thumbnail_Starter kit image.JPG

Starter kit image.JPG

Starter Kit collection

Business case

Impact on the health and happiness of human populations

Well-being

Contribution to social parity, or impact on social disparity

Equality

Efficiency gains on operations or transactions either through cultural or technological shifts

Productivity

Reduced green house gas emissions released into the biosphere

Reduce Emissions (SDG13)

Minimise waste through diversion: Instead of sending waste to landfill, it is redirected into other industrial processes for handling, treatment, recycling, recovery, or reuse in various forms. 

Minimise waste through design: At the outset of a process of project, plan and design such that there is zero waste or minimal waste during production, use, and at end of life. 

Minimise Waste (SDG12)

Reduced use of fossil fuel energy sources and/or increased use of renewable energy

Reduce Energy Consumption

Providing air, water, rail, and land transportation for passengers, such as airlines, airports, ferries, cruise-ships, tour boat operators, marine ports, railways, train stations, tour bus operators, vehicle rental, and taxi companies, travel agencies and related services

Passenger Transport Services

Producing transportation equipment for the movement of goods and people by air, rail, sea, and land, including airplanes, spacecraft and military equipment, ships, boats, rail locomotives and rolling stock, motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers, and related equipment, as well as repair services for such equipment

Transportation Equipment

Utilise waste streams as a source of secondary resources and recover waste for reuse and recycling

Use waste as a resource

Reuse, repurpose, and recycle waste streams within the same industry

Valorise waste streams - closed loop

Collection programmes that process products and parts for reuse or recycling within the same industry

Closed loop collection

Cycle strategies aim to cycle and reuse materials at their highest value: they maximise the volume of secondary materials re-entering the economy, ultimately minimising the need for virgin material inputs and therefore also narrowing flows. Of course, virgin materials will always be needed to a degree: all materials degrade and can’t be cycled infinitely, use energy, and require blending with virgin materials to maintain strength and functionality.

Cycle

Impacts

small_climate-4803653_640.jpg

thumbnail_climate-4803653_640.jpg

climate-4803653_640.jpg

Industries

small_coast-wind-turbine-sea-sky.jpg

thumbnail_coast-wind-turbine-sea-sky.jpg

coast-wind-turbine-sea-sky.jpg

The principles of a circular economy concern designing out waste, regenerating ecosystems and keeping items in use. Decoupling the economy from material flows—improving the rate of resource productivity faster than the economic growth rate—is also a consistent guide. By evolving with the growing number of applications of circular economy principles, and consolidating these strategies across thematic areas, Circle Economy’s Key Elements Framework (KE) renders the elements of the circular economy salient and serves as a basis to derive contextual strategies and interventions. 


The Framework consists of:
- Core Elements: Activities directly handling product or material flows; and uniquely,
- Enabling Elements: those that remove obstacles for core actors.


Key elements of the circular economy

large_photo-1515534238346-fb9ae3e399d0.jpg

medium_photo-1515534238346-fb9ae3e399d0.jpg

small_photo-1515534238346-fb9ae3e399d0.jpg

thumbnail_photo-1515534238346-fb9ae3e399d0.jpg

photo-1515534238346-fb9ae3e399d0.jpg

Circle Economy's framework of strategies and activities that define the circular economy

![Screen Shot 2024-10-21 at 16.53.12.png](https://goldilocks-images.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/Screen_Shot_2024_10_21_at_16_53_12_12858da6aa.png)

Based on the work of [Bocken et al. (2016)](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309699661_Product_design_and_business_model_strategies_for_a_circular_economy), the Four Flows Framework serves as a simple framework for managing resource flows in a circular economy by using less (Narrow), using for longer (Slow), using again (Cycle), and using clean, regenerative materials and energy (Regenerate).

These different principles of circular economy can be applied to our socioeconomic metabolism: we can design stocks like buildings, infrastructure, machinery, and vehicles to be rich resource mines for the future, and design manufactured goods and consumables to be cycled and made regenerative. Furthermore, the focus must also centre on getting more value out of fewer materials. Achieving the aims of a circular economy—minimising material use, regenerating the Earth, and preventing material losses—can be done through these four key strategies mentioned above.

Source: Circle Economy. (2023). *[The circularity gap report 2023](https://www.circularity-gap.world/2023)* (p.22). Amsterdam: Circle Economy. 

