Are you paying more for water than gasoline?

Some facts for this Earth Day:

Bottled water sells for 1,000 times that of tap water. A 16 oz. bottle of water at $1.26 adds up to $5.04 per gallon. Over 90% of the cost of bottled water is the lid, label, and bottle.

86% of used water bottles end up in the landfill or waterways.
Every day, 3 million empty bottles go into the trash. There has been a 500% increase in the use of bottled water in the past decade.
The only requirement for bottled water is it "be as good" as tap water.
Styrofoam will not decompose in your or your children's lifetime.
Paper cups are coated with a cancer-causing agent that will not burn safely and is not allowed in most landfills.
The Pacific garbage patch is a garbage stew the size of Texas and growing daily off the coast of California.

The answer is crystal clear; hospitals, offices, and companies need to stop using Styrofoam and plastic water bottles. This according to a California company, www.ecomugs.com, which has developed lead-free, plastic-free, Calif. prop 64 compliant ecomugs and bottles that can be ordered in quantities as low as one, all with a company logo and employee name.

Company founder Kirk Meyer said, "When we started adding the employee's name, we found that they were actually remembering their bottle at lunch and contributing to a viral market for their company logo."

To get your office started this month ecomugs is offering a free ecomug with your co/workers name when you order one with your name and logo.

1. The earth receives more energy from the sun in just one hour than the world uses in a whole year. That’s why SolarAid believes solar power is so important for development.
2. Two billion people in the world have no access to electricity. For most of them, solar power would be their cheapest electricity source, but they cannot afford it. SolarAid helps to redress this through small-scale solar projects for poor communities.
3. Building a small solar charger for a radio can cost around £5 and can sell for three times the price in Malawi. That’s why SolarAid is helping rural villages in Malawi set up small solar businesses so they can earn a living.
4. SolarAid is the only UK charity specialising in solar energy for poor countries.
5. Most rural poor in Africa use kerosene lamps, which are heavily polluting in CO2 and bad for their health, but a solar lamp would be cheaper and better for the environment.
6. Solar panels are guaranteed typically for 25 years and have a life expectancy of at least 50 years.
7. Lack of access to affordable electricity is a major cause of poverty in rural areas in Africa, which is why SolarAid focuses on these regions, using solar power for education and health.
8. Africa has the lowest fossil energy use of any world region, yet the continent is the most vulnerable to climate change. Signs of a changing climate have already emerged there: disease and melting glaciers in the mountains, rising temperatures in drought-prone areas, and sea-level rise and coral bleaching along the coastlines.
9. Respiratory diseases caused by toxic smoke from cooking fires kill 1.5 million women and children each year. Yet a solar cooker, which is much safer, can be easily built from cardboard and waste reflective material.
10. SolarAid is a unique charity that has been set up to help fight climate change and global poverty at the same time.

Cate Blanchett, Patron, has a string of film successes, Vogue front covers and a highly coveted film Oscar to her name. Recently she and her husband Andrew Upton announced that they plan to run the first completely off-grid mainstream theatre group, the Sydney Theatre Company, which will be powered by solar panels. Cate is mother of three, Dashiell, Roman and Ignatius and lives in Sydney, Australia.

Jeremy Leggett, Chairman, has been described by Time Magazine as 'one of the key players in putting the climate issue on the world agenda.' Jeremy is Executive Chairman of Solarcentury, the UK's largest solar solutions company, winner of multiple awards for innovation and sustainability, and Chairman of SolarAid, a charity set up by Solarcentury. After doing a PhD at Oxford, he began vocational life as a creature of the oil industry, teaching at Imperial College, researching the history of oceans and oil source rocks, funded among others by BP and Shell, and consulting for oil companies in Asia. Becoming very worried about global warming in the late 1980s, he became scientific director of Greenpeace International's climate campaign, and won the US Climate Institute's Award for Advancing Understanding. He is also a director of the world's first private equity fund for renewable energy, Bank Sarasin's New Energies Invest AG, and was a member of the UK Government's Renewables Advisory Board from 2003-6. His books "The Carbon War" and "Half Gone" have been critically acclaimed.

Nick Sireau, Executive Director, started out in financial journalism, working for thinktank Independent Economic Analysis (IDEA) and newswire Bridge News (now part of Reuters). He worked in charity communications and fundraising for mainline church charity CWM and for international development agency Progressio as Director of Communications. He has travelled widely the world over and recently finished his PhD on the social psychology of Make Poverty History's communications and marketing. He is also co-founder and Chairman of the AKU Society, a medical charity that works in partnership with the Royal Liverpool University Hospital to find a cure for AKU, a rare genetic disease affecting his two sons. He is also a non-executive Director of GenSeq, a bioinformatics company that carries out gene sequencing.

