Be responsible!  was the motto of the employee corporate responsibility competition that we held once again this year. The winner – a team from OSRAM – impressed the competition jury with a unique ecofriendly solution that delivers lighting to off-grid communities. Some 1.7 billion people around the world lack access to public power grids, and many of them rely on kerosene lamps to produce light. As a result, 77 billion liters of kerosene are burned every year for lighting purposes, releasing over 190 million tons of CO₂ into the atmosphere – more CO₂ than Finland generates in an entire year.

To tackle this problem, an OSRAM team developed an off-grid solution – that is, one that operates independently of the power grid. At its heart is an ecofriendly energy station where batteries for energy-saving lamps and other electrical devices can be recharged at low cost. In a pilot project, OSRAM set up energy stations in Mbita, Sindo and Nyandiwa on the Kenyan side of Lake Victoria and in Nakifuma, about 45 kilometers west of Kampala, Uganda. The stations’ photovoltaic panels generate up to ten kilowatt hours of electricity – enough to charge some 400 batteries a day. Under a deposit system, lamps and battery packs that have run out of power can be exchanged for recharged devices.

Until recently, fishermen on Lake Victoria used kerosene lamps to lure fish into their nets at night. Consequently, more than half their income was spent on fuel. Now, the use of battery-powered lamps is cutting the fishermen’s costs substantially. OSRAM’s off-grid lighting system is making a major contribution to corporate responsibility at Siemens while providing a sustainable lighting solution that’s improving people’s lives, protecting the climate and opening up profitable business opportunities.