‘Impact Investing’ Countering Indoor Air Pollution

With companies moving from philanthropy to social investment, is the scorecard on social impact getting any better? MIT and Social Capital Markets (called SOCAP) explored answers to these questions in a special series of Innovations Journals on Impact Investment.

The authors, Ann-Kristin Achleitner, Andreas Heinecke, Abigail Noble, Mirjam Schöning, and Wolfgang Spiess-Knafl in their prefatory note sound a note of caution while opening the discussion:

"Social investment is neither a silver bullet to close the funding gap in the social entrepreneurship space nor a suitable solution of growth.The social

enterprises that are best served by social enterprise at every stage every social for investment are those that have clear and realistic plans for how they will address their short and medium-term needs and are open to inviting outsiders into their decision-making processes and, in some cases, to ceding decision-making rights on their strategy and operations to outsiders."

One of the keys to effective “Impact Investing” seems to be just that: clear and realistic plans.

Narrating Envirofit’s tale from 2007 till today on how it has identified problems and tapped various markets to sell cookstoves and become scalable and sustainable, Tim Bauer of Envirofit International in his case study “Enabling Market-Driven Technology” says:

“Shell Foundation took the lead investor role with an initial $3.5 million investment designed to enable Envirofit to raise the total $25 million investment required to grow and scale a global cookstove business. Envirofit’s demonstrated commercial track record, its history of including key stakeholders in strategy and planning, and its transparency in sharing results and lessons learned with its partners has been the key to finding this funding.”

“We strongly believe that a market-driven approach is a necessary backbone to helping solve the problems we focus on—at any level of scale. The company’s vision is larger than the number of lives saved or tons of emissions reduced by implementing a particular technology. With innovative products, services, and financial mechanisms, we are creating a new global standard for cookstoves, thereby addressing problems and challenges that affect half of the world’s population. At a very basic level, the efforts and results of Envirofit have always been and will continue to be made possible by impact investment.”

Commenting on Tim’s case study, Pradeep Pursnani, Business Director of Shell Foundation’s program to tackle Indoor Air Pollution, says the key lesson learnt was that:

“After five years of pilot projects from 2002 to 2007, we realized that a problem as large as IAP can only be solved through market thinking and private sector involvement. Following a number of pilot projects, in 2007 we selected Envirofit as our global strategic partner, and since then we have supported the establishment and growth of their cookstove business in India and Africa.”

Shell Foundation, says Pursnani, learnt a number of lessons from the pilot projects. The key five lessons which have shaped the strategies and innovations to counter IAP were:

1. Biomass should be focused upon as the fuel used in the stoves as it is in sync with the cooking habits of   maximum households around the world.
2. Centralized manufacturing of stoves helps in scaling the project and ensures consistency in quality and performance.
3. SF needs commercial partners to grow. It found out through its pilots that NGOs cannot focus on manufacturing a sustainable global solution at scale as they run on     donations which are limited and thus have to compromise on number of stoves or its quality.
4. The solution must meet certain performance benchmarks around fuel efficiency,  carbon and particulate  matter (PM) emissions and must be technology driven, well engineered, durable and affordable as low quality cookstoves are often discarded and face lapse behavior.
5. Monitoring, evaluation and social marketing are vital for a successful program.

These five lessons have helped Envirofit and Shell Foundation become sustainable and scalable. As of today, Envirofit is funded by Shell Foundation, but, given the rate at which it is growing, Pradeep foresees financial sustainability. He identified three game changers for Envirofit being: commercial partnerships, carbon finance, and the start of large-scale local assembly operations.

Shell Foundation And Grameen Koota Help 92,000 People Breathe Free In Karnataka

The state of Karnataka in India hosts the largest number of Indian IT companies and an ever expanding technology base. Yet, despite all the state-of-the-art technology being developed, 75% of the people in the villages of Karnataka still cook over open fires and traditional stoves which exposes them to indoor air pollution, leading to respiratory diseases.

Now, efforts are being made by Grameen Koota Financial Services, Navya Disha Trust and Envirofit, backed by Shell Foundation, to change the situation, says a report in Prajavani, a regional language newspaper in Kannada. Their efforts have led to Grameen Koota helping 4000 households purchase Envirofit Jeevan Jyoti stoves, thereby impacting the lives of 92,000 people in 12 districts and 32 Talukas (sub-divisions) of Karnataka.

Reporting on an awareness raising camp held at the Gopalapura village in Karnataka, the newspaper reports that the effort is to create awareness on the benefits of clean cookstoves, demonstrate the working of Jeevan Jyoti stoves and inform villagers about the financial assistance given by Grameen Koota to buy the stoves.

Envirofit's Jeevan Jyoti stoves are promoted in the districts by Grameen Koota, a micro-finance institution with a membership base of 400,000 in Karnataka alone. Discussing the benefits of Jeevan Jyoti stoves, project co-ordinator K G Mahadesh said:

“(Modernised) chimneys are more expensive compared to Jeevan Jyothi stoves. They cost about Rs.5000 to Rs.6000 whereas the stoves cost Rs.1500. Moreover these stoves are handy and mobile. People can take these stoves wherever they want.”

Over 85,000 of their members have shown interest in purchasing Envirofit stoves as a result of the campaigns they have run so far. The subsidies Grameen Koota provides for poorer villagers range from Rs.700 to Rs.1400 – which goes a long way to encouraging increased uptake of the life-saving cleaner cookstoves.

Shell Foundation And Envirofit Leverage Carbon Credits To Cut Costs Of Cleaner Cookstoves

A recent story in The Hindu Business Line explores how Shell Foundation and Envirofit are reducing the cost of cookstoves for end-users by leveraging the sale of carbon credits.

Providing improved cookstoves affordably is a challenge for all organisations working in the IAP space. As Shell Foundation and Envirofit learned in the Indian and African markets, simply building awareness of the problem and providing a strong product offering aren’t enough. If the stoves aren’t priced competitively relative to the traditional alternatives, they simply won’t sell.

Manufacturers need to lower costs of production but price sensitivity is so great that this may not be enough, certainly not in the short-term. So how else to reduce the price to end-users? Government and charity subsidies are helpful – but to operate at scale a more stable form of cost offset is required. By leveraging carbon credits to offset manufacturing costs, Shell Foundation and Envirofit aim to provide a reduction in the retail price of cleaner cookstoves.

