One to Watch portfolio company ‘Bloom Nepal School’ is going green!

One to Watch portfolio company ‘Bloom Nepal School’ is going green!

Established in 2012, Bloom Nepal School has the vision to become the largest school chain in Nepal and provide high quality and interest-based education at affordable prices. The school aspires to become the trend setter in Nepal's education space in all spheres ranging from delivering quality to ensuring equitable access to education by producing creative, innovative, and entrepreneurially spirited individuals. Supporting Bloom Nepal School in their vision, One to Watch invested in Bloom Nepal School in 2017.

There are currently two schools in the network, one in Lubhu, Lalitpur and another in Itahari, Sunsari, with over 700 students enrolled between the two. Bloom has recently completed installation of a 40kW rooftop solar system and a biogas unit at their premises to fulfill the energy requirements at their Lubhu school. The project was supported by Zayed Sustainability Prize, which recognizes nonprofit organizations, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and schools for their impactful, innovative and inspiring sustainable solutions across the categories of Health, Food, Energy, Water and Global High Schools. Bloom had won the prize under ‘Global High Schools' Category for South Asia.

The Lubhu school is primarily a residential school with over 65% of the students staying in the facility. The energy produced from the solar system will be more than enough to meet the electricity demand of the school; the surplus energy generated from the system will be supplied back to the national grid. Bloom Nepal have also added a biogas system which will utilize human waste and organic kitchen waste to produce cooking gas sufficient to cook the meals of up to 40 students.

These new systems will help set an example among the students and in their communities to embrace initiatives that will contribute towards development of sustainable cities with responsible production and consumption practices. This will also enable Bloom to reduce the school’s operational costs and support them in their mission to provide quality education at affordable prices!