The founding of Mundo Sostenible, a non-profit that works on solar energy projects in Peru, started in the city of Madison. Friends from high school, Clint Fandrich and Barrett Lione-Seaton, reunited on a business venture after the former moved down to Peru over a decade ago. Now, the duo works together to provide solar energy for orphanages, schools and community shelters.
Its goal is to create sustainable, renewable energy that translates into economic growth and stability. When Fandrich initially moved down to Peru, he pushed towards renewable energy projects. After he graduated, he worked at the Wisconsin Department of Energy where he worked with renewable energy. It was in the late 2000s when Fandrich got his first taste of South America through a visit to Lione-Seaton in Venezuela.
“He wanted to find a place that he could actually move to and buy a home. [Peru] had a somewhat stable government and he felt like he could actually do some benefit there,” said Lione-Seaton.
Peru made sense to Fandrich to create sustainable energy projects like solar. The country has very little rain, an estimated 330 sunny days a year, and was warm with its placement near the equator and high elevations. The combination made for efficient solar energy and ensured that there would be a tangible impact in the work.
Fandrich made the plunge in Cusco — Madison’s latest sister city — with funding started through family and friends. However, through his work with local engineers, he realized that there was much more work to be done but that required more funding.
“In order to secure more funding, we needed to have a 501 c3 here in the U.S.,” said Lione-Seaton, vice president of Mundo. “He reached out to myself and a couple other classmates of ours from high school, and other contacts he’s made throughout the university as well as his travels down in Peru.”
Mundo officially formed in 2020. Three of the organization’s key leaders – Fandrich, Lione-Seaton, and Shane McMahon – are from Madison. They quickly realized the organization needed to get better at grant writing. Its model for solar energy projects works on finding clients that take renewable energies seriously. Mundo provides half of the funding to “ensure that they have skin in the game,” Lione-Seaton said.
Fandrich, on the Peru side, works with local engineers and crews for installation. Projects have been installed at 13 locations in schools, shelters, orphanages and medical centers.
“A lot of these smaller orphanages and schools, they don’t have a lot of extra funding, and electricity cost is relatively high so the solar offset is really impactful” Lione-Seaton said. “We have a school, one of the first ones we did, and in the first year alone the savings from the electricity was enough to put all the girls through schooling for a year and buy all their books.”
However, it’s not just about renewable energies. Mundo wants to make a lasting impact in Cusco. Its engineers, project managers and communications staff are all local Peruvians.
“We want to make actual change and that change needs to come from within and on the ground locally,” Lione-Seaton said. “If you don’t educate and bring locals on board to do the work that’s being done, it isn’t going to help them in the long term.”