Pradeep Pursnani, Business Director of Shell Foundation’s cleaner cookstoves programmes, explains:

“In Africa, we found a lot of demand for the clean charcoal burning stove, but affordability was a big question. So, to help bring down its cost, we started a Shell Foundation Envirofit Carbon Fund with a corpus of up to $1 million. The Fund is independent and technology agnostic and will provide tailor-made solutions to stove manufacturers, women's groups and MFIs to make sale and purchase of stoves affordable. The fund will now be enhanced to $5 million to cater to India as well. A stove that costs around Rs 1,500 would be available for around Rs 1,000 to rural families."

Explaining how the carbon credits model for offsetting cookstove costs works, Pradeep continues:

“Stove manufacturers sell the reduced emission stoves at a discounted price, and recover the difference from sale of carbon credits. Though the stoves have the advantage of product quality, manufacturers are likely to see carbon revenues only flow in after 2-3 years. This means the manufacturers are left short of working capital. This is where Shell Foundation will step in. Its carbon fund for stoves will fund the subsidy and later recover it from carbon credits sales that it generates on the same stoves.”

This new method of partially offsetting manufacturing costs should make cleaner cookstoves accessible to a much wider market. This will allow more households to benefit from a reduction in IAP and more efficient cooking, while providing wider environmental benefits for all in terms of reduced emissions.

Read the full story on: Carbon credits to bring down cost of clean stoves for rural poor

Study Finds Indoor Air Pollution Causes Increased Blood Pressure in Older Women

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have discovered significant links between IAP and increased blood pressure in a study of 280 women over 50 in rural China.

The study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, was carried out over a period of 24 hours, during which the women  wore portable devices that sampled the air they breathed in. This data was then mapped against the blood pressure of each of the participants to determine whether there was a correlation between the smoke being breathed in and increased blood pressure.

A huge number of households in rural China still rely on open fires and biomass fuels for cooking and heating their homes, creating smoke that can severely damage the health of the entire family. Researcher Jill Baumgartner and her colleagues found that IAP released by these methods of cooking stimulates the nervous system and constricts blood vessels. This significantly raises blood pressure in the short term, while in the long term IAP causes oxidative stress, further raising blood pressure. Increased blood pressure also leaves people vulnerable to other cardiovascular problems such as strokes and heart disease.

Greater adoption of clean cookstove technology will help combat these effects. The study estimates that the reduction in IAP caused by curtailing the use of biomass fuels would result in an 18 percent decrease in coronary heart disease and a 22 percent decrease in stroke among Asian women aged 50 to 59 years. These benefits could save the lives of 230,900 women in China alone each year.

Read the full study on: Indoor Air Pollution and Blood Pressure in Adult Women Living in Rural China

Envirofit Ranked Third in Top Ten Most Innovative Companies in Energy

Envirofit has been ranked third in Fast Company’s listing of ‘The 10 Most Innovative Companies in Energy’.

Envirofit was counted among the top three innovative companies due to its cheap, environment-friendly stoves for consumers in the developing world.

According to Fast Company: “(Envirofit) products rely on intensive market research, so that each stove can be "housewife-approved" for each cultural context and cooking style, and use up to 60% less fuel.”

Harish Anchan, Managing Director of Envirofit, used the award as an opportunity to highlight the scale of the problem of IAP in India:

“Despite the economic surge and growth stories, India has many unsolved and unattended burning issues. Most of these issues concern the rural and poor urban population of India. Millions of women and children are still suffering from the effects of deadly Indoor Air Pollution. Our efforts have started delivering results, but there is still a lot to achieve.”

Envirofit has sold over 300,000 stoves so far, impacting the lives of over one and a half million people. Recognition such as this will help to leverage Envirofit’s visibility on a global scale, raising more awareness of the issue, and encouraging more partners to work towards a solution so that even more lives can be positively impacted.

Fast Company is a business magazine that reports on innovation, digital media, technology, change management, leadership, design, and social responsibility.

The other organisations included on the list were Solarcity, Enerkem, Portland General Electric, Cook Inlet Region Inc., Earth Aid, U.S. Military, GE, Joule Biotechnologies and Solyndra.

See the full list on: The 10 Most Innovative Companies in Energy

Hillary Clinton Lauds India Cookstove Program

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton highlighted the efforts of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (GACC) at an event held at the Women’s Working Forum in Chennai, India on July 20th, 2011. As reported in the GACC newsletter, Mrs. Clinton also praised the Government of India for its National Biomass Cookstoves Initiative.

Dr. Kalpana Balakrishnan of the Sri Ramachandra University, a research expert on the health benefits of cleaner cookstoves, walked Mrs.Clinton through demonstrations of stoves being marketed by Alliance partners including Prakti Design, First Energy, Envirofit and TERI.

According to a press release from the US Consulate, Dr. Kalpana stressed to Mrs. Clinton that continued research and partnerships are vital for the programme’s success, and that it needs the same full-scale attention as given to public health programmes that address vaccinations and nutrition. The discussions with Mrs. Clinton also focused on new and advanced monitoring tools for this sector used in Dr. Balakrishnan’s laboratory.

Mrs. Clinton was quoted as saying in the US Consulate report:

"The women here today represent women all over the world who are by and large the biggest users and victims of cookstoves. We will work with people around the world to help develop clean cookstoves, help to manufacture them so they are affordable for you to buy them."

Mrs Clinton also announced that India’s apex bodies of commerce and industry, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), have signed up to the Alliance. Both organisations have come forward to support the adoption of clean cookstoves in India. According to the newsletter:

“CII has committed to link community efforts to its extensive industry network, help commercialise promising cooking technologies, and help integrate clean cookstoves into its other members’ projects.”

FICCI plans to support local cookstove SMEs, help to make cookstoves more accessible through microfinance, develop women’s employment options and support the GACC’s interaction with the Indian government.

Read the full report on: Sec. Clinton Highlights Clean Cookstoves in India
                                     Secretary Clinton Gets Fired Up Over Safer Cooking

Addressing Africa’s Affordability Challenge: Is Carbon Trading The Answer?

In early 2010 Shell Foundation and Envirofit, long-standing partners in the battle against IAP, decided the time was right to expand the geographical focus of their work to Africa.

What they found was a very different situation to the one they faced in India. People in Africa already knew about the benefits of improved cookstoves and, what’s more, they were keen to buy them. The problem, almost exclusively, was the issue of affordability.

