- #makethefuture campaign highlights how cooperation between Shell and entrepreneurs is helping the development of more and cleaner energy ideas
- International musicians including Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson, Luan Santana and Pixie Lott join the movement by performing in Best Day of My Life interactive music video – kick-starting an ‘energy relay’ for cleaner energy initiatives
The Shell #makethefuture campaign is highlighting the need for greater global collaboration to create more and cleaner energy solutions, by helping to bring to life innovations from six smart energy start-ups.
Technologies from the bright energy businesses will be showcased in Rio de Janeiro’s Santa Marta community this month, before they are installed in communities that require urgent access to cleaner energy.
The entrepreneurs’ innovations are being brought together in Santa Marta as it is benefitting from an installation by Insolar, a solar energy start-up that is one of the featured entrepreneurs being supported by Shell.
Insolar is fitting photovoltaic panels to some of Santa Marta’s most widely used community centres, including a samba school and crèche, which are central to the life of the community’s 8,000 residents.
Young Brazilian entrepreneur Henrique Drumond who founded Insolar sees the project as a significant step in his mission to help to bring cleaner energy to Brazil, where solar accounts for only 0.02 per cent of the energy mix, with only 1,731 small-scale solar systems connected to its grid – despite more than 2,000 hours of sunlight blazing on the country each year.
In Rio alone, an estimated 1.4 million residents of the city’s 763 favelas are affected by rising energy prices and unreliable power supply.
The Insolar installation is expected to generate the equivalent of 185,000 days of free, clean power over the lifetime of the solar panels.
Showcasing bright energy technologies in Rio kick-starts a global ‘energy relay’ to show collaboration with leading energy entrepreneurs is vital to help to secure a bright energy future, and to invite the world to support and participate in the creation of smart energy solutions.
The innovations that will be displayed in Santa Marta alongside Insolar include:
- bio-bean – which explores how to reduce the UK’s CO2 emissions from transport by turning coffee dregs into a sustainable transport fuel,
- Capture Mobility – demonstrates how roadside turbulence from cars and trucks can generate clean power for local communities,
- GravityLight – improves health and wellbeing in energy deprived communities by using a simple pulley and weight system to generate electricity,
- MotionECO – uses waste cooking oil to help to create a market for renewable diesel in China (in transport, public services and logistics) and discourage the harmful reuse of cooking oil, and
- Pavegen – converts power from footsteps into renewable energy that can power a community
Joining the #makethefuture movement as ambassadors are six award-winning international musicians: Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson, Brazilian singer Luan Santana, British performer
Pixie Lott, American DJ/Producer Steve Aoki, China’s pop star Tan WeiWei and Nigerian idol Yemi Alade.
The artists are uniting with the energy entrepreneurs and Shell to help shine a light on the worldwide need for access to more and cleaner energy.
A new interactive music video will also showcase each of the smart energy innovations.
Shell and the ambassadors are inviting people to show support for the Insolar project to help bring solar power to communities and homes in Brazil. You can sign the pledge by visiting www.shell.com/showyoursupport.
Proceeds from sales of Luan Santana’s latest DVD, 1977, will go towards the Insolar project to help to fund the installation of more solar panels in low-income communities.
Royal Dutch Shell Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said: “I’m personally inspired by the ingenuity of these innovators, and the ambition to forge a brighter energy future for our planet. Collaboration and entrepreneurialism are essential to finding energy solutions that can enable development and a decent way of life for people across the world while reducing carbon dioxide emissions. These values are central to our #makethefuture campaign to help achieve a better energy future together.”
Insolar director Henrique Drumond said: “My vision was to create a social enterprise that provides communities with a cleaner source of energy. On my journey through the Shell programmes that support entrepreneurs, including Shell Iniciativa Jovem, and the Accelerator, the company has always supported this vision. I am thrilled to see this collaboration brought to life in Rio. We hope Santa Marta will be an inspiration to other bright minds and unlock more answers to tomorrow’s energy challenges in communities, cities and countries around the world.”
The launch of the global ‘energy relay’ will be celebrated on September 28 with some of the #makethefuture ambassadors performing a series of concerts at the heart of the Santa Marta community, during which the music video for the Best Day of My Life will be premiered.
In October, #makethefuture will move on to Kenya, where Shell is working with GravityLight – a UK-based start-up that has developed a gravity-powered lamp designed to improve health and wellness across Kenya by bringing clean, affordable light to low income homes.
The concert celebrating #makethefuture in Santa Marta and the Best Day of My Life music video will be available on September 28 via facebook.com/Shell.
Jennifer Hudson said: “We all face moments of adversity in life and, often times, it’s simply the hand one has been dealt. But there is so much that we can do to support one another as a unified force and that is just one of the many reasons why I’m supporting the Santa Marta community. My son David turned seven this year, and I want him to grow up and inherit a planet where everyone is working together on one accord for the greater good.”
Luan Santana added: “I am honored to be one of the six artists participating in this project. I’m committed to make my voice echo Shell and the entrepreneurs’ social action. Music produces an exchange of energy between audience and artist, and I hope #makethefuture rocks the five continents as it takes its energy relay around the world.”