Four Flows Framework

medium_Screen Shot 2024-10-21 at 16.53.12.png

small_Screen Shot 2024-10-21 at 16.53.12.png

thumbnail_Screen Shot 2024-10-21 at 16.53.12.png

Screen Shot 2024-10-21 at 16.53.12.png

    By loading the video, you agree to Vimeos's privacy policy.Learn more Load video  Always unblock Vimeo   

 ABOUT US Mobility for Africa, a start up registered in Zimbabwe under parent company Locomotion for Africa and in Australia, is working with social impact investors, to build a market, using a social enterprise model that provides a package of services from skills to low income financing. 
Robust, renewable energy charged electric tricycles, branded and backstopped by trained community support services, can provide an avenue for communities to overcome these distances and contribute to dynamic local economies. Powered through community based off grid energy supply, e-tricycles could provide the incentive for increased economic activity, creating new local markets and enhancing rural livelihoods. 
A pilot targeting small scale farmers is building the evidence to usage, financial sustainability, technology, including renewable and GPS, and the social and economic impact on households. 
OUR VISION
To bring clean energy solar powered electric transport solutions to women and their families that are affordable, efficient and adapted to peri urban and rural areas in Africa.

By doing so to empower rural women in Africa with transport that can help them save time, better sell their goods at the market, take their children to the clinic and school, collect water, as well as improve their economic opportunities within the households and local communities.
To contribute to improving the quality of life of women and their families.
To contribute to expanding renewal energy for transport in Africa contributing to longer term sustainability and mitigating climate change.

OUR MISSION
To create renewable community-based transport solutions for Africa that is affordable, efficient and environmentally friendly. By building a model that reinforces and builds local distribution networks, seeks to change behavior and empower women, and works on a sustainability model that also creates shared economies, Mobility for Africa will create new opportunities and improve the quality of life for rural communities.


 A lot of startups pop up from time to time with the “Next Big Thing” or the next big service offering in EVs. Most of the time they will be hyping some futuristic and to some extent, mythical new six-figure price tagged EV packed with all the “Bells and Whistles” that promises to do 0 to 100 km/h in under 2 seconds! Sometimes we wonder why more people aren’t looking into some more practical solutions to everyday problems like an EV for ordinary people and not some futuristic vaporware some startups promise in perpetuity. People just want to be able to get about safely and efficiently!
Women in Wedza, Zimbabwe Walking to collect firewood. Image courtesy of Mobility For Africa
To be honest, at this stage 10 years after the first mass produced EV of the modern era, the Nissan Leaf, we just need more and more practical EVs that are widely available. High performance EVs have their place. We are not against people pushing the limits to improve tech. We would just love to see more EVs and mobility as a service firms that are focused on addressing some real life problems and transforming peoples lives where it matters most.
The lives of most rural women and their families have not changed much over the last couple of decades. The women and children still walk long distances to just about everywhere they need to get to. The women walk daily to collect firewood for cooking and heating, water from a well or the nearest river, the nearest clinic, the nearest bus stop to get to the nearest town, and they also walk some distance carrying heavy loads on their heads to take their produce to the market. They often have to make several trips or lose a huge chunk of their perishable produce as they cannot carry a lot of it to the market. The children aren’t spared either, they sometimes walk several km to and from school. The hours wasted mean the communities miss out on many potential economic and self-development opportunities.
Mobility For Africa’s Hamba Electric Three-Wheelers in Wedza, Zimbabwe. Image courtesy of Mobility For Africa
Some startups are now working to address some of these problems. We recently found Mobility For Africa (MFA). MFA is a startup founded by Australian Shantha Bloemen and is currently piloting electric three-wheelers in the rural Wedza district of Zimbabwe. MFA’s vision is to “bring solar powered electric transport solutions to women and their families that are affordable, efficient and adapted to peri urban and rural areas in Africa.” As it executes its mission, MFA aims to “empower rural women in Africa with transport solutions that can help them save time, sell more of their goods at the market, take their children to the clinic, to school, to collect water, as well as improve their economic opportunities within the households and local communities.” Its ultimate goal is to improve the quality of life of women and their families and at the same time “contribute to expanding renewable energy for transport in Africa contributing to longer term sustainability and mitigating climate change.”
MFA has partnered with Tsinghua University in China, Midlands State University in Gweru, Zimbabwe, and The Solar Shack to set up the pilot and create the data system to measure results from the pilot programs. MFA has also set up an assembly plant in Harare’s industrial zone. By choosing to bring in semi-knocked down kits from China and assembling the electric tricycle in Harare, MFA will create some good job opportunities and technology transfer programs in Zimbabwe’s current economic environment where unemployment is at an all-time high. MFA has also developed training and operation manuals for its Electric Lady Agents. MFA also facilitates driving lessons & testing for competency for users that also include a driving manual and battery charging guidelines. The manuals are available in both English and local language versions.
The electric tricycle is known as the Hamba, which means “go” in the local languages. Working with its technical partners, the company has used the lessons learnt in the first phase of the pilot to make improvements and modify the original Chinese tricycle to make it more suitable to rural African conditions. The use of solar charging hubs in such rural setups is critical, as most of the time these villages are far from the grid. The synergies between the solar hubs and the electric vehicles will help propel both the distributed solar microgrid and the electric vehicle sectors in this part of the world. The solar hubs will allow battery charging and or battery swapping stations to be set up at multiple locations, which in turn will encourage adoption of electric vehicles. Typical EVs utilized in these villages  may be in the form of two-wheelers, three-wheelers, and low range affordable electric cars and lorries.
MFA plans to roll out a pay-as-you-go system (PayGo). The PayGo system is well understood in rural Africa since the wave of small home solar systems provided by the likes of M-Kopa swept across Sub-Saharan Africa. During this trial phase, MFA has started with a monthly and daily rental system and hope to prove that the women can pay. Armed with this data, it hopes to raise the capital to allow it to provide longer term financing options.
MFA has successfully raised some funds through a crowdsourcing campaign that allowed it to ship the first container of tricycles and get the pilot program going. MFA has also won a grant from the Live Expo Innovation Grant and also secured a grant from the Africa Energy Competition Fund. MFA has recently secured a partnership with a German second-life battery company, betteries, to test out second-life lithium batteries for the Hamba. MFA hopes Zimbabwe will be a local base for assembly and distribution of its products across Africa. We hope it will be able to find more funding partners to enable it to quickly roll out the commercial phase of the project. After that the company would have a very nice template to simply cut and paste across many African nations.
Related Story: All Electric Taxi-Hailing Service Nopia Looks To Scale Up In Kenya
Take a look at another EV YouTube video by Electric Drive Africa
All images courtesy of Mobility For Africa
      Appreciate CleanTechnica’s originality? Consider becoming a CleanTechnica Member, Supporter, Technician, or Ambassador — or a patron on Patreon.     Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.              

