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Through carbon finance we can build sustainable & scalable, locally-led projects
Our Story
Carbon Kind has three co-founders Vashti Seth, Christian Kadangah and Mark Burchfield, who also work together at Deki.
Founded by Vashti Seth in 2009, Deki empowers communities in west Africa to become resilient to poverty and the effect of climate change.
Deki’s sister organisation IADES, is a Togolese NGO founded in 2011 by Christian Kadangah.
In 2016, when Deki and IADES started our partnership, our key objective was to support vulnerable families to develop sustainable livelihoods and become financially resilient through microfinance and business training.
Together, we've remain commited to increasing economic inclusion for subsistence farmers. Yet, our journey has evolved, and our programs have expanded to provide essential services that go beyond economic empowerment. We now provide affordable healthcare, renewable energy, and clean water.
As two small charities, our scalability has been restricted by our financial ability to grow, it was clear that to increase our impact we needed to find an income source to support our progress.
Understanding the power of carbon finance sparked our passion to use it to empower communities to become resilient to poverty and climate change.
In 2023, Carbon Kind along with Deki and IADES, launched our first carbon project distributing clean cookstoves across Togo and Benin.
In partnership with Deki
We focus on building resilient communities
Meet the Founders
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Vashti Seth, Co-Founder
Vashti Seth is a social entrepreneur, passionate about using business as a force for good in the world.
Vashti has 14 years’ experience as CEO of international development charity Deki, which she founded after being inspired to change the life of just one girl, a Tibetan refugee called Deki Dolkha. The charity has gone on to impact the lives of over 200,000 people.
Vashti co-founded Carbon Kind with the ambition to use carbon finance to make a bigger impact in rural communities in west Africa.
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Christian Kadangah, Co-Founder
Christian has seen first-hand how the effects of climate change have pushed communities, in his home country Togo, deeper into poverty.
Christian has over 13 years of experience in inclusive microfinance. After leaving his job at a microfinance bank in 2011, he used his savings to start IADES. He holds multiple qualifications in finance and accounting from the University in Lomé, Togo.
Christian is passionate about how carbon finance can empower communities to become resilient to climate change and can financially support other community development projects.
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Mark Burchfield, Co-Founder
Mark’s professional interests focus on data and energy services, where he successfully grew his company to be the market leader in both the UK and central Europe.
He is delighted to co-found Carbon Kind and use his passion and skills to provide communities living in extreme poverty with access to clean energy.
Mark sees carbon finance as an opportunity to make a sustainable and scalable impact on local communities, whilst helping to mitigate the effects of climate change.
