About FdS

A Social-Eco Enterprise in Port-au-Prince

Headquartered in Port-au-Prince, FdS works on all fronts to stop Haiti’s deforestation and the devastating effects of Haiti's dependence on charcoal. We also work to improve the health and lives of cooks, educate the public on safe cooking practices, and find solutions to Haiti’s abysmal management of its waste materials.

The FdS approach to these social and ecological issues is two-pronged:

• We collect post consumer waste material from institutions around Port-au-Prince and find as many local recycling solutions as we can.
• We recycle waste paper, cardboard, and sawdust into clean burning briquette fuel blocks to replace charcoal cooking, with accompanying efficient stoves.

We work to divert as much material as possible away from Haiti’s blighted regional dumps. It is our mission to give materials a second life through our innovative recycling processes.

History

El Fuego del Sol was founded in the Dominican Republic in 2005 by company president Kevin Adair. Kevin's philosophy for sustainable development is simple: "Listen. Lead. Listen again." Kevin had originally planned to begin an organization working on water purification, but after speaking to locals at length about the daily needs in their lives that required addressing, he found time after time again that cooking was cited as a serious problem. With a joint Haitian-Dominican-American founding team, El Fuego del Sol was born.

In 2012, the World Food Program invited El Fuego del Sol to relocate to Port-au-Prince, Haiti and assist with their efforts in producing sustainable recycled briquettes as a clean cooking alternative and jobs creation program. FdS Haiti was launched, and the company's main activities moved to Haiti, where FdS has been headquartered ever since.

FdS quickly surpassed other briquette production projects in quality and quantity of the briquettes, as well as  ability to provide long-lasting employment. We remain an important part of Haiti's social and ecological infrastructure to this day.

Organizational structure and fair-trade practices

FdS is a is a charitable program holding US IRS 501(c)(3) non-profit status in support of sibling Haitian and Dominican social-eco enterprises, and is managed by an American, Haitian and Dominican board of directors. The products and services we introduce and provide are chosen based on detailed product and market testing, and they are specifically focused on issues that Haitian and Dominican families see as recurring issues in their everyday lives.

FdS Haiti follows international fair trade standards in all operations in Haiti, the DR and the US. FdS requires all suppliers and business partners to follow fair trade standards as well.

We are deeply committed to being ethical, sustainable, and impactful in all that we do.

Awards and Accolades

FdS has been recognized locally and internationally for our ecological and social work. A list of awards and accolades includes:

• SOCAP Social Entrepreneur Award - 2014
• Semi-Finalist, Buckminster Fuller Award - 2014
• Semi-Finalist, Echoing Green Award - 2015
• Green Grab Presenter, MCN - 2015
• Energy Globe Award (National Winner for Haiti) - 2015
• Winner, Inter-American Development Bank Ideas Award - 2015
• Presenter, Inter-American Development Bank INE - 2016
• Regional Winner, Digicel Entrepreneur of the Year Award - 2017

Where traditional NGOs provide gifts, FdS creates long-lasting employment opportunities.

Our values:

Protecting the environment

• Help to effectively manage Haiti's post-consumer waste
• Create local recycling opportunities in Haiti
• Create clean-burning charcoal alternatives and efficient cookstoves
• Allowing for the reforestation of Haiti's landscape

Opportunity, not gifts

• Create long-term employment opportunities
• Ensuring our project is sustainable and durable to last in Haiti long-term

Improving lives

• Finding healthful alternatives to charcoal cooking
• Listening and responding to the needs of our clients