Pradeep Pursnani heads Shell Foundation’s programme to tackle Indoor Air Pollution. In the last two years he has been working to overcome the main barriers to growth of the nascent cookstove market in India, living and breathing the IAP challenge.

Pradeep says:

"India poses a complex set of challenges, and high amongst these is the issue of demand. Indian consumers in rural areas still struggle with the idea that purchasing a better cookstove is a good use of their limited resources. The impacts of IAP need to be spelt out at all levels, and consumers need help to understand the efficiencies and savings that improved stoves can offer. On the other hand, for quite some time, Africans have been giving up on three-stone fireplaces in favour of metal stoves,largely because the depletion of forests and scrubland has forced them to purchase the wood and charcoal they use as kitchen fuel."

In fact locally built stoves such as the Joki, a metal stove with a combustion chamber made from mud, were introduced in Africa nearly 20 years ago. For Pradeep this meant that there was less need to spend time, effort and resources building awareness about the problem of IAP and the need to use improved stoves. As he scouted markets in Kenya and Tanzania it became clear that the economic benefits of a stove that consumed less fuel appealed greatly to consumers.

Pradeep explained:

“We soon realised that people in Africa were comfortable buying a stove as a household product. This meant that our biggest challenge was to deliver a value proposition that would displace the existing, less efficient but very cheap stoves. We needed to make efficient cookstoves available via a strong distribution system, but at a price that matched or bettered the existing alternatives.”

Pradeep discovered a continent awash with stove sellers. With the market highly elastic (price-sensitive) some of these businesses had started to sell carbon credits in order to reduce their prices. Herein lay tremendous potential to use carbon revenues to subsidise the price of improved clean cookstoves or to invest in technological development to lower costs.

“Carbon credits are a key enabler for clean cookstoves in the African market”,said Pradeep.

“They can help overcome the barriers of affordability by taking advantage of the fact that cleaner cookstoves offer environmental as well as health benefits.”

[Early research shows that improved stoves can save up to 3 tonnes of carbon per year from entering the atmosphere. Over the five year life span of a stove this figure can be substantial.]

Unfortunately taking advantage of these carbon savings proved far from simple; the main problem, it turned out, was one of timing.

“For a clean cookstove business to be competitive in the wider market place they must be selling stoves at around $10. If they can reach this price point they’ll have the edge on product quality. But at the moment this price is far lower than the cost to make the stoves. Trading the future carbon savings from each stove could subsidise much of this shortfall, but this revenue won’t be seen until two to three years later.”

Carbon savings need to be measured and validated in the field before credits are issued and trading can take place. Clean cookstove manufacturers simply lack the working capital to cover this gap.

Catalysing sustainable growth

“After a great deal of market analysis and research we came to the conclusion that although we could find the right partners to distribute stoves and maximise the value of carbon revenues, we needed to help them bridge to the point in time at which this system would be self-sufficient” continues Pradeep, his excitement clear in every word.

“We launched the Shell Foundation Envirofit Carbon Fund in at the end of 2010. The idea is to have a $1 million fund to support different kinds of high-quality clean stove businesses, regardless of the technology they use, and facilitate new distribution channels by making appropriately structured finance available to them on a temporary basis to help them become sustainable.”

Through the new fund the partners hope to subsidise the sale of over 100,000 stoves over the next 2 years in countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria and India. The subsidy will be replaced with earnings from carbon revenues over time. The fund will also work with other organizations, such as women’s groups and MFIs, to make the sale and marketing of improved stoves more affordable.

The Carbon Fund has announced three deals to work with distributors in Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania. The first, announced in the third quarter of 2010, is a partnership with Paradigm, a voluntary carbon network in Kenya. The plan is for Envirofit to sell improved stoves to Paradigm for $10 to $12 (approx $20 less than their usual retail price) with Shell Foundation providing a subsidy to Envirofit to make up the difference. Paradigm will sell these at cost to a range of distributors in the country and the stoves will eventually be sold to consumers for roughly $15. Over time Paradigm will trade the carbon credits it receives for each stove sold and use this income to subsidise further stove purchases.

By early 2011 similar deals had been struck with C-Quest, a US-based carbon financier, that aims to sell two million improved stoves in Nigeria within the next five years, and E+Co, the clean energy investor, in Tanzania.

Just one piece of the jigsaw

Whilst the new fund will provide a much-needed spur to help the clean cookstove industry realise the value of carbon revenues, Pradeep knows that further cost-efficiencies and technological developments are needed.

“Carbon credits will part-subsidise the price of the improved stoves but more savings are going to be necessary for these stoves to be competitive in the mature stove markets of Africa. The next step will be for Envirofit to start local assembly operations in Kenya where they will benefit from tax waivers. The cost of an imported Envirofit G3300 is roughly $30 but local assembly would bring down the cost to around $15. Once you factor in the income from trading carbon credits this makes a final retail price of $8 much more realistic. If they then start using local paint and parts such as handles, costs could be reduced even further. Then you have the boost to local employment that this would provide.”

This development would see Kenya become the hub of Envirofit’s East African operations and enable duty free export to Tanzania and Uganda. Generating carbon revenues from the sale of clean cookstoves is an important route to achieving this; a sustainable, scaleable win-win for stove manufacturers, distributors and the customers they serve.

Case Study: Cleaner Cooking Makes Business Sense in Ramnagar

Suresh is a self-employed tavern owner from Ramnagar, Karnataka – a small but rapidly growing town between Bangalore and Mysore made popular by the legendary Bollywood film Sholay.

For years Suresh relied upon a three-stone traditional chulha to prepare sambar (Indian lentils), rice, tea and coffee for his customers – a broad mix of local townsfolk and travellers on route to Mysore. Business was good but behind the scenes Suresh was paying a big price. Whilst his customers enjoyed the aroma of freshly brewed coffee, Suresh was inhaling dense toxic fumes from the chulha that left him with sore eyes and a sore throat. At the same time he was spending Rs100 a day for firewood to feed the stove.

Three months ago, an officer from Grameen Koota, a micro-finance organisation, saw Suresh cooking over his traditional chulha.  A short discussion between the two led to Suresh being introduced to a bright orange cookstove that consumed less firewood and emitted less smoke. Suresh saw the value immediately but although he liked the idea of having the stove – one of Envirofit’s G3300 models – he worried about getting the money together. The Grameen Koota officer stepped in with a loan for Suresh’s mother, Thayamma, to buy the stove.

