Our founders have a history of creating innovations that serve humanity and the environment
Why are we creating this organization?
We are creating this non-profit organization--Innovating Generosity and Ecology (IG&E)--because have seen the power and long-term benefit that new innovations can create. Therefore, we are forming IG&E with the mission to develop and expand new innovations that can make the world a kinder and more environmentally sustainable place.
We know our mission is both possible and worthwhile because of our past experiences and work.
Ken Kimes (Ken) is one of the first small farmers who co-founded the organic farming movement in California in the 1970's.
Robert Van Buskirk (RVB) from 2009 to 2013 went to Washington, DC and had a front row view of how innovation was used by Steven Chu (SChu) and the Obama Administration to help create the global renewable energy transformation that we are experiencing today.
Ken has seen how organic farming methods can be both more cost effective and environmentally friendly
As not only an organic farmer, but as President of Farm Fuel, Inc., Ken has seen how innovating together with nature and the environment can produce natural ecological systems and methods that out-perform toxic industrial-based methods that damage the environment.
In particular Farm Fuel, Inc. has pioneered using natural fermentation of organic soil amendments to produce a bacterial ecology that naturally kills soil pathogens and provides nutrients that enhance crop yields. These methods have helped make California organic strawberries both abundant and affordable.
In our opinion, these natural methods are much better than toxic methyl bromide soil fumigation and chemical fertilizers.
For IG&E, Ken will be leading development of our redwood reforestation innovations.
RVB has seen how clean energy innovations can both benefit households while enhancing environmental performance
Renewable energy is cheap and relatively abundant today because Steven Chu (a Nobel Laureate Physicist that was Secretary of Energy during the Obama Administration) created multiple programs to direct and accelerate clean energy technology innovation. These programs and policies have had a big impact on how effective and affordable clean energy technologies are today.
In 2012, RVB and SChu conducted joint research to investigate how government policies can direct and accelerate innovation for energy efficient appliances. This research was published in 2014: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/9/11/114010/pdf
Since 2015, RVB has been using his research on technology innovation acceleration methods and processes to address the problem of solar electricity access and affordability for very-low-income households in rural Africa.
As a result, it is now possible to supply solar electric cookers to households in rural Malawi that have a cooking energy cost that is cheaper than wood. Technical details of this work were published in 2021: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/14/4293)
RVB is leading IG&E's efforts to use solar technology to produce highly cost-effective poverty-reduction projects in rural Africa.