Peter Haas

2006

Peter Haas

Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group

http://www.aidg.org

Weston, Massachusetts, United States

Community Improvement & Economic Development

The Bold Idea:

In a world where roughly 2 billion people lack access to electricity, clean cooking fuel, and adequate drinking water, the development of basic infrastructure is vital to breaking the cycle of poverty. Unfortunately, the failure rate of NGO-financed infrastructure projects is disturbingly high due to inadequate maintenance of the infrastructure over the long term. Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group (AIDG) addresses this issue through the formation of micro-manufacturing facilities for environmentally sound infrastructure improvements in developing countries. It empowers local workers to use local materials to produce, sell, install, and repair village and home scale solutions for energy production, clean water access, and sanitation. AIDG incubates these manufacturing facilities as self-sufficient businesses that in time will pay their seed capital forward, offering money and technical training toward the creation of similar enterprises in other villages and countries.

Biography:

Peter's interest in launching AIDG was sparked after he witnessed numerous infrastructure projects fail either due to a lack of maintenance or never begin because communities lacked trained workers to implement them.  His vision for AIDG is to provide a market-based solution that ensures that infrastructure improvements are supported by sustainable, local businesses, guaranteeing their success long-term. Peter holds a BA from Yale University and brings a diverse skill set in small infrastructure systems from metal casting and pipefitting to electronics and satellite communications. He recently helped AIDG’s first incubated business, Xelateco, in Guatemala win a UNDP-funded contract for a 40-home micro-hydroelectric system.

Moment of Obligation: Why did you want to create your new organization?
There really is one moment that solidified the need for the organization in my mind. I was in Cuba, on a U.S. Department of Treasury permit, to look at urban agriculture and I visited two small pig farms just outside of Havana. The first farm had a biodigester for treating the pig excrement that had been installed by a nephew of the owner. It supplied methane gas for lighting, a stove and a gas-fired hot water heater. In addition, the fertilizer generated from the biodigester bolstered the agricultural productivity of the farm. Overall, the farm lacked the typical odor associated with pig farming operations and had a clean well. The kitchen inside was spotless, thanks in part to the biogas stove, and the house was cool and shaded from numerous nearby trees. The other farm presented the most direct contrast one could imagine. The place was a sanitation nightmare, it reeked; pig excrement was everywhere and was contaminating the nearby stream. The kitchen was filled with black smoke from inefficient wood fires, for which they had cleared all the surrounding trees. Without the tree cover the house baked in the sun. To light the house at night, the farmer was paying significantly for kerosene. Unfortunately the second farmer had no recourse to buy a biodigester if he wanted one. There were no biodigester businesses selling and repairing them the way there were tractor or well-digging businesses. As time passed and I worked in more countries, I saw this situation again and again. It became clear that these two pig farms in Cuba weren’t some isolated instances; they were a representation of a greater need for the spread of appropriate technology. Those two farms initiated my realization that there was a niche for an organization like AIDG and the businesses it creates.

Gall to Think Big: What has given you the ability to take on deeply entrenched social problems?
When I was about six, I took apart my dad’s power drill to see how it worked. I won’t go into the reprimands I received for that indiscretion, but it led to a fascination with how complex systems worked. This was the slippery slope that led to many experiences of repairing other people’s technological refuse and reclaiming the utility. It made me see how much you could do with very little. I recall repairing my CD player once with a screwdriver, a paper clip, and dental floss (eat your heart out Richard Dean Anderson!). It gave me a confidence that even the most complex problems can have diagnosable and, if not repairable, at least surmountable root causes.

New and Untested: Describe what’s innovative about your new work.
Most of the technologies we work with have been around for years, but our combination of training, education, and outreach to disseminate them is truly unique. In our model, each incubated shop eventually provides financial support and training teams to subsequent shop incubations. Already, our shop workers in Guatemala train people from universities in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia. Most of them, however, have never left Guatemala. I am almost giddy for the chance to fly these workers to our next planned shop location and give them the opportunity to pass on the training and skills they have received to people in similar economic settings.

Seeing Possibilities: What do you believe are the most important qualities to do social change work?
You need the standard entrepreneurial traits (innovation, commitment, organization, a solid work ethic), but most importantly I think you need to have some time on the ground. If you can live with your constituency and understand the quirks and peculiarities of their lives, you will have a better chance of finding solutions that will actually help them. It is very easy to design ivory tower solutions for the world’s problems, but without the time with the people affected by those problems you lose access to the minutia that can make or break even the most specific organizational plan.

Which musical artists/albums get you going?
Folky breathy angsty female vocalists, Lamb, Thievery Corporation, Manu Chao, Vivaldi, Ben Harper, Belle and Sebastian, and The Adjusters.

What books do you recommend (pleasure, work, and anything in between)? Gaviotas by Alan Weisman, Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu, The Complete Poems, 1927-1979 by Elizabeth Bishop, Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel, Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water by Marc Reisner, Engineering in Emergencies: A Practical Guide for Relief Workers by Jan Davis and Robert Lambert, Motors as Generators for Micro-Hydro Power by Nigel Smith, The Codebreakers: The Comprehensive History of Secret Communication from Ancient Times to the Internet by David Kahn, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond, The Micro-Hydro Pelton Turbine Manual: Design, Manufacture and Installation for Small-Scale Hydropower by Jeremy Thake, The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, and Jennifer Government by Max Barry.

Which websites do you visit often (work and/or personal)?

• nytimes.com
• aidg.net
• paintedfoot.com
• angryalien.com
• homepower.com
• otherpower.com
• mouser.com
• jnbdesigns.com
• dotproject.net
• craigslist.org
• digikey.com
• grants.gov
• guidestar.org
• paypal.com
• earth.google.com
• babelfish.altavista.com

Any last words, thoughts or advice to other social change leaders?
I have three pieces of advice: First, when you are starting out it is extremely vital to have a secondary source of income. Some other job you can do to support yourself while you start working towards your cause. I did IT consulting in the US from Guatemala during the start of our project and I can’t tell you how much this helped the project. Second, be sure to organize and budget your time and figure out which tasks you can get help with from volunteers. Spend the time to find good committed people who will be able to help you for the long haul. It is much better to spend the time to train somebody who is committed to the cause to do a task than to just do it yourself. Though it may be quicker and easier to do it yourself in the short term, in the long term you will find that the time invested in training the people who stick around will more than pay off. My last piece of advice is: figure out how what you’ve created will continue to serve your goal even if the funding doesn’t come through to allow you to make it your life’s work. Going for a sustainable impact is always much better than going for a big impact if the funding is uncertain.