Providing jobs, carbon credits and clean stoves; all in one business

Pictured here is an example of an energy efficient cook stove.
From the Green Knowledge Institute, via Flickr Creative Commons.

There are many businesses and charities that are in competition to provide clean burning cook stoves to the under-developed world. The need for clean ways to cook is great because the traditional methods of cooking are harming health and the environment. Those in poverty normally use gas or wood to cook and usually breathe in a lot of the fumes emitted from the stoves. In addition, the smoke from the stoves rises up into the atmosphere contributing the amount of carbon that is suspected of heating up the planet. So to combat these two problems, the business and charities have moved in with an array of clean stove products they hope to either give or sell to those in the under-developed world.

One such supplier of clean cook stoves hopes to not only sell the stoves, but provide jobs to the people of Rwanda and some money to the stove owners as well. From Nicholas Kristof's blog at the New York Times, writer Josh Ruxin introduces us to a new social business started by Eric Reynolds.

Reynolds’s business plan is based on WorldStove International’s 5-Step Program, which was designed by inventor Nat Mulcahy and establishes locally run and owned stove hubs in developing nations. The 5-Step Program has three core objectives: improving the health of stove users, improving environmental conditions, and creating local jobs – all with a technology that is nothing short of revolutionary: The LuciaStove has a clean blue gas flame, emits virtually zero harmful emissions, and produces biocharresidue, a fine-grained charcoal substance made entirely of carbon that can be used as an organic fertilizer to increase crop yields and food security.

What’s more, the system allegedly produces a carbon-negative form of energy, which (according to Reynolds’s calculations) means that if 40% of the Rwandan population were to use LuciaStoves, the country could become the first carbon-negative economy in the world. You can check out a cool video of the stove in use here.

The full engineering details of the LuciaStove are far more complex than I can cover here, but Eric’s plan essentially calls for the creation of a multi-pronged business to gather renewable, mostly agricultural biomass waste (such as banana leaves, elephant grasses, and coffee bean husks) to compress into dense fuel pellets. No trees will be allowed into the pellet recipe; thus, if widely practiced, it will help eliminate the ruinous deforestation in Rwanda and throughout East Africa. The consumers helping to collect the biomass will get fuel pellets for free, while those in urban areas will buy them at a price far below the energy cost of charcoal.

The best part about Eric’s plan is that it includes a carbon credit scheme that may actually pay most consumers to use it. Customers returning the biocharresidue after cooking will receive cash credits into a household savings account, which can then be used to purchase other income-producing tools such as solar LED lights at locally-based agricultural extension “Hub” stores.

As in any startup entrepreneurial project, Eric’s road ahead will not necessarily be smooth, but the alternative is downright gloomy. Nearly 10 million people in Rwanda depend on locally available brush for cooking. Combined with an increasing population (Rwanda is already the most densely populated country in Sub Saharan Africa) and growing household expenses, this is the perfect storm for total deforestation.

The many designs of green stoves

Many engineers and social businesses are working on clean burning stoves for the under-developed world. The designs run the gamut from stoves that run on solar power to burning animal waste.

The green-stoves can help the poor in many ways. The clean burning stoves can help their health, as they no longer have to breathe in fumes from kerosene or wood. They also help with safety as people in war zones no longer have to expose themselves in gathering gather fuel for cooking.

From NPR series on Social Entrepreneurs, reporter by Martin Kaste talks about the competition and cooperation between clean stove designers.

Hillary Clinton introduces new cookstove alliance

Hillary Clinton announced a new program to bring environmentally-safe and non-toxic cooking stoves to the under-developed world. The US government will contribute 50 million dollars to Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. The alliance has a goal of providing 100 million stoves by the year 2020.

From the New York Times, writer John Broder describes the new project.

Although the toxic smoke from the primitive stoves is one of the leading environmental causes of death and disease, and perhaps the second biggest contributor to global warming, after the industrial use of fossil fuels, it has long been neglected by governments and private aid organizations.

The World Health Organization says that indoor air pollution caused by such cooking methods is the fourth greatest health risk factor in developing countries, after unclean water and sanitation, unsafe sex and undernourishment. The gathering of fuel is mainly done by women and children, millions of whom are exposed daily to dangers in conflict-torn regions. The need to forage for fuel also keeps millions of children out of school.

Although researchers have been aware of the health and environmental risks caused by carbon-belching indoor cookstoves for decades, there has been little focus on replacing them until recently, and it is not clear that the alliance’s high-profile initiative can pay the intended quick dividends. An estimated 500 million households depend on burning biomass for cooking and heating, some in the remotest places on earth, and it will not be easy to reach them with affordable and acceptable alternatives.

Even if the alliance’s goal were fully met, it would address no more than a fifth of the problem, according to its sponsors.

Stoves that are coming on the market for as little as $20 are 50 percent more efficient than current cooking methods, which are often simply open fires or crude clay domes, backers of the project say. A $100 model can capture 95 percent of the harmful emissions while burning far less fuel to produce the same amount of energy.

Reid Detchon, vice president for energy and climate at the United Nations Foundation, one of the founding partners of the alliance, said that the plan was not simply to use donations to buy millions of new stoves and ship them out to the developing world.

Rather, he said, the group hopes to create an entrepreneurial model in which small companies manufacture or buy the stoves close to their markets, taking into account local fuel choices, food consumption patterns and methods of cooking. This microproject model is expected to provide business opportunities for women while reducing the fuel-gathering burden of women and children around the world.

“The idea is how to create a thriving global industry in cookstoves, driven by consumers’ desire to have these products at a price they can afford,” Mr. Detchon said.