Notes to Editors
Make the Future
- Shell believes by working together we can transform lives by bringing more and cleaner energy to communities, everywhere. Shell collaborates with inventors, local communities, engaged citizens and global celebrities to transform lives by putting bright energy ideas into action. The Shell #makethefuture programme is not just talking about it but doing it – on the ground, day by day, creating a new reality. Each of us has a role to play – as inventors, funders, volunteers, donators or vocal supporters.
- Find out more about Shell and its support of bright energy ideas and entrepreneurs at http://www.shell.com/energy-and-innovation/make-the-future.html
- Facebook Q&As with the musicians in attendance at the Santa Marta Make the Future launch will be broadcast on September 28 via facebook.com/Shell at the following times:
- Yemi Alade 12:30 (Rio) /16:30 (Lagos) / 16:30 (London)
- Pixie Lott 16:15 (Rio) / 20:15 (Lagos) / 20:15 (London)
- Luan Santana 18:00 (Rio) / 22:00 (Lagos) / 22:00 (London)
- Best Day of My Life will be available to download via Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play, Amazon Music, Pandora, Tidal, Deezer, YouTube Red, iTunes from September 28 at 09:00 (London). In China, it will be available on QQ Music, Kugou, Kuwo, Netease, Baidu Music, Yinyuetai and Mi Gu from September 28 at 09:00 (Beijing).
- The video experience made with Interlude’s interactive technology provides users with two main themes to explore through interactions with the cubes on screen. Firstly, they can switch between artists as they sing the song, providing a fun and personalised track, allowing them to focus on their favourite artists. Secondly, users can learn more about the bright energy ideas Shell is enabling by clicking on the relevant cubes, which provide animated illustrations and sounds of these ideas in action.
Shell LiveWIRE & Shell Springboard
- Shell LiveWIRE is a global Royal Dutch Shell Social Investment Programme, which enables young people to start their own business and create employment. Find out more at i.e. http://www.shell.com/sustainability/communities/local-employment-and-enterprise/supporting-enterprise-development-and-entrepreneurs.html
- Shell has spent 34 years working with 6,200 cleaner energy entrepreneurs, as well as supporting tens of thousands of promising students worldwide, through initiatives such as Shell LiveWIRE and Shell Springboard.
Santa Marta
- The Santa Marta community is one of Rio’s most headline-grabbing favelas.
- It overlooks the city’s iconic Christ the Redeemer statue and was one of the first favelas to be freed from the grip of violent street gangs.
- If panels such as those being installed by Shell and Insolar in Santa Marta were fitted to the roofs of every home in Brazil, solar energy could supply more than double the country’s residential energy demand.
- The installations will generate 1m kw over the course of their 25-year lifetime. The average Brazilian home uses 5.3 kw of power each day. So, the favela installations will generate the equivalent of 185,000 days of power.
Royal Dutch Shell plc
- Royal Dutch Shell plc is incorporated in England and Wales, has its headquarters in The Hague and is listed on the London, Amsterdam, and New York stock exchanges.
- Shell companies have operations in more than 70 countries and territories with businesses including oil and gas exploration and production; production and marketing of liquefied natural gas and gas to liquids; manufacturing, marketing and shipping of oil products and chemicals and renewable energy projects.
Media Opportunities
Interviews
- For interviews with Shell spokespeople Malena Cutuli, Group Head of Integrated Brand Communications & Capability, Glauco Paiva, External Relations Manager Shell Brazil, or Insolar entrepreneur Henrique Drumond, Jennifer Hudson, Luan Santana, Pixie Lott, Steve Aoki, Tan Weiwei and Yemi Alade, contact Edelman using the details below.
Santa Marta Launch
- To join Shell and the musicians for the launch of the Santa Marta solar powered community on September 27 and 28, contact Edelman.
- There will be the chance to tour the favela, speak to residents, interview the musicians involved and watch their live performances. The acts will also take part in Facebook Live Q&As.
Celebrity & Entrepreneur Attendance in Santa Marta
- Luan Santana, Pixie Lott and Yemi will be in Rio for the solar power launch, press conference, exclusive one-on-one interviews and a tour of Santa Marta.
- Jennifer Hudson and Tan Weiwei are available for interview ahead of the launch, but will not be attending the launch in Rio. Steve Aoki is not available for interview.
- Five cleaner energy innovations along with Insolar will be exhibited in Santa Marta on September 27 and 28 and there will be the chance for hands-on experience with the technology.
Contact
Edelman London Media Relations
Oliver Kay
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: +44 203 047 2435
Mobile: +44 (0)7871 328062
Cautionary note
The companies in which Royal Dutch Shell plc directly and indirectly owns investments are separate legal entities. In this announcement “Shell”, “Shell group” and “Royal Dutch Shell” are sometimes used for convenience where references are made to Royal Dutch Shell plc and its subsidiaries in general. Likewise, the words “we”, “us” and “our” are also used to refer to subsidiaries in general or to those who work for them. These expressions are also used where no useful purpose is served by identifying the particular company or companies. ‘‘Subsidiaries’’, “Shell subsidiaries” and “Shell companies” as used in this announcement refer to companies over which Royal Dutch Shell plc either directly or indirectly has control. Entities and unincorporated arrangements over which Shell has joint control are generally referred to “joint ventures” and “joint operations” respectively. Entities over which Shell has significant influence but neither control nor joint control are referred to as “associates”. The term “Shell interest” is used for convenience to indicate the direct and/or indirect ownership interest held by Shell in a venture, partnership or company, after exclusion of all third-party interest.
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