Yina Sun
Nationality: United States of AmericaYina Sun
Organization Name: GreenChar
Impact Region: Eastern Africa
About the Social Business: GreenChar is a social enterprise that produces and distributes renewable cooking energy to rural and peri-urban Kenya. It is an organization of the Echoing Green Fellowship and winner of the Silicon Valley Donor's Circle Award for Africa. GreenChar produces and distributes charcoal briquettes made from agricultural waste, and distributes improved cookstoves. Compared to currently used charcoal, GreenChar’s briquettes are toxin-free, smokeless, higher energy, and longer lasting. GreenChar also distributes clean cook-stoves. Since starting operations they have distributed over 130 tons of Makaa Poa. In this process, they have saved over 3,000 trees and impacted over 4,000 households, translating to over 20,000 lives. In addition, GreenChar employed directly a workforce of 15, mainly women and youth, and created 10 part-time jobs to a sales team.
So far, GreenChar has led business modeling, defined strategic direction, and oversaw project implementation; scaled team and expanded sales and distribution through leading market research and R&D, building distribution networks among customer segments, and launching country-wide marketing campaigns; built budgets and financial models for sales forecasting, products and services testing, and fundraising and established partnerships with Massachusetts Institute of Technology for R&D.
About the Y&Y Fellow: Yina Sun is based in West Palm Beach, Florida, United States. She is a founder at GreenChar and currently works as a project manager at NextEra Energy Sources. She is skilled in strategic planning, public speaking and research.
Yina Sun
Nationality: United States of AmericaYina Sun
Organization Name: GreenChar
Impact Region: Eastern Africa
About the Social Business: GreenChar is a social enterprise that produces and distributes renewable cooking energy to rural and peri-urban Kenya. It is an organization of the Echoing Green Fellowship and winner of the Silicon Valley Donor's Circle Award for Africa. GreenChar produces and distributes charcoal briquettes made from agricultural waste, and distributes improved cookstoves. Compared to currently used charcoal, GreenChar’s briquettes are toxin-free, smokeless, higher energy, and longer lasting. GreenChar also distributes clean cook-stoves. Since starting operations they have distributed over 130 tons of Makaa Poa. In this process, they have saved over 3,000 trees and impacted over 4,000 households, translating to over 20,000 lives. In addition, GreenChar employed directly a workforce of 15, mainly women and youth, and created 10 part-time jobs to a sales team.
So far, GreenChar has led business modeling, defined strategic direction, and oversaw project implementation; scaled team and expanded sales and distribution through leading market research and R&D, building distribution networks among customer segments, and launching country-wide marketing campaigns; built budgets and financial models for sales forecasting, products and services testing, and fundraising and established partnerships with Massachusetts Institute of Technology for R&D.
About the Y&Y Fellow: Yina Sun is based in West Palm Beach, Florida, United States. She is a founder at GreenChar and currently works as a project manager at NextEra Energy Sources. She is skilled in strategic planning, public speaking and research.