Month: April 2023

FISHERS, INDIANA, April 27, 2023 /3BL Media/ – Land Betterment Corporation (“Land Betterment” or the “Company”), an environmental solutions company fostering positive impact through upcycling former coal mining sites to create sustainable community development and job creation, announced today that its ekō Solutions division has welcomed the first 5 residents into its ekō Village of Pike located just outside Pikeville, Kentucky. This marks the completion and full lease up of Phase 1 of ekō Village of Pike.

Mark Jensen, Executive Chair of Land Betterment stated, “This is big moment for our company! In February of 2020 we set out on an ambitious journey when we founded Land Betterment Corporation. We knew there was a better way to help communities in transition. This milestone is proof of concept that you can transform former coal mining sites into sustainable housing communities. As a solution-based company, our ekō Villages are bringing real sustainable, environmental and social solutions to a region in need. We continue to work on additional site locations within our pipeline and look forward to bringing ekō Solutions’ modern, ecological and sustainable housing option to other nearby communities.”

ekō Village of Pike is located on a 4-acre controlled development site, 8 miles from downtown Pikeville, Kentucky.  ekō Solutions’ parent company, Land Betterment Corporation, acquired control of the land, which was a former industrial site once utilized by the coal industry.  Since February of 2020, the Company has been remediating the land so that it is safe, flat and livable. Now complete with ekō container-based homes, it is welcoming residents.

“We are thrilled to complete Phase 1of ekō Village of Pike and even more excited to welcome its new residents,” said Pete Rodriquez, President of ekō Solutions. “Our ekō homes are the perfect solution for Pikeville, as well as the entire Appalachian region, as their economies transition away from coal mining and diversifies into new industries which are bringing more jobs and employees to the area.”

This low cost housing property is invaluable to local organizations such as the Pikeville Medical Center, University of Pikeville, Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine as we all other organizations in the area which historically have struggled to provide housing as the Pikeville economy continues to diversify. Having these homes available will enable a needed workforce to better work and live in the Pikeville area.

“Our ekō homes are sustainable and efficiently manufactured to the highest of standards which eliminates on-site construction constraints,” Rodriguez said. “We can have these homes set up and running complete with utility hookups in approximately 4-6 weeks. ekō homes are designed to be high-quality, durable, energy efficient and affordable to live in and maintain.”

Phase 2 consists of 8 homes including 4 two-story models.  These homes are currently being developed with anticipated leasing during summer of 2023.  

The Phase 3 development of ekō Village of Pike is anticipated to commence in spring of 2024, and when fully built out, will have a total of 23 low-cost, modern ekō homes made from recycled steel shipping containers which are strong, energy efficient, weather, insect and rodent resistant and available for rent. These ekō homes provide transitioning and traditional communities with a safe, affordable and sustainable housing solution.
Details about the ekō Solutions models currently located in the ekō Village of Pike are as follows:

The Loggia

640 square foot open floor plan2 bedrooms 1 full bathroom Single story with two connected 40’ standard containers side-by-side 40’ L x 16’ W x 8” H

The Two’s Company

480 square foot open floor plan2 bedrooms1 full bathroom2 story lay out with rooftop deck 40’ L x 8’ W x 9’6” H with 20’ standard container as the 2nd floor

The Tide

320 square foot open floor plan1 bedroom1 full bathroom40’ L x 8’ W x 8’ H 

The Agora

320 square foot open floor plan 1 bedroom1 full bathroom40′ L x 8′ W x 8’’ H 

ekō Solutions offers an extensive line of shipping-container housing solutions to include mobile workstations, mobile bathrooms, mobile dog grooming, containerized food stands, RVs, ekō farms, hunting retreats and homes.  ekō Solutions dispatched its models to Western Kentucky in 2021 to provide housing for displaced families impacted by the deadly December tornado outbreak.

To learn more about ekō Solutions commercial and residential offerings, please click on “Buy eko!”

