, was selected as the Swiss representative for Asia Society’s Young Leaders Initiative Asia 21. In December the annual three-day summit will take place in Seoul and bring together a group of 30 young leaders Fellows, all under the age of 40.
The Summit aims to prepare tomorrow’s leaders for the challenges and responsibilities of global citizenship and to build networks of trust across geographic boundaries. Before his trip to Korea, we had a chance to chat with Govinda and learn more about his company and vision.
Asia Society Switzerland: Govinda, what does your company do?
My company LEDsafari aims is to teach clean energy & sustainable innovation through a unique science & design training centered on creating a solar LED lamp using recycled materials.
We provide you with a simple kit, explain you how to set it up and let you design your own lamp, which you can later use. Our customers are schools in Europe and development projects in India and Africa.
How is LEDSafari different?
We could produce a solar lamp in China and sell in Africa or India. This is a very easy process. But once lamp breaks, it is thrown away. At LEDsafari we teach people how to make a product. All fabrication happens at a local level unlike with an industrial product.
We train people and make sure that the lamps are functional. This is more expensive but in the long run more sustainable. Once you learn how to make a lamp, then you can keep making and maintaining it.
What was your inspiration for this project?
Growing up in India, blackouts were a part of our daily life. When you don’t have something you start to realize how important it is — light gives you security, makes you feel safe in the dark, allows you to continue your daily activities even after the sun has set.
Giving light to people is not a technological problem anymore, it’s about knowledge and capacity building. So my idea was to give people the knowledge to make their own light and maintain it. People love games — so the kit was designed to be as simple as a game so that even children can understand.
Where did you start developing the idea?
In 2011 I was in the Netherlands for my masters degree in sustainable technology at TU Eindhoven. I wrote my thesis on smart electrification in developing country and took India as case study. Back then it was only me.
Looking back, what was your biggest challenge?
The hardest part was to change people’s mindsets — they only think about products. However we at LEDsafari are not giving you a finished product, we give you the technology. When we told people that they have to make a lamp themselves they were reluctant to believe that they could do it. They wanted to buy a finished lamp, rather then going through the fuzz of understanding the technology to create one. But our vision is to spread knowledge, not products!
How did you solve that problem?
We used analogies from nature to explain the electrical circuit to people. For example a tank of water: its height is like voltage in a battery, the flow of water is like a current and the thickness of the tap is like resistance. But after a while we decided to limit our target group to children. They are more curious and eager to learn and understand.
What impact had Switzerland on your project?
I came to Switzerland in 2013 for my PhD to research Sustainable Urban Development at EPFL Lausanne. There I met my two co-founders Naomi Savioz and Elisa Wepfer. In January 2014 we won a prize in the “Climate Challenge Competition” hosted by Impact HUB Zurich — that’s when our business really started to come together.
Having a business in Switzerland is also a trust factor. People have more confidence in the product.
In the last two years you won two major prizes — “Forbes 30 under 30 Europe 2016” and “EIT (EU) CHANGE AWARD 2015” — what impact did that have on your business?
It helped us a lot financially and also with the recognition and expansion in Europe. Currently we are setting up solar trainings for refugees in Europe. Most people in the camps don’t have anything to do and we want to give them a project. But it is still hard to find the right contacts and organizations and even if we do, they are quite overwhelmed with daily challenges and don’t have much time for anything else.
In India LEDsafari also allows people to make a small income once they have learned how to make a lamp. They design various kinds of solar lamp for example garden lamps and sell them to customers.
How many people work for LEDSafari?
We are three people in Switzerland (two part-time, one full-time) and two more in India. For the formation we have set up an online course. The costs to send people to do a formation was very high and logistically challenging. With the online course you can learn the technology no matter where you are and also it can be translated easily in any language so scalability high.
Your company’s slogan is „Give light and people will find the way“ — how many lights have you lit so far?
So far we taught 7000 people how to make a solar lamp, more than half of it only last year. Our goal for next year is 20’000! We also have a new kit coming out soon — a solar phone charger.
Asia 21 is a Young Leaders Initiative — where do you as a young leader see challenges or possibilities?
I’m still full of energy and ideas! But wanting to do a lot can sometimes also be a set back. So it’s important for me to talk to people with experience and discuss my visions and difficulties with them. This helps me to focus.
I’m very exited to go to Seoul in December to meet other young leaders who are doing development work and share my thoughts and ideas with them. Let’s see what comes out of it!
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About Asia 21
Asia 21 Young Leaders Initiative stands as the Asia-Pacific’s foremost young leaders network. The program serves to build a network of young leaders (under the age of 40) across the Asia-Pacific as a way to promote mutual understanding and effective collaboration among the next generation’s most important and influential leaders. Learn more
About LEDsafari
LEDsafari’s mission is create a hands-on energy conscious future generation. We empower students in developing countries with the ability to make their own affordable solar lamp using locally available material. Through the unique training method, LEDsafari wants to bring about a step change thinking process, which can help in tackling problems associated to the grass root level. The company also supports local entrepreneurs who want to use LEDsafari lamps to make a business.
