04 March 2016

A Little Sun for the Yorklands Greenhub

 Coolest product ever: Now at our store we are selling rechargeable solar lamps.  Better yet, when when you buy one, you make a global (and local) impact!

Little Sun is a social enterprise focused on getting clean, reliable, affordable light to the 1.1 billion people worldwide without access to electricity.

 They do this by selling solar lamps in North America, which subsidize solar lamps for sale in marginalized, off-grid areas of Africa that need them.  The current form of light in most of these marginalized areas is kerosene lamps, which are dirty and hazardous to peoples' health.  Apparently, inhaling the smoke from a kerosene lantern can be as detrimental as smoking 2 packs of cigarettes in a day.  Little Suns provide a safe alternative.
As for the product itself, here are the store we've found they're sturdy and surprisingly bright!   Five hours of charging in the sun produces 10 hours of soft light or 4 hours of bright light. 
Additionally, just because we're awesome, we are upping the social contribution from sales of Little Suns.  On top of the built-in social benefits, we are donating an additional $10 from each sale to support a local environmental endeavour: The Yorklands Greenhub. 
The Yorklands Greenhub's goal is to convert 36 acres of provincially-owned heritage land in Guelph into an active green hub. It would be a self-sustaining education, demonstration, innovation and research hub, focusing on sustainable local food production, wise water use, wetland protection, heritage, energy conservation and renewable energy technologies.  The land was previously used as a correctional facility and is currently unused.
All of this to say, buying a Little Sun does a lot of good!  (And who doesn't crave a "little sun" at this time of year?!)

Currently Little Suns sell at our store for $38.99 (prices subject to change).
We've summed it up below.  Let us know what you think!