Today, Suresh stirs his sambar without coughing or crying and his customers are happy to sit in a smoke-free space. The Envirofit stove has helped Suresh cut down the time he spends cooking. By using the stove for two to five hours a day (two to three hours every morning, one hour in the afternoon and another hour in the evening) he can cook rice and sambar on five-litre pots to feed his customers throughout the day. With his old traditional chulha the same amount of cooking used to take Suresh between eight and 10 hours.

Suresh requires less wood for his new improved cookstove and this saving has already allowed him to repay the loan from Grameen Koota.

“In less than a month, I’ve recovered the stove’s cost from the savings I make on fuel”, Suresh told us. “I’m now only spending between Rs 20 and 30 on wood each day – that’s a daily saving of Rs 70 to 80. I don’t have to breathe in dirty smoke and even the food tastes better.”

Envirofit stoves reduce harmful emissions up to 80% and require up to 60% less fuel compared to traditional cookstoves. They are manufactured to last longer than traditional chulha stoves whilst being easy to use, clean and maintain.

Various MFI financing schemes, like the one from Grameen Koota, help to make the stoves more affordable. Grameen Koota officers make the most of their familiarity in the villages and the understanding of the socio-economic conditions of their customers to raise awareness about the benefits of clean cookstoves.

Suresh’s new stove has made his life easier, more comfortable and saved him money. While his customers enjoy their piping hot coffee and sambar-rice, Suresh is now cooking safely in his smokeless kitchen.

Indo-US Joint Centre To Research Link Between IAP And COPD

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD) is a major public health problem affecting millions of people in both developed and developing countries. There is no effective treatment for COPD, which is characterised by chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

Whilst many millions of people in the developed world suffer from COPD, the problem is particularly severe in rural communities in the developing world. As a report on Healthcanal.com explains, high incidences of environmental lung disease are being caused primarily by indoor cooking using biomass and other solid fuels.

A recent report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) breaks down the causes of COPD further.

“COPD has opposite patterns according to geographic areas. In high- and middle-income countries, tobacco smoke is the biggest risk factor, while in low-income countries exposure to indoor air pollution, such as the use of biomass fuels for cooking and heating, causes the COPD burden. Almost 3 billion people worldwide use biomass and coal as their main source of energy for cooking, heating, and other household needs. In these communities, indoor air pollution is responsible for a greater fraction of COPD risk than smoking or outdoor air pollution.Biomass fuels used by women for cooking account for the high prevalence of COPD among non-smoking women in parts of the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Indoor air pollution resulting from the burning of wood and other biomass fuels is estimated to kill two million women and children each year.”

Despite research by the WHO into COPD occurrence in non-smokers, the pathobiology and a definitive link between indoor air pollution (caused by burning  solid fuels and cooking over traditional stoves) and the disease is still unclear.

To address this issue, the Indo-US Science & Technology Forum (IUSSTF) has awarded funding to The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to establish the first centre to study COPD and other lung diseases in non-smokers living in rural India.

The centre, to be called the Indo-US Center of Excellence for Environmental Lung Diseases, will be led jointly by Shyam Biswal, Professor at the Bloomberg School’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Sundeep Salvi, Director of India’s Chest Research Foundation at Pune and Anurag Agrawal, MD of the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in Delhi.

Speaking to Healthcanal.com, Biswal said “We are beginning to appreciate the global problem of non-smoker COPD but our understanding of pathobiology is unclear. This Centre will attempt to bring together experts from both countries to face this public health challenge”.

The Indian investigators will share data with their US counterparts on a number of factors influencing levels of IAP. These include firewood consumption in rural homes, duration of time spent cooking, level of exposure to toxic fumes and gene-environment interaction. Such information will provide a clearer understanding of susceptibility to the disease, leading to the development of new treatments for the affected population.

Read the full story on: Indo-U.S. Center Established to Study Nonsmoking-Related Causes of COPD

Clean Cookstoves Contribute To Reduction In Nigeria's Carbon Emissions

In 2005 the Kyoto Protocol set in place a global schedule for the reduction of greenhouse gases, prompting countries across the world to implement specific emission reduction programmes to help them meet their new obligations. 

Just two years ago, Nigeria had no such programme in place. Yet, as the country’s widely-read Daily Independent reports, the latest statistics from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) show that the country’s carbon emissions reduction performance is now the best in Africa.  The dramatic change is attributed to a range of energy efficiency programmes – including initiatives to introduce cleaner cookstoves to the market – and means that Nigeria currently ranks ninth in anticipated certified emissions reductions across the world. 

According to the report, Nigeria’s average annual savings earned from Carbon Emission Reduction (CER) credits form 1.03% of the world’s total (behind only China, India, Brazil, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Indonesia, Malaysia, Chile and Argentina), and are largely driven by four registered Carbon Development Mechanisms. Three of these - the Kwale Recovery of Associated Gas Project, the Ovade-Ogharefe Gas Capture and Processing Project and the Asuoku/Umutu Gas Recovery and Marketing Facility – work to create carbon savings in the gas industry. The fourth, Save 80 Fuel Wood Stoves, is a clean cookstove initiative seeking to make improved wood stoves more readily available in Nigeria.

Speaking to the Daily Independent, CDM expert Victor Fodeke says that CDMs in the country have a bright future. He highlights the fact that seven new projects submitted to the UNFCCC for approval have passed the monitoring stage. Among these projects are two further clean cookstoves initiatives. 

This is good news for clean cookstove manufacturers, who hope that these initiatives will help them to offset the costs of production and distribution in Nigeria, and lower the price of the much-needed stoves, making them available to the consumers most impacted by IAP.

Photo Courtesy: Bioenergylists
Read the full story on: Nigeria earns emission credits amid high potential

Envirofit India Selling A 'Smoke-less' Future

Traditional firewood cookstoves are not just appliances for cooking food. They are cultural products that have evolved over centuries to serve the needs of the local community according to local cuisine, average family sizes and availability of fuel. 

Taking on the challenge of redesigning a product so firmly embedded in the community is not easy. In an interview for Smoke in the Kitchen, Harish Anchan, Managing Director of Envirofit India, details the company’s story so far in the improved cookstove space.

