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
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