Digital assets of ekō Village of Pike are available here.

About ekō Solutions

ekō Solutions, a Land Betterment Company, is a sustainable development company utilizing innovative, low-cost, container-based structures to provide durable, high-end solutions to the building marketplace while also maintaining the ability to be utilized in a mobile environment. ekō Solutions uses innovative ecological structures to replace legacy inefficient and ineffective methods of living, growing and working. The sustainable craftsmanship of our structures is what separates us from the alternatives.  Our structures are suitable for residential, crisis, recovery, commercial and recreation use.  For more information visit ekosolutionsllc.com and connect with ekō Solutions on LinkedIn and Twitter

About Land Betterment Corporation

Land Betterment Corporation, an Indiana Benefit Corporation and Pending B-Corp, is an environmental solutions company focused on fostering a positive impact through upcycling former coal mining sites to create sustainable community development and job creation.  The Company utilizes a complete solution-based lifecycle program to restore and rehabilitate the environment and revitalize communities in need of change and opportunity. Land Betterment accomplishes this by identifying un-reclaimed, run-down and neglected coal mining sites, fixing the environment through reclamation and remediation, and then repurposing the land to support a sustainable business that serves the community.  Land Betterment firmly believes that with real solutions it is possible for restoration of impacted areas to live side-by-side long term employment, while building sustainable and safe surroundings for communities and our planet.  For more information visit landbetterment.com or connect with the Company on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other important factors that could cause the Company’s actual results, performance, or achievements or industry results to differ materially from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.  These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Land Betterment Corporation’s control.  The words “believes”, “may”, “will”, “should”, “would”, “could”, “continue”, “seeks”, “anticipates”, “plans”, “expects”, “intends”, “estimates”, or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain such identifying words.  Any forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date of this release.  The Company does not undertake any obligation to update or supplement any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.  The Company cannot assure you that the projected results or events will be achieved.

Company Contacts:

Mark LaVerghetta
317.537.0492 ext. 0
Chief Governance Officer, Corporate Finance
info@landbetterment.com

Stephanie Conzelman
207.205.0790
Stakeholder Engagement Director
info@landbetterment.com

Zak Owens 
502.386.5704
Fleur de Lis Communications
zak@fdlcomms.com

Cisco is proud to support Akvo, which provides data services and tech solutions to development partners in the water, agriculture, and climate sectors. We know that data is critical for effective decision-making, collaboration, and accountability. Akvo supports agencies and governments around the world to improve their programs so they can achieve lasting impact.

This post comes from Joy Ghosh, Akvo’s Tech Lead. Joy has been working in the field of data and technology for development for the past 10 years, and specializes in building data platforms for the agriculture and water sectors.

Here’s how data is usually collected in the development sector. Let’s say a project is set up to improve the income of smallholder farmers or achieve safe water access in a certain region. Enumerators are sent out to collect data on the communities which are impacted by these issues. Interventions are then put in place to improve the outcomes and contribute towards impact. At the end of the program, enumerators are sent out once again to collect data and monitor change. But what if we could supplement this tried and tested method of data collection with continuous input from the field, rather than just baseline data at the beginning and the end of a program? And what if, rather than knocking on doors to collect data, community members had a platform to share information on their challenges and needs. What if we could use data collection as a tool for continuous community engagement?

With support from the Cisco Foundation, we’ve been developing technologies to make this a reality. Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) and phone-based data collection is often seen as a cost-saving alternative to field data collection — ideal for situations in which you can’t go into the field due to health or security emergencies. But this technology should be seen as a complement to in-person field data collection, and the benefits go far beyond reduced costs and security challenges.

A hybrid approach to monitoring

Today, enumerators are sent out into the field to find respondents from whom to gather data. This traditional method of data collection has clear benefits – enumerators can observe first-hand what’s going on in the field, and project managers receive comprehensive, quality datasets. However, there are also numerous drawbacks.