Designing the product

“We feel that a cookstove should reflect the voice of the consumer” explains Harish. To hear this voice, Envirofit assessed the needs of 120 families in South India, tracking their cooking habits extensively. This research shaped the design of the first Envirofit stove launched in 2008.

“We did not stop there. Over the years we have constantly made changes and improvements to the stoves. The Envirofit stove that was developed in 2008 is very different from the stove being marketed in 2011.”

Why India?

This local research-based approach to design has been key to the success of Envirofit, and explains why the company has focused operations in the South of India so far.

“120 million households in India cook their daily meals by burning biomass fuel (wood, animal dung or agricultural waste)”Anchan says, outlining Envirofit’s reasons for choosing India as its launch market. 

“Most meals are cooked on open fires or rudimentary, inefficient stoves that release high levels of toxic emissions into people’s homes. The World Health Organisation estimates that this Indoor Air Pollution kills over half a million people in India each year, with 56% of these deaths occurring in children under 5.”

Getting to market

Choosing the launch market and designing the perfect cookstove were only the first pieces of the puzzle for Envirofit. Marketing the cookstoves to an audience unused to investing in such appliances, and ensuring adequate distribution networks were in place, were both vital factors to guaranteeing success.

Envirofit made use of multiple existing networks to reach customers, including “traditional retail distribution networks, Government, NGOs, MFIs, institutions, village entrepreneurs and self-help groups”. Each of these routes offers Envirofit different opportunities. “Distribution networks service customers by providing stoves to their doorsteps at a very low margin, whereas NGOs spread the social message of the company and build awareness of the general issues surrounding IAP.”

Traditional retail networks have proven very effective in getting Envirofit stoves to end users. Anchan identifies utensil shops as being particularly effective retail spaces in this capacity. 

A common misconception is that affordability remains one of the biggest barriers to increased sales of improved cookstoves. Envirofit’s experience does not tally with this: “Affordability has only been perceived as an issue when the product is marketed solely as a solution that deals with health hazards. When people realise the cost savings improved cookstoves offer, as well as their aspirational value, they are less concerned about affordability.”

Success so far

Envirofit stoves reduce harmful emissions by up to 80%, and require up to 60% less fuel. They have an average operational lifespan of 5 years, compared to the six months offered by traditional clay cookstoves. These factors have enabled Envirofit to sell over 200,000 units so far, which Anchan estimates means they have impacted the lives of one million people. He is not content to stop there: “A far larger challenge exists and we are therefore building distribution alliances, micro-finance partnerships and tapping into rural networks to take cookstoves to more customers.”

Looking Ahead

What does the future hold for Envirofit? Anchan identifies carbon finance as a key activity for the company over the coming months, and something that has the potential to drastically increase the reach and social effects of Envirofit’s work. “Envirofit is working with Eco-Securities to provide carbon finance in India. We have submitted documents for registration to the voluntary carbon programme, making us the first domestic stoves carbon trading programme in India. Once we have access to carbon finance, we can offset it against the cost of manufacturing stoves and raising awareness.”

Role of Government 

“The Government has a crucial role in addressing India’s development challenges and we look to support this in every way we can. With regard to clean cookstoves, they can help in three major ways. First, by creating an eco-system for stove manufacturers through awareness campaigns which will enable rapid creation of markets for stoves. Second, the Government can utilize and mobile networks to solve the problem of last mile access by creating better distribution channels. And third, by enabling low interest loans akin to farm loans, the Government can enable the poorest of the poor to buy improved cook stoves. The new Government cookstoves initiative is delivering progress in each area and we want to form deeper partnerships to enable this work to benefit the people most impacted by IAP”.

Exciting times lie ahead for Envirofit India.

Carbon Offsets For Cookstoves Project Making Ugandan Households Healthier

Deforestation in Africa is driving up the cost of firewood, and forcing women to go further afield to gather fuel, putting them at greater risk of attacks and assaults. As a result of this, an increasing number of improved cookstove manufacturers and carbon financing organizations from around the world are entering the market seeking to make a difference.

The latest company to launch a project in Africa is Offsetters, a Canadian carbon management solutions provider co-developing a cookstove offset scheme, as reported by CNW.

The article explains how the Offsetters project aims “to distribute thousands of new, clean-burning cookstoves to Ugandan households over the next five years, which will have the equivalent effect of removing approximately 4000 cars from the road for a year.” This carbon-saving is in addition to health benefits that cleaner cookstoves offer to people who are dying simply trying to cook their daily meals.

The Offsetters project is registered under the Gold Standard, which ensures that carbon savings are genuine and that they make tangible contributions to sustainable development. By selling verifiable carbon credits, stove manufacturers can offset the cost of production and distribution of improved cookstoves, making them more affordable to a greater consumer base.

The cookstoves are based on improved combustion efficiency technology. This extra efficiency cuts cooking times in half, while each stove consumes 50% less fuel than traditional cookstoves, resulting in substantial cost savings for Ugandan families.

Interviewed by CNW, Offsetters Founder and CEO James Tansey said; "The results of co-developing such an internationally valuable project that ties into a basic, daily human need to cook and feed oneself, in relation to climate change, are enormous. From reducing environmental impact and potentially improving physical health to reducing wood collecting and cooking time, these cookstoves will change the way the Ugandan people live their lives.”

Photo Courtesy: Offsetters
Read the full story on: Clean cookstove project in Africa has Canadian ties

Riding On Rural Networks To Bridge The Last Mile For Clean Cookstoves

Having a great solution is all very well but it’s simply no use if you can’t get it to the person who needs it. The challenge, as any social entrepreneur will tell you, is that whilst the right technology might be available to solve a problem, the poorest people remain disconnected from retail markets and have a low power to spend. The distribution channels simply don’t exist to get products across the so-called “last mile” – creating an issue of both access and affordability.

A recent article by Diana Jue (of the MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning) in the Stanford Social Innovation Review records four innovative ways in which social enterprises in India are trying to bridge the “last mile” to create a more efficient market for clean cookstoves.

One option is to team up with NGOs and Microfinance Institutions to take advantage of a pre-existing network of relationships. First Energy reaches out to small local NGOs while Envirofit leverages the distribution system of MFIs. The bundling of the stove with other financial products also enables the MFI channels to subsidize the cost of the stoves.

