Origins

We are business school students who worked in sustainable development projects. We are very concerned by waste management issues and we wanted to involve ourselves in a cause which makes sense. This is why we created the NGO Happy Nest which aims to promote solutions of organic waste conversion into energy and fertilizer in developing countries.

Our missions

1 – Realizing 3 missions for NGOs and social entrepreneurs who developed solutions to “upcycle” organic waste in developing countries (China, Cambodia and Madagascar) from January to August 2014

2 – Raising awareness and empowering the youth of our region (Paris) to sustainable development practices and the issues of organic waste

3 - Meeting and interviewing five key players of organic waste management in May 2014 to promote their solutions on open source media and in order to inspire others to duplicate them in their own country.

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Several achievements in 2013

+ Since the beginning of the year, we are in contact with more than fifty worldwide organizations

+ During July and August, we made a first trip to meet two of our partners in China and Cambodia

+ In September, we set up a new partnership in Madagascar

+ In October, we met primary school pupils (year 4 and year 5) that will follow our project.

Why organic waste in developing countries?

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Happy Nest’s goal is to transform these environmental and social problems into opportunities. In a circular logic, waste become resources. In fact, organic waste can be converted into biogas and organic fertilizer. It can help developing sustainable energy for all as 1,3 billion lack of access to energy and it could produce 2.7 more fertilizer than the world currently use.

Our 3 HAPPY Missions

1st mission - Cambodia

Sanishop Cambodia is a project launched by the World Toilet Organization which has a double objective:

+ Raising awareness for better hygiene and sanitation in rural areas

+ Distributing low cost and high quality toilets to eradicate open defecation.

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On the left - The slab, the latrine and the recovery chamber are manufactured by Sanishop. More than 1000 toilets have already been distributed by the NGO in the province of Kampong Chhnang.

On the right – awareness campaign organized by Sanishop to promote good hygiene practices (Pictures taken during our meeting with the NGO in August 2013)

- Happy Nest is going to help Sanishop Cambodia setting up a system to transform human feces and animal manure into energy.

- We will realize the mission between January and March 2014.

2nd mission - China

Shaanxi Mothers is a Chinese environmental NGO recognized for its work by the prestigious Ashden Award in 2006. The NGO installed 2,574 biogas digesters* in 58 villages in the Shaanxi Province to produce energy and fertilizer from animal manure, agricultural and human waste. They avoid the emission of 15,000 tons of CO2 each year (which represents between 60 and 120 million km traveled by car).

(*): A digester is a container in which organic waste fermentate to produce biogas, a renewable energy, and natural fertilizer.

A digester installed in the backyard of a house in the village of Muzhang - picture taken during our meeting with the NGO in July 2013

- Happy Nest is going to help Shaanxi Mothers raising $ 30,000 to develop a maintenance service for the digesters they installed.

- We started this mission from Paris in September 2013. We will meet the NGO for the second time in April 2014.

3rd mission - Madagascar

EtcTerra, a French NGO, developed the Madacompost project to manage the urban waste of the city of Mahajanga, in Madagascar. The town produces annually 30,000 tons of household waste of which 70% are neither collected nor treated.

Madacompost project annually upcycles 12,000 tons of organic waste into compost for agricultural use.

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Madacompost employees collecting organic waste in a landfill

- Happy Nest will be contributing to the development of the local compost industry by training local teams on marketing strategy and business plan modelling. In addition, we will help them optimizing their organizational structure.

- We will realize our mission for Madacompost between June to August 2014.

Happy Nest

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