Our approach
Green Housing & Energy Limited (GHEL) is a sister concern of International Center for Microfinance and Social Enterprises Ltd. (ICMSE), which is dedicated to fostering sustainable development by linking equity financing and technical expertise with social impact projects.
Established in 2010, GHEL was born from the wish to tackle poverty at its roots in Bangladesh by launching a holistic approach. The company addresses numerous socioeconomic issues, namely water security, housing conditions, green energy supply, employment opportunities, agriculture modernization and enterprise development, to pave the way for a sustainable and long-range expansion in rural communities. GHEL believes that transforming the villages into better places to live and empowering the villagers will contribute to alleviate poverty in rural Bangladesh.
GHEL set up 6 main objectives to reach by 2013:
- Expand cheap and environment-friendly houses that meet villagers’ needs.
- Carry out a transfer of added-value technologies to provide Bangladeshis with a wide range of eco-friendly, quality and affordable products.
- Modernize agriculture for an increasing productivity.
- Deliver pure drinking water and clean energy supply, to every household at an affordable price.
- Foster income-generating SMEs with a social impact.
- Offer skill training and capacity building to social entrepreneurs.
To achieve its goals, GHEL launched 8 social impact projects:
- Green Low Cost Housing
- Solar Home System
- Solar Irrigation
- Biogas
- Mini and Smart Micro Grid
- Solar Project for Rural Microenterprises
- Enterprise Development
- Battery
Where we work
GHEL is currently working in five clusters areas of Bangladesh, through 15 Regional Offices and 80 Branches to answer better and faster poor people’s expectations. The total number of employees currently stands at around 300.
Nowadays, GHEL plans to replicate its development model in other developing countries such as India and Nigeria.
Our partners
Implementing such ambitious projects requires naturally technology and knowledge transfers from the most experienced organizations. Indeed, GHEL benefits from the support of many international institutions and companies, such as Citi Foundation, INES, HEC Paris, ASA, Banglalink and IDCOL. GHEL strongly believes in targeted investment from North to South as the most efficient tool to tackle socioeconomic issues and foster a sustainable development in developing countries.
In Bangladesh, the government also encourages private sector participation through fiscal incentive, like the “Private Sector Power Generation Policy” launched in 1996.
Therefore, investing in GHEL is believing in an holistic approach supported by government’s guidelines to coordinate rural development initiatives and cater to villager’s economic and social needs.
