26 March 2012: ECO-Watt (CEO Dieter Seifried) donates prize money from Sustainability Award to One World projects

Dieter Seifried (left) donates the price money to the “Mangos for solar energy” action, initiated by Freiburg-based solar engineer Mounirou Salami. In return all people who have been involved in the project received freshly picked Mangos from Burkina Faso.
Two other project are sponsored from the price money.

Support for solar and social projects in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Afghanistan: Initiator Dieter Seifried invites companies as well as local citizens to take part.

The project “ECO-Watt” continues to take effect even after its formal completion. In December 2011, Dieter Seifried, initiator of the “ECO-Watt” energy savings project at Staudinger comprehensive school in Freiburg, received the German local sustainability award “Zeitzeichen 2011” for his commitment. Seifried intends to use the prize money of 3,000 € to provide further support for environmental and social projects, thus aiming to promote the idea of sustainable energy supply. One of the projects funded is the campaign “Mangos for Solar Energy” of Freiburg-based engineer Mounirou Salami. The proceeds from the sales of the mangos from Burkina Faso will be used to finance solar energy supply of the country’s schools. Dieter Seifried now invites further business companies, organisations, associations and Freiburg’s citizens to participate in the campaign.

“With this campaign and by donating the prize money, we want to contribute to increased participation of citizens and organisations”, says Seifried, explaining the motivation for the campaign. “There’s only one world, and the only way to protect it is to act in solidarity.”

In the framework of the ECO-Watt project, the costs for investments in the energy-saving technologies at Staudinger comprehensive school were borne by a citizen holding company. The project was a great success, and the financial commitment has paid off for investors and the school alike. Thanks to the reputation the project has gained, being manifested, inter alia, through the prize money three projects can now be promoted:

With part of the prize money and thanks to the financial support provided by other actors, more than 100 boxes of mangos can be bought from the African initiative “Mangos for Solar Energy”. The mangos are then passed on to school classes, non-profit associations and parties involved in the ECO-Watt project – as a delicious reward for their commitment on the one hand, and as a call for support of the project on the other hand. The revenues from the sale of mangos offered at a fair price can be used to create new jobs in Burkina Faso, to realize the construction of new schools and, moreover, to supply these schools with solar energy for the purpose of lighting.
Education and energy are the most relevant requirements for the further development of society in Africa. Mangos contribute to this end!

The two other projects which have been promoted are the Solar Energy Foundation which is investing in solar home systems in Ethiopia and the Association of German and Afghanistan doctors which give medical help to people in Afghanistan.