Integral 3E

• Integral 3E's mission is to bring communities closer to sustainable development opportunities. 

• Providing solutions that articulate renewable energy sources with the impact and creation of productive processes, to enhance entrepreneurship and community management.

Colombia was designated in 2020 as the country with the greatest territorial inequality within Latin America, according to a report by the Regional Development Index for Latin America. This is reflected in figures from the 2018 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OCDE) report, which states that in Colombia it takes 11 generations for a family to overcome poverty.

Social inequality creates a scenario of instability for the creation, development and execution of projects in the region. A recent example of this is the HidroItuango project, which has had repercussions on the environment, social issues, and supra-regional development. This type of scenario affects the image of investors, the schedule and budget of the works. It is necessary to consider that these adverse effects entail high costs to the State and the affected persons or entities, which could significantly exceed the investments that would have been required to minimize or eliminate them initially.

With which, we seek to propose, manage and implement alternative solutions according to the specific needs of each of the territories with a focus on efficiency and socio-environmental sustainability, which at the same time, reduce the territorial inequality gap.

We are not inventing the wheel, since we are not proposing a new technology. Our proposal is an integral articulation of disciplines, such as engineering, marketing, social, environmental, psychological and educational studies. Our novelty is registered in the establishment of synergic systems, that at the same time that a solution to a specific need is generated, other aspects are promoted in the line of education, entrepreneurship that gives sustainability to the projects and to the territories where they are carried out.

Colombia, due to its physical and orographic characteristics, in addition to its water resources, presents favorable conditions for the generation of renewable electric energy. In particular, the department of Caldas, where the work team is from, enjoys high levels of water resources, given a high forest density, tendency to increase the levels of fluviality in the region and aquifer recharge areas that facilitate the presence of hydroelectric projects. To cite an example, in the department of Caldas, according to a report by the department's environmental authority (CORPOCALDAS), there are currently 32 requests for the study of hydroelectric generation projects. However, energy projects are usually structured from a purely economic approach, contrasting direct costs and expected profits. Our proposal seeks to simultaneously address the socio-environmental expectations and needs of the territories and the economic-technical needs of the investors.

With which, our proposal seeks to meet the energy projects that are implemented in the territories potentially accepted for the generation of electricity, being replicable in the model of approach to the communities, and scalable according to the scope of generation projects.

We are committed to the development of energy projects that need an efficient integral bet, with high efficiency and effectiveness performance. With this consideration, our market includes marketers, generators, electricity distributors and social actors directly related to the areas of influence of the projects.

Our approach is to add a socio-environmental plus, by getting closer to the communities, gaining their trust and support. We constantly demonstrate a deep respect for preserving the best of local cultures and heritages, while seeking to efficiently introduce new technologies and business practices, so that investors' participation is accepted and exploited locally. In addition, we are want to help communities to overcome the challenges of starting and maintaining a successful business in the developing world, which are extreme to say the least, while at the same time we seek to reduce the inequality gap in the territories.

Each member of the team has visualized the need of the communities and the lack of articulation of interdisciplinary knowledge in the development of public and private projects.

We have been addressing this discussion as how our disciplines could help to achieve a sustainable solution. As we need resourses to start our proposal, we recognize there is still a lot of improvement it can be made to our idea. At the same time, its our reason to propose Integral 3E to MIT solver's, to grow our idea and achieve a change in Colombia.

The opportunities and knowledge that are provided to escape poverty are often exclusive. In the sense of being available only to communities that already have access to electricity, have access to the internet and have certain basic skills. For example, MIT Solver asks that proposals be submitted in English. Our proposal is to bring all the knowledge and opportunities to the communities. We do not want to indicate which is the best business model in their territories, we want to give them the knowledge and link them to the opportunities so that the communities are the ones who take ownership of them.

We estimate that with resources, we will be able to support small communities of at least 100 to 200 people within 5 years. This, considering our current resources if we can get the support of one of the existing support initiatives.

We have developed a list of indicators that we hope will give us a metric of the impact we are aiming for and the impact we can achieve. These indicators will be presented in later stages, since we are still in the discussion stage of the idea.

4 people, 

All part-time staff

Santiago Arias Guzmán

Maria Camila Valencia

Juan Manuel Valencia Serna

Carlos Arturo Valencia

Santiago Arias (electrical engineer): My professional and teaching experience has allowed me to visualize large inequality gaps, even in urban areas. In contrast, my participation in professional organizations has allowed me to visualize projects that seek to change this paradigm, which are widely required in Colombia and Latin America. To bring about this change in Colombia is my motivation.

Carlos Arturo Valencia (social worker): More than 20 years of experience in issues related to energy projects and especially in the social area, has allowed me to conclude that it is necessary to carry out interventions with an integral approach oriented to the realization of processes that favor the proactive development of sustainable projects that have a favorable impact in a social, economic and productive environment; that are in harmony with energy projects.

Juan Manuel Valencia (publicist): The current structure of planning, management and execution of energy projects lacks an interdisciplinary approach. My motivation is focused on contributing to the construction of a pro-active environmental thinking, in order to generate a motivational communication that responds to the demands of adaptation and resilience to climate change and to the processes derived from energy projects.

Maria Camila Valencia (psychologist): My motivation is focused on helping to generate citizen behaviors. This, through community education processes, which is key to develop appropriate projects and an articulation of companies with the community. In such a way that leads to a sanitation with constructions of proactive and preventive alternatives of difficulties of the communities.

The integration of a social worker and a psychologist allows us to take into consideration the integration of a diverse and equitable team. We want to take this approach to the communities, as we know that there is a great territorial inequality that affects children, women, the disabled and the elderly.

We know that inequality is the greatest enemy of humanity. We want to reduce that inequality in our country. Not so that we are all equally bad off, but so that everyone can grow in an environment that enhances their abilities and their ideals. We want to make Solve a reality in our country and bring opportunities and knowledge to the Colombian territory.

We know that the development of a value proposition requires a process of stages to identify whether the solution is viable. In order for the communities to access this knowledge in an efficient way, we need to be updated in this knowledge.

We dont know people within MIT that could help us. We hope you could help us in that stage.

OUR proposal includes the component of including digital tools in the communities. In addition, we want to bring educational content that will enhance the opportunities for entrepreneurship within them. In this sense, we could apply for this initiative and we would use the funds to enrich an educational mechanism in the territories that are the object of our projects.