Written by Koto Kishida, Green Empowerment Malaysia Program ManagerGreen Empowerment works with partner organizations around the world to ensure our projects are shaped by local expertise. We started working with PACOS Trust in 2001 to build a micro-hydro system in Sarawak. That project inspired PACOS to create a rural electrification program, which eventually became TObpinai…

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Written by Koto Kishida, Malaysia Program Manager and Gabe Wynn, Asia Regional DirectorIn late August, Green Empowerment and our partners successfully brought biogas digester (BGD) technology to Sabah, Malaysia. As we learned in Sri Lanka earlier this year, BGDs offer a creative, sustainable, environmentally-friendly solution to biomass cooking, utilizing organic waste from households and agriculture to produce…

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By Jesica Sutandi, our Intern based in Malaysian Borneo working with local NGO partners TONIBUNG, PACOS and Forever Sabah. Week One I’d been lying on the bed under my mosquito net listening to the heavy fall of the pouring rain after a whole day of celebrating the Kaamatan festival. I opened the door and slipped…

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In Borneo, the price of cooking gas (LPG) increased by 27% in 2017. For remote villages, the cost and difficulty of transporting bulky cylinders of gas from distribution centers make it even more inaccessible. This situation leaves most families with only one option for cooking: burning dirty, dangerous biomass. A staggering 80% of rural households…

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By: Koto Kishida, Green Empowerment Malaysia Program OfficerAs part of our continuing efforts to support local indigenous communities in Malaysian Borneo in resisting the construction of destructive “mega-dams,” Green Empowerment and our long-term partner TONIBUNG are starting work on a microhydro system to power the community of Long Liam via renewable energy. Long Liam is…

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This post was written by Wendy Stickel, a member of the Green Empowerment Board of Directors, about a board member trip to the Philippines and Malaysian Borneo with Executive Director Andrea Johnson in May 2017. Wendy has worked in international development for over 30 years, including overseas assignments and extensive travel with USAID and the…

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Green Empowerment’s program with partner Tonibung, “Building Climate Resilience through Renewable Energy in Borneo,” has won the National Energy Globe Award for Malaysia! With 178 participating countries, the Energy Globe Award is considered to be one of the most prestigious international environmental awards. It is awarded annually to projects focusing on energy efficiency, renewable energies,…

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This guest post was written by Koto Kishida, a Green Empowerment volunteer and Natural Resource Specialist with the State of Oregon. Green Empowerment’s last blog post (“Tagal Hutan Monitoring Program in Borneo”) was about Koto’s project for GE and Tonibung in Malaysian Borneo. This post will focus on her personal experience of living in Borneo…

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This guest post was written by Koto Kishida, a Green Empowerment volunteer and Natural Resource Specialist with the State of Oregon.Sabah, Malaysia was my home for several months in 2016. As a volunteer for Green Empowerment (GE), I helped develop and kick-start a monitoring program for GE’s local partner Tonibung. The project had an ambitious…

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On August 16th, 2016, more than 90 members of academia, civil society, government, and the private sector met over lunch in Kuching (the Sarawak state capitol in Malaysian Borneo) to discuss the future of energy in the region. The consensus reached by the end of the dialogue offered hope and cautious optimism for indigenous people,…

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