Second, working with rural dealers whose network markets, sells and distributes products. Oorja, for instance, uses Adharam Energy which deploys female village-level entrepreneurs and members of self-help groups who give live demonstrations and identify prospects as well as Villgro Stores which operates village shops.

Third, riding on the existing rural networks of other companies. For example, Prakti Designs is promoting its stoves through SELCO which sells home lighting systems.

Finally, companies such as Envirofit have realized that a good solution lies in the traditional rural trade networks with its established chain of distributors and retailers. Combining store presence with mass media advertising, Envirofit reaches out to a demographic cluster that makes its purchases from these stores.

The common factor seems to be the growing realization that to create a well-functioning market, integrating products such as cookstoves into existing market systems is extremely important. Creating a distribution network of their own is neither feasible nor viable but using existing channels at least ensures a pipeline that may not be perfect but can at least be adapted to reach the last mile.

Photo courtesy: Envirofit

Read the full article on: Innovations That Address the Last-Mile Distribution Challenge

“Strong Innovative Partnerships Are Key To Solving The Problem Of IAP” Says Shell Foundation’s Pradeep Pursnani

For three years, the Shell Foundation has been testing the effectiveness of new and innovative routes to market for clean cookstoves in rural villages across India. Here Pradeep Pursnani, Business Director of Shell Foundation’s program to tackle Indoor Air Pollution, discusses the importance of partnerships to address challenges of awareness-raising, distribution and affordability.

What initiatives make up Shell Foundation’s ‘Room to Breathe’ campaign?

Room to Breathe is a campaign aimed at raising awareness of IAP and enabling greater availability of clean cook stoves as a solution for some of India’s poorest consumers. It started in the Shimoga district of Karnataka, South India, as a village-level engagement program that encompassed stove demonstrations, street-theatre and interactive games and ran concurrently with a mass media campaign.This new

type of social marketing is proving to be quite successful and generated a huge amount of market data.

We’ve since built on this by working with micro-finance institutions such as Grameen Koota, NGOs like Art of Living and rural entrepreneurs like Dharma to use their extensive networks to create new distribution channels; and to come up with options to make stoves more affordable. The partnerships have resulted in both outright and credit-based sales.

In terms of geography, our work brings together a wide range of partners in different parts of the country. These include Anganwadi workers, self-help groups, rural retail and distribution enterprises and regional entities, establishing alternative routes to market in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Assam and Uttar Pradesh.

What key challenges is Shell Foundation seeking to address in the IAP domain?

The fundamental challenges of dealing with IAP have been well-established: First, creating awareness about the health risks of IAP while propagating the economic benefits of clean cookstoves; second, making improved cookstoves available at the last mile both in terms of sales and maintenance, and third, most importantly, providing access to finance or making stoves affordable without either price discounting or short-lived subsidies.

To that end, we have stayed flexible in our approach, working with strong local partners who can tackle two of the issues on their own: outreach and affordability.

Our partnership with Art of Living and Dharma is a great example of two organizations working jointly to address the challenges.  Art of Living builds on its existing efforts in the community and educates people on the issues of IAP and the solution to address it.  Dharma, through its entrepreneurs is responsible for commercial aspects around the distribution and sale of the stoves at the last mile.

Another area with strong potential are institutional alliances. For example, tea plantations in the North-East of India where plantation workers are heavily dependent on wood for fuel. It is in the interest of the plantations to facilitate ownership of stoves that not only improve indoor air but also cut fuel consumption. 

Are there any additional advantages of partnering with an MFI like Grameen Koota?

The partnership with Grameen Koota specifically aims to address the affordability conundrum by offering low-cost loans for clean cookstoves whilst benefiting from the networks and credibility of Grameen  at village-level to market and distribute the improved stoves.

Grameen Koota’s loan officers are well known and have a good reputation in the community they serve. Their credibility amongst the people in the area helps with raising awareness of the ill-effects of IAP and the benefits of using an improved cookstove. They are trained to raise awareness of the benefits of clean cookstoves, and hold stove demonstrations for the gathered community to highlight the savings possible with the more efficient Envirofit stoves.

Finally, Grameen Koota keeps distribution channels informed about potential orders, thereby ensuring stoves are available when customers reach the retailers.

Will Shell Foundation work with other manufacturers, groups and the Government of India to combat IAP?

The answer is simple – for a problem this big we need to work together. Through a combination of partnerships, campaigns and innovations that span across a wide range of manufacturers, NGOs, financial institutions, academicians, local governments and village leaders we’ve managed to demonstrate new, more effective routes to market.

For truly national scale, the Government needs to play a huge role and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has been implementing some excellent ideas to achieve this. In the future, we see the National Improved Cookstoves Programme becoming the flag bearer for a national awareness campaign, as well enabling stove manufacturers to reach their customers.

Making The Most Of Carbon Financing: A New Guide For Energy Entrepreneurs

For a small-scale energy producer in an emerging market, one of the biggest constraints to survival is access to appropriate levels of finance. The rapid growth of the carbon finance industry in recent years could offer a lifeline – emissions trading or ‘carbon credits’ represent a valuable source of income for energy businesses and create financial incentives for cleaner sustainable energy provision – but so far it is mainly larger providers that have been able to benefit.

GVEP International, an international non-profit created to reduce poverty through ‘accelerated access to modern energy services’ aims to change this. Recognising the potential of carbon trading to enable the expansion of innovative social enterprises who deliver development impacts in addition to carbon reductions, GVEP has teamed up with the Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy to produce a guide for energy entrepreneurs who wish to link their businesses to carbon finance.

“GVEP International often gets asked questions on carbon finance from the many enterprises it is working with. Thus, we tried to make this guide very practical.” says David Disch, co-author of the guide.

“There is so much written on carbon finance but most of it is theoretical and very detached from the questions a small-size biogas enterprise or a cookstove manufacturer has. Drawing on input from various experts and illustrative case studies, this little guide can help small and medium enterprises to understand the complexities and allows them to evaluate the pros and cons of the financial and technical requirements to access carbon finance.”

The partnership has produced a very useful and instructive manual for new entrants into the carbon finance market, addressing questions such as: 

•    How do I assess the potential carbon revenue my business could deliver?

•    What level of investment do I need up front?

•    What challenges will I face in getting carbon credits?

•    How will investors assess the feasibility of my project?

•    How do I approach possible carbon credit buyers?

