In Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, the temperature is a beautiful springy 12 degrees today. In the winter, as you can imagine, it is even colder. With temperatures averaging about -30 degrees Fahrenheit, locals are forced to spend a huge chunk (40%) of their monthly income on coal just to stay warm. Because so many people must burn coal in the winter, pollution has become a serious problem in Ulaanbaatar.

But if those Mongolians could afford a greener alternative to coal, perhaps the capital city would be a cleaner and healthier place to live. Kiva, a microfinance organization, has responded to this need by connecting locals with a Mongolian bank that has begun to give eco-loans to inhabitants of Ulaanbaatar so that they can afford to sustain the environment and themselves. The eco-loans will go to three things: energy efficient stoves, energy efficient fuel made from compressed sawdust, and yurt covers. A yurt is a traditional Mongolian dwelling which looks like this:

The United Nations Development Program engineered a type of blanket that covers an entire yurt, helping with insulation and reducing the need for coal by 50%.

Green loans not only make eco-products more financially accessible to families who live in yurts, but also empower entrepreneurs to produce the energy efficient stoves and yurt blankets locally, thus reducing dependence on foreign imports.

You can read more here: Kiva stories from the field

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