In-person data collection is resource-intensive and therefore periodical. The lack of continuous, timely data means that often, interventions are detached from the realities on the ground. Field-based data collection provides snapshots into the current situation, rather than continuous feedback that allows program managers to fill in the context, and adjust strategies based on evidence. Using a hybrid approach to data collection – remote and in person – could help to complete the picture. Program managers can use remote data collection to gain a broad understanding of a specific problem, and then in-person data collection to focus on potential problem areas. Alternatively, in-field data collection can be conducted at, for example, annual intervals, and then remote data collection can fill in the gaps and provide context continually. This would allow program managers to see change as it occurs, allowing for more timely responses, targeted interventions, and better results.

In-person data collection is also a physically exhausting process. The sheer logistical challenges may lead to enumerators collecting data from 10 people in one village and none from the surrounding five, resulting in a skewed sample. With remote data collection, you have the potential to exceed your sample, reaching a much wider geographical scope with significantly less resources.

Finally, in-person data collection makes it difficult to seek out local change makers in the community, and brings to the fore questions of data ownership. What are the incentives for respondents to give away their time and their data? Does the data still belong to them? And how, if at all, does the data get fed back into the community? Innovations in remote data collection technology could allow for a more citizen-centered approach.

Harnessing the power of remote in Kenya

In Kenya, Akvo created a system for distributing, accessing and responding to surveys via radio and text messaging in cooperation with county governments of Kajiado, Laikipia and Kwale, Central FM Kenya Radio, and Africa’s Talking, a local USSD aggregator. Akvo and Africa’s Talking jointly produced an Application Programming Interface (API) integration that allows surveys, traditionally administered by a mobile surveying application, to be received and completed via text message. We partnered with Central FM Kenya Radio to establish a schedule for broadcasting USSD codes to listeners, analyzing and interpreting data alongside Health Authority Officials, and distributing survey results.

Radio DJs that host interviews with representatives of Kenya Water for Health Organization received data process training and then broadcast the USSD codes to listeners. Each time a survey was announced, the DJ would explain that answers from completed surveys would be automatically sent to county databases and live data visualizations (maps, charts, and graphs) would be updated. DJs actively distributed survey codes, observed responses coming-in, updated live data visualization dashboards, interpreted results in conjunction with Health Officials, and communicated updated information back to the community regarding two thematic areas: integrated water management and gender-based violence.

This approach allows organizations to ask the community directly for input, be it in relation to their water facilities, healthcare, food security, or any other societal issue. This has a host of benefits, including:

Raising awareness around the issue at hand by broadcasting itGathering data at regular intervals via broadcast for a fraction of the costIdentifying individuals in the community who care about and actively participate in community issues, because they come to you, rather than you going to themIntroducing incentives for feeding in data continuously and on a timely basis (through gamification, for example)Feeding data directly back to the community — they are aware and involved in the problem and empowered with opportunities to contribute to the solution

This pilot is one of many that we’ve been testing in various sectors and contexts with support from the Cisco Foundation, and shows how traditional data collection methods in the development sector can be innovated to improve results. At the time of writing this blog we are in a scaling phase, aiming to support an additional 10 partners (government and organizations) this year with crowdsourcing solutions such as USSD.

What’s next for the sector

Just like the switch from pen and paper data collection to smartphone-based data collection, this evolution will take time and learning. There are numerous benefits to remote data collection if used in the right way and in the right context, but we have to learn which methods are best suited to which contexts, and what the drawbacks and challenges are. Beyond that, we have to think differently about how data should be collected based on the different mediums. For example, you can’t run the same survey on USSD as you would in an in-person survey because it would be too long and too cumbersome for the respondent. This is where design thinking comes into play, and program managers consider what data is needed, how that data is best collected, and what obstacles there may be.

We’re continuing this work to identify the best practices, challenges, and opportunities, with financial support and technical advice support from the Cisco Foundation.

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