You can download the guide to Carbon Finance from the GVEP website here. 

 Read the full story on: Carbon Finance: A Guide for Sustainable Energy Enterprises and NGOs.

New Entities Scale Better Through Angel Philanthropy

The opportunity and the challenge of scale are effectively the two sides of the development coin that social enterprises have to deal with, often against the backdrop of a complex socio-economic matrix. Shell Foundation’s quest for creating scale is based on the understanding that is fundamentally about “delivering cost-effective solutions that impact large number of beneficiaries in multiple locations in ways that are ultimately financially viable and self-sustaining”.

Shell Foundation’s Regional Director Anuradha Bhavnani speaking to Sustainability Outlook points out that the Foundation’s quest for scale has had encouraging results on the ground with partners such as Envirofit , Husk Power Systems, Embarq and Agrocel.A key condition for achieving scale, paradoxically, seems to be to find partners who are in the nascent stage of development rather than entities with an established track record.

According to Bhavnani, “We find it striking that in large instances where partnerships achieved scale and measurable impact, it has been with newly created entities that were using new business models that we had jointly developed. We do believe that Angel Philanthropy as a starting point of development change has significant potential to catalyze scalable solutions to global development challenges. For us, Angel Philanthropy is about investing in a new venture without a proven track record or documented impact but with a new business based concept, a new product in a new market which has the intrinsic goal of going to scale, achieving measurable social impact and becoming financially viable.”

With four programs running in India on Indoor air pollution, urban mobility, ethical trade and access to modern energy which address the country’s core development goals, Anuradha feels that the most important factor is to have partners who share an aligned vision on scale and sustainability.

Envirofit, a newly created entity, had a new product: Clean cook stoves. And it wanted to market it in India to counter lethal indoor air pollution that kills two million women and children each year in developing countries.

Anuradha feels that “Building sustainable enterprises that can effectively address development challenges takes time, patience and considerable investment. It involves huge risk to venture with new partners with a new product in new markets.”

There is, of course, the fine line between an enterprise based solution and commercial enterprises that are, for example, looking for fortunes at the bottom of the pyramid. Says Anuradha, “ Being enterprise based is about adopting a mindset and process of thinking rather than an expectation of delivering solely financial returns in a way typified by most commercial enterprises.”

Read the full conversation: “The Future of Supply Chain Management is Sustainability”

Enterprise Driven By Philanthropy

“The approach is market-based and we are looking at the poor person as a customer and not a beneficiary”. Shell Foundation Regional Director Anuradha Bhavnani’s observation sums up the approach that resulted from the transition that Shell Foundation made when it moved from supporting NGO run projects that tended to fall by the way side and moved to investing in businesses that provide enterprise-based solutions to poverty-linked issues.

Ahona Ghosh and Gauri Kamath of India’s Economic Times assess three organizations that have taken a marked based approach to philanthropy in a special feature on Philanthro-capitalism.

The thought is echoed by the Chairman of Naandi Foundation which is promoted by India’s three leading industrialists K Anji Reddy, Chairman of Drug maker Dr Reddy's; Anand Mahindra , Vice-Chairman and MD, Mahindra & Mahindra; and Rajendra Prasad Maganti,Chairman of infrastructure company Soma Enterprises. The three promoters along with DANONE.Communities have invested in Naandi Community Water Services (NCWS) to supply safe and affordable drinking water to Indian villages, at a nominal price. Says Reddy, “ To provide high quality safe drinking water and collect user fees from communities, one needs a team with an entrepreneurial outlook that is driven by passion, efficiency and the creation of an economic surplus."

Chairman of Piramal Group, Ajay Piramal, makes the point, “For-profit ventures give a greater push in getting more customers and delivering high-quality service at minimum costs."

According to Bhavnani, history has shown that results don't last with plain-vanilla charity, as "there are simply not enough grants available." So, the new approach to philanthropy for Shell is solving developmental issues through the creation of scalable, sustainable enterprise-based solutions. Shell Foundation India has committed $16 million to the eight enterprises it supports.

The report points out that as investors with business partners, Shell hopes to achieve its twin targets of scalability and profits, which will ensure sustainability in the long run as it means less reliance on continued grants and the end customer benefit from innovations that are required to deliver affordable goods and services.

This approach is evident in the investment in Envirofit and dealing with the challenges of marketing improved cook stoves to rural households. The challenges to scale in the case of enterprises seek to market products that combat indoor air pollution range from raising awareness to enabling financial options and ensuring distribution reach to the smallest and furthest villages.

Read the full feature on: A look at three models of philanthro-capitalism

Envirofit Among Finalists Of Sankalp Clean Energy Technology Awards

For Envirofit, being a finalist for Clean Energy Technology in the Sankalp Awards 2011 was yet another testimony to the difference that its stoves had begun making in rural India.

Over the years, the Envirofit stoves have become in a sense one of the symbols of the battle to bring a market-based solution to the challenge of Indoor Air Pollution.

Ever since 2007 when Envirofit started working with Shell Foundation in India to tackle the problem of Indoor Air Pollution, the challenge has been to put in the market a line of durable clean cookstoves which reduce emissions, improve fuel efficiency and reduce cooking time. The Envirofit stoves have done that and more, if market acceptance is a measure.

In the words of Harish Anchan, Managing Director of Envirofit India, “We are delighted that these cookstoves, which have been well received in rural India and have sold over 200,000 units, impacting the lives of an estimated one million people, are today being recognised by SANKALP as a significant contributor to dealing with a global challenge. The stoves sold are predicted to save over US $30 million for India’s lowest-income consumers through fuel-saving over their lifetime. The recognition of the effectiveness of the stove will also help take the product to a wider audience.”

Anuradha Bhavnani, Regional Director of the Shell Foundation, said: “There are an estimated 1.9 million deaths per year due to the toxic fumes created when people cook on open fires or use inefficient stoves in poorly ventilated homes. Over the past four years, Envirofit has successfully scaled up its model of creating a market for improved cookstoves in India and the African continent. We are working with Envirofit India in all three areas of building distribution, awareness and affordability. This is being achieved by engaging rural entrepreneur networks, microfinance institutions and by running awareness campaigns.”