By MacDonald DzirutweWEDZA, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - In the rural Zimbabwe district of Wedza, a new electric-powered motorcycle is helping bring income to poor women and easing the burden of looking after families.The three-wheeler, known as Hamba (Go), powered by a solar-charged lithium ion battery, is being piloted by start-up Mobility for Africa, which leases the motorcycle to women in groups of up to five.The women can now carry farm produce to markets further away from home, offer transportation services to villagers and use the motorcycle for domestic chores.Mary Mhuka, a 58-year-old mother-of-six who is leasing the Hamba with her daughter-in-law and a neighbour, said the motorcycle had eased the strain of domestic work.She could now sell her vegetables at a business centre 15 km away for more money than she would get locally.“We used to carry firewood on our heads for very long distances ... but now it’s much easier as this motorcycle has taken away that burden,” she told Reuters after a trip to the community water borehole.Fadzai Mavhuna, the Hamba pilot coordinator since February 2019, said women paid an equivalent of $15 a month as a group to lease the Hamba, which has a maximum range of 100 km.It costs between $0.50 and $1 to change the motorcycle batteries, which are charged at a solar-powered station.Mobility for Africa is now in the second phase of the pilot project before it can go commercial. The Hamba is assembled in Harare with kits made in China and will be sold for $1,500.“Some of the women have increased their income because they have embarked on ... projects like baking, tailoring and horticulture,” said Mavhuna.Pamhidzai Mutunya, a farm health worker, said before the arrival of Hamba, many women gave birth at home while others had to walk 12 km to the nearest clinic because there was no transport.“We now have fewer cases of pregnant women giving birth at home,” the 35-year-old mother-of-three said.She ferries an average of four people to the clinic a day and also collects medicines for patients.

Germany

Zimbabwe

large_blob

medium_blob

small_blob

thumbnail_blob

blob

betteries

Mobility for Africa

<p>Berlin-based electric battery recycling company, called betteries, is collaborating with Mobility for Africa to help with making transportation products more accessible and more sustainable for the people in Zimbabwe. Electronic car companies get rid of batteries once they are not perfectly performing, but that also means large amounts of batteries that can still perform at lower rates are ending up as waste. That is why betteries has developed a second life usage for these used batteries and with Mobility of Africa, they created an electric transport solution for the people in Africa. -Mobility for Africa’s pay-as-you-go solution especially helps women to be able to transport their goods to markets in an affordable way, building impactful social value and increasing their income and opportunities. To ensure full circularity betteries uses a batteries-as-a-service model, therefore, once the second-life batteries get depleted, they are brought back to Europe by betteries, who will dispose of them responsibly.</p>