Publications

One principle—the desire to find work with purpose—has guided John Salzinger on his winding career path through a variety of jobs, from advertising to entertainment and others in between. Eventually he found his job with meaning, inspired to shine a light and provide a sense of safety for people around the world through solar lanterns. In launching MPOWERD in 2012 after witnessing the devastating effects of an earthquake on people in Haiti, Salzinger started a business that created a profit while also serving a social and environmental purpose.

“It aligned with the values that had been ingrained by my parents: people and planet; everyone was equal,” he says. “You watch enough documentaries, you read enough articles and books, you realize that we’re destroying what we have. With what’s been going on with climate change, this was a perfect opportunity to change the world for the better and use business to do so.”

By connecting with NGOs around the world, MPOWERD is able to provide solar-powered lanterns to victims of natural disasters, including the 2020 Puerto Rico earthquake, and to those who live with unreliable sources of electricity without access to a grid and typically rely on kerosene and other harmful materials for light. Salzinger says the sense of safety that a light provides is invaluable and universal, which fuels the company’s donation program. Through its product line—lanterns, string lights, its new bike light, and more—MPOWERD customers help others through their purchases and have the option to add $10 for a donated lantern to their order. “If a consumer buys a light, they’ve already contributed. There’s not a heavy lift,” he says.

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The Grommet Blog

For the last 11 years we have been driven every day by our purpose: helping independent Makers and small businesses find their people and grow their business. The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting these businesses in an unprecedented way across the US and around the world. We’re connecting with a few of our Makers to elevate their stories and share the challenges they face. With these stories, we hope our community can see the impact of their support and how these businesses are foundational to our society.

MPOWERD started eight years ago with the mission to transform lives with clean technology, and it does by providing solar-powered lighting to folks across the world and especially helping those in developing parts of the world. In these developing countries, MPOWERD has impacted over 4 Million lives, an incredible achievement for a small team.

The New York-based team is feeling the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic harder than any other Maker we’ve talked to. John, along with MPOWERD’s CEO and several employees, is recovering from the virus. Impressively, MPOWERD’s team stepped up to help to keep their mission going when many of its leaders where hit with COVID-19.

“We’re trying our best to get through this without having to hurt a single person on our staff. We’re looking towards a strong future and rebound out of this.” — John Salzinger

See the INTERVIEW

Speaker at the Social Enterprise Alliance — Summit19, September 9-11, 2019.

MPOWERD Inc. was able to speak at the Social Enterprise Alliance #SEASummit2019 and bring with them one of our most inspirational foundations / implementers of their #LuciLights #ProjectIAM along with the incredible 12yr old founder #JahkilJackson who delves out tens of thousands of much needed blessing bags to homeless people globally. >> Watch the video

Source: Medium Blog

As a B Corp, when we talk about “good”, it’s not some vague term — it’s a benchmark of performance. Any company positions what it sells as the solution to a particular problem — that’s marketing. A good company, however, looks beyond the product line and focuses every aspect of the business on solving that problem. Our goal is to effect large-scale change, not just to be self-sustaining.

For me, that meant starting with some simple, straightforward goals, stemming from one important insight. I was born on the lucky side of a coin flip in NYC. Because of circumstances entirely out of my control, I’ve been afforded certain opportunities closed off to almost half the global population. Access to drinkable water, healthy food, stable shelter and even clean light — things we tend to take for granted — they empower us. When you’re less preoccupied with meeting your basic needs, the door opens to improving your circumstances. My goals are:

1. Create something that provides people with more of those opportunities, and

2. Do it in an environmentally sustainable way.

Through co-founding MPOWERD, I’ve been lucky enough to find a career path whereby I’m actually able to work towards accomplishing those goals. This type of thing only works, though, when your company operates thoughtfully. That means putting systems into place during every step of the process, and managing both finances and expectations.

Managing expectations, in this case, includes keeping an eye on profit as well as global impact. Wanting to make a real difference is a wonderful sentiment that I wish we all used as a baseline, but alone it isn’t sustainable without backing from your underlying business principles. That’s what makes the B Corp model so interesting. For us, that means adopting economies of scale to simultaneously grow profit and global impact: the more we sell in higher-income markets like the US, the lower our production costs become, and the more affordable we can make our goods for people who live in lower-income generating markets. We aim to provide our business model as a case study for other companies to do good automagically, by realizing emerging markets for the business opportunities they afford.

If a company runs well, it’s a living organism. If it doesn’t, it risks extinction. A smart company learns, adapts and pivots off of results both positive and negative. If it fails to listen, it dies. So how do you do that?

• Create a positive working environment for your staff

• Take the time to really understand the problem you’re setting out to solve

• Offer an honest, working solution to the problem

• Be organized and data driven to actually create impact

• Proactively listen to your customers

• Be open enough to pivot without losing sight of your mission

• Pay your bills. Seriously. Seems obvious, but it’s worth the reminder

Following these steps has led us from a team of 5 with one product in 2012 to, in 2016, an entire product line, 1,000s of retail partners, over 250 NGO and charity partners and penetration in 110 countries — all led by a dedicated team of 20. Due diligence may not be exciting, but it’s what keeps the doors open and drives that impact. Do good, but do it well!

Source: Quora Blog

In 1892, Guy Beardslee, the original owner of Beardslee Castle, was paid $40,000 to provide hydroelectric power to East Creek in New York. This was the beginning of rural electrification in the United States.
 
