The idea behind EcoPole came to life as founder Einar Haveland worked at the refugee camp Dadaab in Kenya. As an engineer, he saw the challenges connected with poles for distribution grids. First of all the large amount of wood taken from Africa’s valuable forests to produce the wooden poles. He also saw the problems caused by deterioration of the poles by the African nature; sun, salt, woodpeckers, termites and rodents. This is a bad cycle. The need for energy is undisputed, but the consequences of wrong products cause damage to the environment.

The idea this inspired was the vision of a pole that did not cause deforestation and that was durable enough to overcome the challenges of nature. In 2011 he founded EcoPole and started the development process with support from Innovation Norway and Norad.

The EcoPole group has local representatives, partners and investors both in East and West Africa, the first production plant in Kenya and head quarter in Bergen, Norway.

Einar Haveland

CEO

Ketil Østrem

VP Sales

Joe Ndiaye

VP West Africa

Subhash Sonigra

CEO East Africa

Hans Petter Torsvik

Chairman of the Board

Transfer of technology

EcoPole is developed, designed and engineered in Norway, and manufactured in Africa. This results in a transfer of know- how, local production and administrative jobs connected to the EcoPole projects in Africa. This reduces both logistics and carbon footprint.

Local partnerships

Most of the materials that go into the production of EcoPole are manufactured in Africa. EcoPole cooperate with local companies that meet our requirements both in know-how, quality, and ethical standards.

Growing local economies

For all major projects, EcoPole sets up a plant locally. This is a sustainable solution, with short-travelled materials and reduced need for transportation. In addition, local jobs are created at the plants, both for trained and unskilled labour.

When EcoPole sets up a manufacturing plant, this also leads to new jobs for local bamboo farmers, supplying dried bamboo as raw material for the production. Choosing EcoPole helps growing the local economies.