Powering change in India, Homewood with solar
Pitt professor’s theory: ‘Business of Humanity’
In recent months, construction workers labored through 108-degree afternoons to dig water lines and string power cables along a network of dirt roads.
What would be mundane infrastructure work in much of the developed world was a curious sight for the residents in Tuvar, a district of rural villages in northwest India, where life is very much how it was centuries ago. Now, with water piped in and solar panels generating electricity, Tuvar has toilets and a reliable source of light and power.
The projects won’t end there. The water and power utilities marked only the first major step to test a theory drawn up by a University of Pittsburgh business professor that explores ways to make humanitarian projects sustainable — an endeavor that links rural Indian villages and urban food deserts in Pittsburgh.
“It has been quite an effort to get to where we are,” said John Camillus, a professor in Pitt’s Katz Graduate School of Business and a native of southwestern India. “It is a small miracle.”
Mr. Camillus was talking about the kick-off of his Business of Humanity project, which is predicated on the idea that investors can put their money into humanitarian causes and get a return.
The theory, which he started seriously working on about eight years ago, combines efforts from the schools of business, engineering and social work to create a “novel, counter-intuitive paradigm.” Mr. Camillus said.
While companies routinely assign a portion of profits to supporting social causes, they rarely base business models upon such causes. He preaches the concept in his Business of Humanity lectures, and has held symposiums in
Europe and written papers and books on the topic.
The writings and teaching weren’t enough. He needed a way to watch his theory play out. He wanted to show sustainable development in villages that not only earns profits, but empowers local communities to become entrepreneurial and self-sufficient.
He also wanted to show that it could work in any environment where people struggle to make ends meet.
In India, that place was Tuvar. And in Pittsburgh, that place was Homewood.
In 2016, he traveled to India to explore possibilities in Tuvar, while Bopaya Bidanda, a colleague in the Swanson School of Engineering, traveled to Bangalore and Chennai to look at technology to bring back to Pittsburgh.
During the trip, Mr. Camillus was struck by the conditions in the village, where women haul water up a hill from a single pump and cook with kerosene, inhaling the dangerous fumes.
Toilets, street lighting
Thefirst phase, completed last month, brought a 31-kilowatt solar power installation, water lines, exhaust fans, toilets, street lighting, household power, and a building to house a wellness clinic and government services center. The school has documented the progress on a weekly basis on its blog.
Mr. Camillus acknowledged that the first phase took longer than expected.
Local Indian bureaucracy tied up the wiring of money from Pitt to the development partners on the ground — Safe World Rural Services, a site consultant, and the Narottam Lalbhai Rural Development Fund, a charitable foundation with operations in Tuvar. Pitt plans to spend a total of $210,000 in Tuvar.
The next steps should happen quickly.
The second phase calls for the wellness clinic and government services center to be filled with computers and fully staffed with trained residents.
Apollo Telehealth Networking Foundation, an Indian health care firm providing the tele-medicine services, is training Tuvar residents over the summer to work in the clinic, a twostory building that will have a laboratory and pharmacy and provide diagnosis and primary care services.
The final phase will be the most important to the Business of Humanity concept.
With improved health care, a higher standard of living and more leisure time, residents are expected to — in a sense — create their own economy. Solarpowered pumps can draw water from deep aquifers and into irrigation systems that support the farming of high-margin crops for export, like avocados and other produce consumed in the United States.
The emergence of agriculture, energy and health care industries will create ancillary jobs, Mr. Camillus said. He envisions residents working as drivers to transport people to the wellness center, the possibility of farmers markets, solar technicians monitoring and troubleshooting the power plant.
In a report written last month, Mr. Camillus said the money “will be shared with the community and investors.” Investors — in this case, the money is coming from Pitt and some foundations — can expect returns of 9 percent to 15 percent.
Mr. Camillus has used grant funding from the Beall Family Foundation — Mr. Camillus has taught as Pitt’s Donald R. Beall Endowed Chair in Strategic Management since 1991 — the Henry L. Hillman Foundation and the Rockwell Endowment.
Produce and power
In Homewood, the mission is slightly different. While far from a tribal Indian village, Homewood’s low-income residents lack affordable, healthy food and are burdened by high utility bills.
The Pitt professors, joined by social work professor John Wallace, want to show that a newly constructed solar-powered bioshelter can support locally grown produce. The solar panels, meanwhile, are being wired to the neighboring Bible Center Church building, with plans to power it without any help from the electric grid.
Last month in the bioshelter, Casey Clauser showed off the aquaponics system, which recycles water through a closed-loop growing system: a tank of 50 tilapia produces waste that fertilizes a bed of plants.
The plants — including lettuce, cucumbers, swiss chard, tomatoes and herbs — are sold in the Everyday Cafe in Homewood, said Mr. Clauser, farm manager for the Oasis Farm and Fishery, the nonprofit arm of the Bible Center Church that operates the bioshelter.
The space hosts a variety of summer camps and programs for children, Mr. Clauser said, showing residents how urban farming can work. Pitt plans to spend $185,000 in Homewood.
“We use the food we grow to cook healthy recipes,” Mr. Clauser said.