Vision
A market for cheap and sustainably produced building materials exists in Bangladesh and helps to solve issues around housing, employment and the environment in that country.
Mission
Demonstrate that Compressed Stabilized Earth Blocks (CSEB) can be produced profitably, and bring actors from different sectors together to spread CSEB in Bangladesh.
Impact
Building Pioneers produces Compressed Stabilized Earth Blocks (CSEB), an affordable and high-quality building material.
Housing
Worldwide, one billion people live in inadequate shelters that offer weak protection against fire, floods, cyclones, heat, cold, insects and moulds. CSEB achieve up to 25% cost savings compared to conventional brick walls. At this lower price, more people could afford adequate shelter — millions in Bangladesh alone.
EMPLOYMENT
Unskilled people in rural areas have little chances to escape poverty. Building Pioneers empowers unskilled labourers to produce CSEB as micro-entrepreneurs. Building Pioneers thereby strengthens one of the most vulnerable groups in society and reduces rural migration.
ENVIRONMENT
CSEB reduce CO2-emissions by 75-90% compared to fired clay bricks and prevent deforestation for firewood. This is because CSEB do not need to be cured in kilns.
CSEB
Compressed Stabilized Earth Blocks are well known as a low-cost and green alternative to conventional fired bricks. They are strong enough to easily support one and two story buildings, are much cheaper than fired bricks, and do not need to be cured in kilns, which makes them eco-friendly. CSEB is a proven technology that has been utilized for decades in more than 30 countries, including USA, South Africa and many developing countries.
High quality
CSEB withstand fire, floods, cyclones, heat, cold, insects and moulds and outperform other building materials such as bamboo, corrugated iron sheet and adobe in terms of strength and durability.
Affordable
Compared to fired clay bricks, CSEB provide similar customer value but are up to 25% cheaper per area of wall constructed.
Eco-friendly
CSEB reduce CO2 emissions by 75-90% compared to fired clay bricks and prevent deforestation for firewood.
A proven technology.
Team
Ava Mulla
Co-Founder and CEO
Ava worked at the Yunus Centre in Dhaka, at Yunus Social Business in Frankfurt and as a partner in a German-American start-up in affordable housing. She studied Industrial Engineering and Management in Munich.
Odin Mühlenbein
Co-Founder
Odin worked as a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Company and co-founded two companies before. He works as a consultant for Ashoka and represents Building Pioneers in Europe.
Latest News
Building Pioneers in new issue of SouthAsianDisasters.net
May 22, 2016Building Pioneers is among the winners of the Google Impact Challenge
March 30, 2016Building Pioneers featured in New Age Xtra Bangladesh
March 11, 2016Ava Mulla gives interview for Munich Re Foundation
December 1, 2015
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Creating a market for an unconventional building material in all of Bangladesh requires collaboration between partners from different sectors, including local and international businesses along the housing value chain, government representatives from the local to the national level, development agencies, academia, the media, and others.
Get in touch if you want to contribute!
Awards
Winner
National social venture competition. 100 projects won 10.000 each.
Winner
National social venture competition
Finalist
International competition hosted by UNISDR, GRF Davos and Munich Re Foundation
Stipend
Social start-up scholarship