John Keane, Head of Programmes, started off as an urban planner before developing a deep interest in international development and solar energy. As a volunteer with Student Partnerships Worldwide in Tanzania, he became acutely aware of the pressing need for affordable, renewable energy in the rural communities. Once back in the UK, he researched the concept of micro solar and raised his own funds to go back to Africa and train solar entrepreneurs in Kenya, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Malawi and a number of other countries. He is the world leader on micro solar and a committed development expert.

UK Team
Ruth Mantle, Head of Fundraising
Alison Williams, Accountant
Anna Wells, Marketing Manager
Katie Bliss, Projects Officer
Miguel Ramirez, Programmes and IT Assistant
Marianne Kernohan, Design and Production Co-ordinator

Trustees and Advisors
Philip Angier, trustee, is founder of Angier Griffin and an independent consultant in social enterprise. After 10 years in the City of London, he made a vocational career move to become Finance and Resources Officer in the Diocese of Liverpool under Bishop David Sheppard. He joined Traidcraft's staff as Finance Director in 1987, and becoming Managing Director in 1991 and then Chief Executive. Philip left Traidcraft in 2001 to found Angier Griffin, a social enterprise consultancy. Philip is Chair of Just Pensions and a director of the Shared Interest Society and the UK Social Investment Forum. His social enterprise links include directorships of AnyBodyCan Limited, Aspire Group Limited and Jesmond Swimming Project.

Vicky Phillips, trustee and Company Secretary, is a lawyer who has previously served on the Board of Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland and EarthRights. She has worked as a legal advisor to Solarcentury for eight years and is involved in a number of environmental projects on a voluntary basis.

Graham Young, trustee, has worked since 1980 to promote Fair Trade: he was chairman of the International Federation for Alternative Trade; and founder chair of the European Fair Trade Association and the Fair Trade Foundation. He established Traidcraft Exchange in 1980 and was General Director from 1986 to 1999. He has been an advisor to governments and the private sector on corporate social responsibility (CSR). He is at the forefront of thinking on values based, integrated approaches to Corporate Responsibility.

Grace Mukasa, trustee, is outgoing Head of Programmes for Africa at VSO and incoming Head of Programmes and Advocacy at AMREF. Grace has also been VSO Country Director for Zambia, Diaspora Director for VSO, and worked for Save the Children Norway in Uganda.

Kat Johnston, trustee, has been a senior manager at Solarcentury for eight years and used to work at IBM. She previously spent four years as operations manager for environmental charity Global Action Plan. In October 2006, Kat climbed Kilimanjaro to raise funds for SolarAid, which had gained charitable status only one month earlier.

Carolyn Hayman, trustee, has been Chief Executive of Peace Direct since 2004. Carolyn has worked in the civil service (the Department for International Development and the Cabinet Office) and the private sector as a consultant and Joint Managing Director of the Korda Seed Capital Fund. In 1996 Carolyn became Chief Executive of the Foyer Federation. Carolyn has degrees in Classics and Philosophy (Cambridge University) and Development Economics (School or Oriental and African Studies). She is a member of the Religious Society of Friends (the Quakers).

Will Day, International Development Advisor, is former CEO of CARE International. Will is Senior Associate in the University of Cambridge Programme for Industry. In 1994, he was the first Director of a micro-enterprise NGO called Opportunity Trust and then joined CARE International UK in 1996. Will is a Trustee of BBC Children in Need and of the Disaster's Emergency Committee. He became a Council Member of the Overseas Development Institute in December 2000.

Aki Maruyama, Programmes Advisor, worked for the Energy Programme of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)'s Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, Paris, France. Previously, she worked for the Climate Policy Project of the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Hayama, Japan. She has also worked for the World Bank and Japan's Treasury Department. She has an MSC in Environmental Management from Oxford University.

Sorious Samura, Media and Africa Advisor, is a journalist from Sierra Leone. He is famed for his TV documentaries on the plight of Africa, shown on CNN, BBC World, Channel 4, CBC, Al Jazeera and other networks. Ron McCullagh, who runs Insight News Television, is his constant collaborator. Together they have won Baftas, Emmys and hosts of other awards. Sorious is a man of great wisdom and integrity who has a burning motivation to help some of the more serious issues affecting much of Africa.