Currently, in 2013, approximately 1.4 billion people on the planet still have no access to electricity and another 1 billion only have intermittent access.  
 
This is entirely unjust and negatively impacts many areas of life that those in developed countries take for granted, including: economics, education, health and environment.
 
Economics
The amount allocated and spent on dirty forms of energy is economically unsustainable for developing countries. In an increasingly interconnected global economic environment, these costs are felt across the globe.
 
On the household level, purchasing kerosene or other traditional fuels – which many families are forced to use when living off the grid – is extremely expensive and detrimental to household savings. This money wasted on the daily use of fuel could be spent on more long term investments, such as schooling, healthcare, or business development.
 
And without power, businesses and entrepreneurs are limited in the number of productive hours they can commit to making an income and growing their local economies.
 
Education
In 2013 it is estimated that more than 291 million children in developing countries go to a school that does not have access to electricity. This means there are fewer available hours for teachers to teach and children to learn in the classroom. Children who live in energy poverty at home are also unable to study in the evening hours – increasing their likelihood of falling behind or dropping out – or are forced to study by dangerous and unhealthy kerosene light.
 
Health
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an average of one person every 20 seconds loses their life from the adverse effects of indoor air pollution caused by dirty and dangerous forms of energy, such as kerosene and firewood. Each year, this totals to approximately 1.5 million deaths globally - mostly women and children. Burning solid fuels in the home causes respiratory disease, lung cancer, eye irritation, and serious burns. Many clinics in the developing world also do not have access to electricity, which leads to a higher rate of mortality – especially during childbirth.
 
Environment
According to a 2013 UN report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), there is 95 percent certainty that humans have caused most of the warming of the planet's surface since the 1950s. Currently over 240 million tons of CO2 are emitted annually from developing countries through just fuel-based lighting.  When you combine this knowledge with the fact that combustion-related emissions from the rural power sector are expected to continue to grow – it is obvious that action must be taken.
 
It is a critical responsibility and a moral imperative that we put our resources and ideation towards solving what is glaringly one of the most important and inescapable core issues facing our times –energy poverty.

Source: My Corporation Blog

Over 1.4B people around the world live off the grid, according to IRENA.org. 780 million people around the world lack access to clean water and WFP.org reports that 842 million do not have enough food to eat. In terms of healthcare, 1.3 billion lack access to necessary healthcare systems. The numbers are so staggering that they make it difficult even for those who would like to help as they do not know how or may have even lost belief in the systems that are currently tasked with doing so.

How do we, as a species, incentivize caring about the future of our race and the planet we currently inhabit?  We desperately need modern and forward-thinking problem solving in business that takes full advantage of proven economic incentives, technological advances, helps clean up our world and combines success with moral courage to do what is right and just.

We can apply these same formulas to solving major global problems that affect billions of lives. This morally responsible and motivational course of action is what I call need-based capitalism.  Products and/or solutions are based around basic human need, not want or desire for non-essential luxuries. The only additional criteria required to add to the already proven-successful, incentive-based structure that in turn will affect positive change and provide solutions to macro problems, is the development of these businesses strictly around solving the problems themselves.  This providing of responsible and sustainable solutions, in fact, and synergistically, is also makes for a strong business case.  In other words the size of the problem directly correlates to the market size and business opportunity.

Here are tangible steps entrepreneurs can take when choosing a course of action or implementing an idea:

• Be clear about the problem and honest about the solution. Those in need will know right away if your solution works, i.e. providing eyeglasses for those without vision care. The key here is trying out your solution on a small and controlled group of individuals in need of your solution.

• Ensure the solution works, i.e. building wells for those in need of clean water.

• Try to tackle issues where demand outpaces supply as this will bring customers to you. Based on the above market dynamic, your solution will be sought after. This also saves spending inordinate amounts on marketing, i.e. micro lighting solutions provided to those living off the grid.

• Ensure the size of the problem is enough to sustain your business as well as cause a positive social impact that can affect real change, i.e. hunger, shelter etc.

• Profit while affecting change to create a sustainable model. Offer responsible micro-finance systems, install clean water filtration systems, and develop and sell carbon negative plastics.

• Ensure your business model is based on fairness and contains incentives for growth for all in the supply chain so that expansion organically occurs throughout the organization and success is shared by all participants. For example, your cost of goods sold should take into account localization and the suggested retail price in the marketplace you are targeting.

The ability to sell your solution is as important as the idea itself. You must have your own vision and stick by it. If you do not believe in your idea, you cannot sell it to investors, distributors, retailers and most importantly, consumers.

If we don’t change our global approach to business then the problems that have been created by a dated way of thinking will persist and multiply.  Dependence on fossil fuels is a perfect example of a thought process that is fraught with an old way of thinking, diminishing returns and dangerous environmental affects.

I urge more entrepreneurs to look outside of focus groups and instead at real world problems to create businesses that assist our global network of brothers and sisters in need. There are a plethora of issues to resolve in the developing world, the end result of which will be a better world for all.  So step away from your immediate surroundings. Travel to Congo, Nepal, Haiti, Bangladesh, Malawi, and Myanmar and see what people are missing that you take for granted in your own life.  It is only by immersing yourself in others’ environments that will allow you to fully understand the issues.  Here is where you will come up with solutions that help people, planet, future and yourself.