Envirofit cookstoves reduce toxic emissions by almost 80% while using 50% less fuel and reducing cooking time by 40%. Envirofit utilizes rigorous product-development methodology and protocols used in modern industry to develop and commercialize energy-efficient, pollution-reducing technologies that have the greatest potential positive impact on global environmental, economic, and public health issues. Envirofit India’s enterprise-based model has created over 500 local jobs and supported enterprise development through the growth of its 400-strong network of manufacturing, sales and distribution partners.

In 2011, Envirofit will complete the registration of the Voluntary Carbon Programme developed in conjunction with Eco-Securities, making it the first stoves carbon programme of its kind in India. This will allow Envirofit to reduce the consumer price or reinvest funds in addressing some of the key market barriers and, as market growth continues, Envirofit will shift further towards localised assembly and manufacture in India so as to continue efforts to lower end-user costs.

Read the full story on:  Envirofit Makes It To Finals Of Sankalp Awards 2011 On Clean Energy Technology

Julia Roberts To Star In Saving Lives In Rural Kitchens

The Pretty Woman is getting her hands dirty and for a good cause. The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves has announced that Academy Award winning actor Julia Roberts will serve as Global Ambassador, helping to bring attention to the deadly smoke from unsafe and inefficient cookstoves. 

According to a GACC Press Release, Julia Roberts will help raise awareness about the millions of people who face health effects, accidents or death in developing countries due to the reliance on traditional cookstoves and open fires that use wood, coal, charcoal, or animal waste for fuel. 

“Nearly 2 million people around the world – mostly women and children – die each year from an activity that many of us take for granted: cooking for our families,” Roberts is quoted as saying.

United Nations Foundation President Timothy E. Wirth.

Cookstove smoke contributes to a range of chronic illnesses and acute health impacts such as early childhood pneumonia, emphysema, lung cancer, bronchitis, cardiovascular disease and low birth weight.  The smoke from inefficient stoves continues to contribute to global climate change by producing harmful greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide and methane, and aerosols such as black carbon.  Reliance on biomass for cooking and heating also increases pressure on local natural resources and forces women and children to spend many hours each week collecting fire wood – an especially dangerous task for women and girls in refugee camps and conflict zones.

UNEP-WMO Study Says Tackling Black Carbon And Ozone Can Retard Global Warming

A study by UNEP and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) states that reducing black carbon and tropospheric ozone will slow the rate of climate change within the first half of this century. According to the study, “Integrated Assessment of Black Carbon and Tropospheric Ozone”,  scientific evidence and new analysis demonstrate that control of black carbon particles and tropospheric ozone, by quickly implementing emission reduction measures, would have immediate and multiple benefits.

The report is quick to caution that this does not by any measure mean letting CO2 off the hook. On the contrary, the success of CO2 containing measures is likely to encourage additional activities to address the short term impact of black carbon and tropospheric ozone.

The issue of black carbon and the significance of its impact on the climate has been identified but little understood till date. In the absence of definitive research, the impact of reduced soot on climate change has not been well understood.

Now, the UNEP-WMO study claims that reducing emissions by fully implementing identified measures would have immediate impacts on climate change including reducing future global warming by 0.5˚C. Further, it would have substantial benefits in the Arctic,the Himalayas and other glaciated and snow-covered regions.

Indeed, the report contends that the measures of reducing emissions could reduce warming in the Arctic in the next 30 years by about two-thirds compared to the reference scenario, with all the associated lowering of risk of changes in weather patterns and increase in global warming.

The measures that would reduce black carbon emissions range from installing diesel particle filters for road and off-road vehicles to elimination of high-emitting vehicles in road and off-road transport. The UNEP-WMO report lists a series of measures in the residential space including replacing coal by coal briquettes in cooking and heating stoves, introduction of pellet stoves and boilers, using fuel made from recycled wood waste or sawdust to replace current wood-burning technologies in the residential sector in industrialized countries and the introduction of clean-burning biomass stoves for cooking and heating in developing countries.

The report recommends substitution of clean-burning cookstoves using modern fuels for traditional biomass cookstoves in developing countries, replacement of traditional brick kilns with vertical shaft kilns and Hoffman kilns and replacement of traditional coke ovens with modern recovery ovens.

Photo Courtesy: Global Alliance For Clean Cookstoves

Sustainable Energy Access for Africa: Cleaning Up Homes And Climate

Focusing on Energy Access as a means of delivering health benefits for millions is also increasingly being seen as a way of combating the challenge of climate change. Initiatives such as the Energy for All 2030 Project, an EU-wide initiative for more and better funding for energy access projects in Sub Saharan Africa, is now part of a broader trend of trans-national initiatives that not only develop strategies but also drive action on the ground.

Swedish researchers from the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) in Stockholm, Sweden, Fiona Lambe and Patricia Tella, say the Institute is playing a leading role in highlighting the issues for Swedish and European Policy makers. They are working to create a platform for dialogue between African and European civil society as well advocating more policy focus and financing at the EU level for the goal of universal energy access.

According to the authors, “Supporting developing countries to scale-up access to sustainable energy for cooking will not only bring positive effects for climate change; it will improve the health and economy of the world's most vulnerable households. What's more, the cost of achieving universal energy access in the coming decades is surprisingly low.”

The initiatives on Energy access are focused on developing viable alternatives in critical areas such as improved cook stoves that can make a significant difference.

Indoor Air Pollution and the impact of soot from cook stoves on the climate are both issues that have a ready solution in improved cook stoves.

The researchers point to the success of the ethanol fuelled “CleanCook” stove, originally Swedish technology, in Ethiopia. Ethiopian NGO, Gaia Association has pilot tested these stoves in households in Addis Ababa and in a number of refugee camps with very positive results. Commercial distribution of stoves will start soon as Ethiopian households have shown readiness to switch completely to ethanol.

A study by Bailis, Ezzati and Kammen says that without systematic changes, household biomass use will result in an estimated 8.1 million Lower Respiratory Infection (LRI) deaths among young children in sub-Saharan Africa alone between 2000 and 2030.

The projected number of people who use traditional biomass as wood and manure would rise from 2.7 billion today to 2.8 billion in 2030 (according to International Energy Agency (IEA) and reported by InDepthNews) and this, will only exacerbate the situation even further.

IAP causes health hazards on one hand and on the other is afflicting climate change. Black carbon or soot from stoves is thought to be the second biggest contributor to global warming after CO2.

Read the full story on: Sustainable energy access for Africa: a win-win solution for climate and development
Photo Courtesy: Project Gaia