Ron McCullagh, Communications Advisor, is the Managing Director of Insight News Television, a London based documentary production company that has reported from over 150 countries worldwide since its launch in 1991. Before founding Insight News TV, Ron worked as a reporter for the BBC, including five years on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 and a year with BBC television news. In 1998 at the One World Broadcasting Trust Media Awards he won the UNICEF UK Award for the Advancement of Children's Rights for his report on child workers in Bangladesh. He co-directed "Blood on the Stone", a documentary commissioned by Warner Brothers to accompany the recently released Hollywood film "Blood Diamond" starring Leonardo DiCaprio. In 2004 he won the Rory Peck Freelancers Choice award for the "important role he has played in supporting freelancers and enabling them to develop".

Steve Andrews, Fundraising Advisor, is Chairman and Managing Director of Whitewater, one of the UK's leading fundraising consultancies. He has worked as a fundraiser for over 20 years, advising a number of development charities, including Christian Aid, Practical Action and the World Development Movement. His passion for helping development charities is borne out of personal experience working in Sudan during the 1984 famine.

Andy Milligan, Branding Advisor, is a leading international brand consultant with almost 20 years experience of advising and helping businesses build brands around the world. He graduated from Oxford University and then worked for VNU Business Publications before he joined the Interbrand Group in London in 1990, moving to Singapore in 2002 where he was Managing Director of Interbrand's South East Asia operations. He then established his own company, Ambrand, which specializes in advice, training, development and management education on business growth and brands. He is also a founding partner of The Caffeine Partnership.

Jason Mills, Media Advisor, is a broadcast journalist with 15 years experience. He currently edits the ITV Evening News, and before that he edited the News at Ten Thirty. Previously, he spent 10 years at the BBC working as a producer on national and regional news programmes, and at Sky News.

Dima Rifai, Strategy and Fundraising Advisor, is a senior executive with over 20 years' experience, most recently in investment banking where she built and lead a high growth, global business. As a graduate in Electrical Engineering, she enjoyed a number of roles in technology and consulting prior to Finance. Dima has also completed the Corporate Strategy Executive programme at University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. She is currently working on a variety of financings in the environmental sustainability/renewables space, primarily aimed at providing renewable companies and projects with accessibility to optimal funding. Having worked across a broad range of industries and geographies, Dima brings a uniquely commercial and innovative point of view and is driven by the belief that solar is one of the key technologies to have significant impact in improving the quality of people's lives, while reducing their carbon footprint.

David Lloyd, Business Planning Advisor, is an energy partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He has been working with SolarAid in a personal capacity to help us develop our business plan. With his many years' experience of private sector investment in energy systems and technologies, David's involvement has been a really welcome addition to our advisory group.

Pro bono legal advisors: we have two top legal firms providing us with pro bono legal advice: White & Case and Covington & Burling.

Solar Aid's vision
Our vision is to make solar energy as widely available as possible to the poorest people in developing countries, helping them bypass the need for dirty, fossil-fueled power and giving them access to all the educational, health and social services that we take for granted in the West. With two billion people in the world not having access to electricity, that's quite a vision.

Yet we believe in being ambitious and visionary and we hope you do too. That's because the two most important threats facing our world today are global poverty and climate change. Both are linked as the poorest countries will be hit the hardest by the effects of climate change. While we do not claim that solar energy is the magic bullet that can solve these problems single-handedly, we do believe it can play a major role, with your help.

Solar Aid's origins
Although SolarAid was officially started in 2006, the thinking behind it goes back much further, to the founding of Solarcentury eight years ago by Dr Jeremy Leggett, who had worked in the oil industry in the 1980s and then became Chief Scientist at Greenpeace in the late 1980s when he became aware of the threat of climate change.

Solarcentury was set up with the vision that business could help find a solution to climate change through solar energy, so its founders wrote into its constitution that it would donate 5% of its net profit with no commercial strings attached in order to set up a charity to help the poorest communities in developing countries access solar power. Solarcentury made profit in 2006, which is why we then set up SolarAid as an independent charity in August 2006 and gathered support from a wide-range of companies, foundations and individuals, as you can read below.

SolarAid is different to your usual international charity. We join the fights against global poverty and climate change in a way not done before. And from the start, we have aimed to bring together the professionalism of the commercial sector with the values of the charity sector in order to create an organization that will bridge the gap between both. That's why entrepreneurialism and innovation are at the heart of what we do.

