Empty Nesters on a Green Global Trek

It has been three years since we launched the company, putting together gradually the pieces of a multi-dimensional puzzle, building up a team, developing expertise, fine tuning what exactly we would do with the vast stock of bamboo that exists in Nicaragua. We soon settled on housing, and more specifically, on low cost housing. Thus our desire for ecological impact morphed into something more than that — we discovered that we could have ecological impact AND social impact, by focusing on low cost housing. Then came Haiti and we fine tuned our approach to focus CO2 Bambu specifically in the area of post disaster reconstruction.

We pursued a two track strategy, to offer housing and shelter opportunities in Nicaragua and Haiti, unsure of which path would deliver the first meaningful contract. Until then, we matured the team through a number of small projects. On the personal front, we wanted to build a bamboo house at our beach property at Ostional and an artist studio and loft in Granada for Peta to paint and to have some income from renting the studio. Peta made the call, a brilliant one if I may add, to start with the studio in granada. This turned out to be enormously helpful in our pursuit of a Nicaragua opportunity, as we could easily take prospective customers down minutes from our factory (as opposed to 3 hours by car, a rather inconvenient location to demonstrate CO2 Bambu capabilities).

Our efforts and patience were rewarded on September 28, a few days after World Bamboo Day, when the triumverate that make up “the customer” for the Nicaraguan Indigenous communities of RAAN, on the Atlantic Coast, awarded us our first large contract for bamboo houses. The triumverate consists in the source of funding, a Spanish NGO – Junta Andalucia, the recipients of Spanish largesse, thirteen indigenous communities in and around the town of Rosita, and the administrative unit that disburses the funds, the mayor’s office of Rosita.

I met the mayor of Rosita 2 years ago – I had gone to this far flung town because rumor was that there was bamboo around these parts. Indeed there is and lots of it. So I sought to develop a sourcing strategy in the region. By pure chance, I visited the mayor at the time who casually mentioned over lunch that there was a housing program funded by a Spanish NGO for 300 houses. I tried to get some details and he soon told me that it was “probably too late” as they were well on the way to selecting their solution. “Just in case”, I asked for some contact info and met said Spanish representatives in Managua, who were a bit more optimistic, but reinforced the “probably too late” message. Seeing as the only house I had to show was the 12 inch high model I had been given on a visit to a low cost housing builder in Ecuador, I knew I was a LONG way from being able to play in the space. Still “you never know”. Fast forward many months, and many twists and turns in CO2 Bambu’s evolution and through three “near death” experiences, resulting from cash strangulation, and finally we found ourselves in a position to have a REAL house to show, a certified hurricane proof design, and a kick ass team of Nicaraguan professionals firing on all cylinders to help CO2 Bambu reach its potential.

While we were maturing, the triumverate of RAAN was dilly dallying. Not sure quite why this was, but two years after being awarded a $900K grant, still no houses are built. The delay led to a dramatic showdown, when Junta Andalucia essentially called a meeting with the authorities in RAAN and told them to “use it or lose it”. They would simply repurpose the funds and allocate the money to another project somewhere else in the country. That certainly got their attention and got things moving!

Two days before World Bamboo Day, we get a call from Junta Andalucia that they would like to visit our facilities in Granada and any demo house we might have. They came, they saw, they gasped at the beauty of the bamboo work that our team had done for Peta’s studio. Within days I was on the 8 person 1940s plane to Rosita to meet with the President of the Territorial Government (of indigenous communities) and with the vice-mayor in charge of indigenous affairs. We were informed of their new-found urgency to come to a decision (lest they lose the money), invited them to visit our facilities in Granada and they too loved it. So much so that the powerful vice-mayor decided on the spot to have her soon to be built “Casa de las Mujeres” (Women’s center) be all bamboo.

It should be explained that this is not “just” about building houses. It is a HIGHLY visible social impact program in an important region politically, for a program that will be completed just ahead of the next Presidential elections. The national government is all over this program and wants to showcase it as evidence of its fight against poverty, housing deficit AND NOW in favor of ecological solutions.

