JAGUAR LAND ROVER LIGHTS UP ONE MILLION LIVES IN KENYA

5 June 2017

Jaguar Land Rover and ClimateCare today announce a partnership to bring clean solar technology to off‑grid communities in Kenya.

  • Jaguar Land Rover announce ‘Lighting up Lives’ collaboration with sustainability experts ClimateCare to bring safe and clean light to 1.2 million people in East Africa
  • Collaboration commits to empowering communities with affordable technology that changes lives, giving families up to four hours more light each evening and replacing hazardous kerosene fuel
  • Project showcased at Hay Festival this week with immersive storytelling sessions designed for children and their families
  • Festival guests will enjoy one‑of‑a‑kind ‘Night Time Sun’ art installation designed to showcase the power of the sun to transform lives

Hay Festival, UK, 28 May 2017:  Jaguar Land Rover and ClimateCare today announce a partnership to bring clean solar technology to off‑grid communities in Kenya. This innovative social impact programme, called ’Lighting up Lives’ supports children like 14‑year old Franklin Kishsta, a pupil at Kasooni School, Kalawa, Kenya. Franklin is just one of more than one million people living in isolated or off‑grid communities who will benefit from the programme. “I finish all of my homework now” said the boy who dreams of becoming an engineer one day, “before I could not do it at home when it was dark. I know my parents are much happier now, and so am I.” 

Using kerosene light creates hazardous indoor pollutants, one of the biggest causes of premature death in Africa. Jaguar Land Rover believes that renewable solar technology offers an affordable alternative. Education improves as children like Franklin can study, read and stay up to play after dark. Women enjoy greater opportunities to work and learn. Living conditions in homes are healthier and safer, and incomes improve.

This exciting new venture is exactly the type of programme that Jaguar Land Rover wants to lead on in the future. Using technology for good and supporting the power of engineering to improve lives and help to build a cleaner future. Our purpose is to make responsible business relevant to everyone. By sharing our skills, our technology, our people and our passions we can make a difference to people's lives and prosperity.

Helen McLintock
Director, Jaguar Land Rover

We are focused on helping corporates take responsibility for solving key global challenges ‑ through the delivery of integrated sustainability programmes with robust and measurable outcomes that benefit the world’s poorest communities, and deliver against the UN’s Global Goals. We believe businesses have a vital role to play in supporting the Global Goals and Jaguar Land Rover is an excellent example of the contribution corporates can make.

Edward Hanrahan
ClimateCare CEO

Lighting up Lives is particularly relevant to Jaguar Land Rover’s own operations and commitment to a zero emissions future. It recently announced a move to 100% renewable electricity for its UK facilities and has installed the UK’s largest rooftop solar array at its Engine Manufacturing Centre in the West Midlands. It fits with an ambition to drive sustainable, innovative growth not just for the business but for communities around the world including Kalawa, Kenya.

The Storytelling Nook

At this year’s Hay Festival, Jaguar Land Rover has created the Storytelling Nook – a unique storytelling venue where the company and ClimateCare are running daily immersive sessions for children to learn about Lighting up Lives including video, sound and storytelling from Kenya to show the transformative impact of solar power in rural communities.

Guest storytellers will include:

  • Veronica Lamond, author of illustrated children’s stories about Landy and Fender the lovable Land Rovers
  • Aunty Kiko, award‑winning playwright and Kenyan children’s author
  • Celebrated British polar explorer Ben Saunders who will talk about the importance of solar in his 2013‑14 expedition and share a reading of his upcoming Ladybird book, Shackleton
  • Three ‘Science of Solar’ sessions will also be held on Wednesday 31 May. Aimed at children aged eight to 14 the sessions have been designed in collaboration with solar expert Chris Jardine from Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute.