Microsolar, a ground-breaking model
Our microsolar approach is pioneering. We identify entrepreneurs in developing countries, who we then train in business planning, market research and solar skills. We help them set up their solar microbusinesses so that they can build and sell solar lanterns and solar chargers for radios and mobile phones. This came out of research that we carried out that showed that the average household in a developing country spends between 10-20% of its income on kerosene for lighting, single use batteries for their radios, and charging their mobile phones. That's a lot of money, plus kerosene smoke is toxic, single use batteries are polluting, and mobile phone chargers need access to the electric grid, which most rural areas in developing countries do not have and probably will never have.

Our microsolar model is a perfect solution to this. Our solar entrepreneurs convert kerosene lamps into solar lanterns using light emitting diodes (LEDs, which are cheaper, robust and use little energy) and build solar chargers from local materials and imported solar glass. These solar products can then fulfill much of the average household's energy needs, leading to a substantial increase in their income because they no longer need to buy kerosene or batteries. The solar entrepreneurs make money too - a win-win situation.

Macrosolar, power for communities
Our macrosolar work involves installing larger solar systems on schools, community centres and health clinics. Barely 2% of rural populations in most African countries have access to the grid, forcing them to rely on kerosene, candles, car batteries and firewood for fuel. Schools cannot teach in the evenings; community centres cannot offer services such as educational videos or vocational training; and health clinics cannot power basic medical equipment such as vaccine fridges.

Yet a standard 300 watt system installed on the roof of a school, community centre or clinic can solve all these issues. In Uganda, for instance, we are installing a solar system on the community office of the Katine Project, a programme run by development charity AMREF and the Guardian newspaper and funded by Barclays bank (read about it on: http://www.guardian.co.uk/katine/2008/feb/28/background.development). In Malawi, we installed a 300 watt system on a community centre, the only place now with electricity for miles around. In South Africa, we installed a solar system on an orphanage. And we are starting to install systems on hundreds of schools, community centres and health clinics in Tanzania and Zambia over the next four years.

Support for SolarAid
We have been fortunate to gather far-reaching support for our SolarAid dream. Following Solarcentury's example, a number of other companies have come on board: Scottish and Southern Energy provides funding and staff volunteers for our projects in Tanzania; Vodafone and Global Cool provide funding for our Zambia programme; Lloyds of London, through its charities trust, is helping us develop our carbon offsetting scheme; White & Case and Covington & Burling, two leading legal firms, give us pro bono advice; and the City of London, through the City Bridge Trust, supports our communications activities. Foundations have also provided vitally help, from the Big Lottery Fund's grant for us to research setting up programmes in Tanzania and Zambia, to assistance with UK management costs from Avina Stiftung, the Sylvia Adams Trust, the Polden Puckham Foundation and others.

And crucially, we have a world-class board of trustees and advisory panel. All of them are heavily involved in our work, providing vital advice and contacts as we grow. You can read more about them here.

We launched SolarAid officially in December 2007, with a big event at City Hall in London presented by the Major of London Ken Livingstone. More than 180 people from the energy industry, NGOs, government, African embassies, foundations and others joined us for this celebration.

The future
We want to reach millions of people with solar power over the next few years. But we don't claim that will be easy. That's why we need your help. We need hundreds, thousands, even millions of people like you to support us regularly, each month, with whatever donation you can afford: £15 ($30) can pay for a solar lantern; £5,000 ($10,000) can pay for a solar system on a school; and if you're a high net worth individual, £1m ($2m) can pay for a full-scale four year programme reaching tens of thousands of people in a country such as Tanzania. The need is huge, which is why we urgently need your support to make this happen.

Nor do we claim that implementing our projects will be plain sailing. As anyone who works in international development will tell you, working in a developing world environment is challenging. Basic infrastructure - roads, water, electricity - is often lacking due to few resources; the financial and legal framework - banks, the law courts, state legislation - is weak and laws can be difficult to enforce; corruption is frequent, from the grassroots level to the top of the state, making it difficult at times to operate with confidence; and industry is struggling, making it hard to source many of the materials and products needed to implement a project.

But these are also the very reasons why our work is so important and why we need your support. We want people to understand the challenges and successes of development and how solar power is a part of this. That's why we've designed this website in this way, with blogs to give you the latest news straight from our projects and with the option for you to post your comments too. We want to hear what you think of our work. We want you to be part of this dream. We want you to share in our joys and our hardships.

So please, visit our project pages, click on the blogs, make a donation, and join us on this exciting adventure to bring power to the people.