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Namene corporate partnerships: how corporates can power up Africa through clean technology

Clean technology offers a new and effective way for companies to reach their ESG and CSR goals. Through corporate partnerships, companies sponsoring the delivery of Namene solar lights or chargers, companies can create a measurable positive impact with the multiple benefits of our clean energy products.

At Namene, everything we do is guided by our purpose: to empower every community through clean technology. Our clean technology products reach thousands of new families in Africa every week, transforming their lives with safe and reliable solar energy. 

But an estimated 760 million people still don’t have access to electricity and rely on candles or kerosene lamps for lighting. It is a staggering number, and we are looking at every lever we can pull to scale the deployment of our products to off-grid households. 

Corporate and cleantech collaboration for people and planet

One of these levers is our carbon subsidy programme, which has allowed us to distribute over 1,000,000 discounted solar lights in two years in Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. But another way for us to empower the communities who need clean energy the most is to collaborate with other commercial organisations that seek, just like us, to put profit at the service of people and planet. 

The Namene manifesto sets out our core beliefs. One of them is that business can be a force for good. Another, that integrity – including the kind that underpins trusting partnerships – drives long-term impact. These beliefs shape our approach to collaborating with corporates to find practical solutions that help close the gap between those who have access to power and those who don’t. 

Drawing on our network of trusted community-based charity partners and distributors, we offer companies tailored packages to purchase our portable solar lights and chargers and deploy them efficiently to communities they want to support, wherever they are. 

CSR partnerships with measurable impacts 

Our products deliver measurable environmental and socio-economic benefits – from removing the risk of home fires or respiratory disease caused by burning kerosene lamps to extending hours of bright lighting for parents to work or children to study. 

Absa bank Namene lights corporate partnerships

School children beaming as they recieve branded Namene solar lights from Absa Bank.

We measure our contributions against six SDGs

  • SDG1: no poverty 
  • SDG3: good health and wellbeing
  • SDG4: quality education
  • SDG7: affordable and clean energy
  • SDG8: decent work and economic growth
  • SDG13: climate action

Sponsoring the delivery of our lights or chargers can therefore be a powerful way to meet a company’s ESG or CSR goals. 

For example, our work with South African bank ABSA, who purchased thousands of our lights to help children cycle safely to and from school with the support of charity Qhubeka. 

In July, GENESIS ENERGY GROUP purchased our solar lights as a donation for the charity Trek4Mandela to Kilimanjaro summit, providing a practical, portable cleantech product with to support and inspire the team. 

Our NGO network is agile and responsive, and our products small, portable and designed to last. Brought together and funded by companies that want to associate their corporate mission with a broader societal or environmental purpose, they can reach far and wide and help hundreds of thousands of people thrive. 

So please reach out and see how you can help us power up Africa through clean technology, and how we can help you bring your corporate purpose to life.

Footnote: To find out more about how how to purchase our products, and other opportunities such as sponsoring solar lights through our educational  Namene Connects programme or custom branding Namene products please visit: https://namenesolar.com/corporate-partnerships/