While the bamboo house was a hit, the representatives of the indigenous communities are folks who have been exploited consistently for many years. The worst of culprits have been North American companies that have developed large mining operations and who have polluted land and rivers with cianide and all sorts of horrific materials used in gold mining operations. So while there was excitement about our products, the discomfort about putting their future in the hands of yet another Gringo was palpable. This is until our Director of Technical Services, Julio, came into the picture. First, he comes from a well known Sandinista family, from the region. He is “one of them” and took the lead in making the indigenous leaders get comfortable with us. His master stroke was to push back at the “gringo” label and emphasize that I was NOT American, but French. That already opened one door – there is a well known French eco-entrepreneur in Nicaragua whose operations include reforestation, high end ecolodges and who has managed to avoid the pitfalls of Yankee Imperialism by working WITH the communities, not just IN the communities. But the French thing was only half of it… Julio explained our company’s motives – social impact, ecological impact… he explained that I CHOSE to come to Nicaragua to have impact, while I could have stayed in the world of aerospace and made a whole lot more money than I could on a Nica salary, even as CEO. He argued “el es Socialisto!”. Well, that did it. I am now “Companero Ben”!

A couple more trips, shared fried fish on Granada’s lakefront, listening to stories about the “revolucion” (Nicaragua’s fratricidal war of the 80s), during which the vice Mayor was in charge of coordinating military strikes by her companeros deep in the hills of RAAN… and we soon find ourselves discussing how many houses, not whether we will be selling bamboo houses.

It is not “marketing pitch” but just plain obvious, sound ecological planning to have community homes built out of a material that is abundant in the region, sustainable, heat reducing and importantly, which will create jobs across the whole value chain of bamboo production, from harvesting, to field processing, to factory work, to field assembly.

We met with Junta Andalucia and were told that we would do a pilot program of 25 houses. We were pleased with that, optimistic that once people would see our homes, they would get past whatever pre-conceptions they might have about bamboo houses and we would get more interest. Then we met with community leaders and were told that there was a shift in plans and we would get 44 houses. That’s even better, I thought, as we could organize ourselves “industrially” to get to some economies of scale. Then we visited once again Rosita to sign the contract for 44 houses and, somehow, the 44 houses had become 84 houses! See pics of a meeting with representatives from the 13 ethnic communities, the powerful Vice Mayor in blue and the President of the Territorial Government in red, to her side.

So this is where we stand today.

We have a signed contract and a customer downpayment for 84 houses. Now we face a rapid ramp up as the political pressure to show results quickly is intense. We were able to meet competitive pricing by revisiting our entire industrial strategy – we no longer will be having manufacturing operations in Granada, but rather will relocate near the bamboo fields of Rosita. Next week, we will buy a piece of land (see below) and by the end of the week we will have our team, supplemented by workers from the indigenous community, start the foundations to build our processing center: a large bamboo structure which will house our bamboo inventory, a processing line with 7 units for 7 types of bamboo panels, two large dip tanks for imunization, a green house with natural drying of bamboo material, dormitories for 20 workers, offices and house for on site management and visitors.

Amongst the four communities we will be providing houses for, one in particular presents some interesting challenges… It is a community split by a raging river. The only access is through a foot bridge that swings high above the waters. We will have to figure out how to get the material across as some of the panels are 20ft by 20ft and no mule wants to go over that bridge… good thing that bamboo is a light material!

Since the award, we are facing an avalanche of requests for bamboo structures — the word is spreading fast… There is one program in one town near Granada for 18 houses, another program in RAAS for 70 houses, an eco lodge in Ometepe for 4 houses. When it rains…

To the chorus of “but… can you execute”, I say “Si se puede!” We will face many hurdles, to be sure. I am not as concerned about industrial issues (I’ve managed industrial ramp ups before on a larger scale in the aerospace world) as I am about cultural issues, interfacing on so many fronts with our customers and workers from the indigenous communities. Their ways are different, not just for me as a “foreigner” but for my Nicaraguan colleagues, who are just as much outsiders to the communities as I am. We will learn their ways, no doubt make mistakes, and learn from these mistakes. We will deliver attractive eco-houses, on time, and by doing so, we will kickstart a bamboo industry in Nicaragua.

See next post for some pics and stories about our new business location and home away from home for the next year, Rosita Nicaragua.