Lighting up Lives: Solar Technology Programme in Kenya

When: Every day, Saturday 27 May – Saturday 3 June 2017 at 10am

Ben Saunders Storytelling – Saturday 27 May 4pm

Lighting up Lives: Science of Solar Workshop

When: Wednesday 31 May, 2017 at 11.30am, 1pm, 2.30pm

Night Time Sun

As a visual celebration of the sun for Hay Festival goers, Jaguar Land Rover has commissioned a unique art installation illustrating the power of the sun to transform lives. ‘Night Time Sun’ is an ambitious installation designed to cast its light over festival‑goers as the sun sets each night.

ENDS

Further information

Victoria Perry, Jaguar Land Rover
Tel : +44 (0) 7392 108788                 Email : vperry@jaguarlandrover.com

Tania Sherahilo, ClimateCare
Tel: +44 (0)1865 591000                   Email: tania.sherahilo@climatecare.org

Notes to Editors

About Jaguar Land Rover

Jaguar Land Rover is the UK’s largest automotive manufacturer, built around two iconic British car brands: Land Rover, the world’s leading manufacturer of premium all‑wheel‑ drive vehicles; and Jaguar, one of the world’s premier luxury sports saloon and sports car marques.

We employ more than 40,000 people globally and support around 240,000 more through our dealerships, suppliers and local businesses. Manufacturing is centred in the UK, with additional plants in China, Brazil, India and Slovakia.

At Jaguar Land Rover we are driven by a desire to create class‑leading products that deliver great customer experiences. The largest investor in R&D in the UK manufacturing sector, we have invested £12 billion in the last five years and in the current year alone will spend over £3 billion on new product creation and capital expenditure. In 2016 Jaguar Land Rover sold more than 583,000 vehicles in 136 countries, with more than 80 per cent of our vehicles produced in the UK being sold abroad.

About Responsible Business at Jaguar Land Rover

Lighting up Lives is particularly relevant to Jaguar Land Rover’s own operations. It runs the UK’s largest rooftop solar array at its Engine Manufacturing Centre in Wolverhampton, West Midlands – technology that will meet up to 30 per cent of the plant’s energy demand. Jaguar Land Rover’s three UK car factories, as well as its main research and development and office sites, are powered by electricity from 100 per cent renewable sources.

Responsible business is also powered by engaged, skilled people and Jaguar Land Rover invests more than £100 million a year in its in‑house academy and nearly a quarter of its workforce is working towards a qualification, from apprenticeships to doctorates. It is also nurturing the next generation of bright minds, inspiring young men and women to become engineers and helping to bridge the growing skills gap through its school science, technology, engineering and maths programme ‘Inspiring Tomorrow’s Engineers’. And, thanks to an industry‑leading volunteering programme, employees can dedicate two paid days a year to a good cause

Follow Jaguar Land Rover at the Hay Festival on Twitter @JLR_News

About ClimateCare

As a certified B Corporation, we believe that to tackle climate change, poverty and create sustainable development, we need interventions that deliver on a holistic basis. We help the public and private sector work together to create award‑winning ClimateCare programmes designed to tackle poverty, improve health and protect the environment, whilst delivering value for the organisations involved.

We unlock new sources of finance by helping corporates take full responsibility for their social and environmental impacts and helping the public sector deliver more efficiency for its spend. Leveraging mainstream funding, we profitably deliver some of the largest, most successful sustainability initiatives in the world. To date we have worked with hundreds of partners to cut over 20.6 million tonnes of CO2 and at the same time, improved the lives of 16.5 million people.

Find out more at www.climatecare.org         Follow ClimateCare on twitter: @ClimateCare

About the project

The Lighting up Lives programme builds on Jaguar Land Rover and ClimateCare’s ten‑year partnership delivering programmes with social and environmental benefits across the world. Low‑income households will be offered affordable finance to buy the life‑enhancing solar technology. Repayments are calculated to equate to a household’s average monthly spend on kerosene. Additionally, the distribution, sales and service infrastructure ensures the sustainability and legacy of the programme.