Karnataka Government Supports Shell Foundation’s IAP Programme

Shell Foundation’s Breathing Space programme entered a new phase of engagement with multiple districts in the state of Karnataka with an awareness and engagement programme for District and Taluk level elected and executive officers organized in Davangere and Gulbarga on November 25 and December 16 respectively. This programme is a part of Shell Foundation’s current initiative in Bihar, Maharashtra and Karnataka to build momentum for adoption of improved cook stoves by providing access to stoves, finance and a last mile distribution chain.

Being implemented by Envirofit, Grameen Koota and Project Dharma in Karnataka, the initiative envisages partnership with rural government authorities and outreach workers. The aim is to create a strong rural finance and distribution chain to promote adoption of improved cook stoves manufactured by Envirofit. This programme is an outcome of the pilot projects run in Udupi, Koppal, Raichur and Shimoga over the past two years to establish the different routes to market.

The Ministry of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj has extended its support for training of Anganwadi workers through the satellite programme of the State Institute for Rural Development (SIRD), incentivisation of families who are identified Below Poverty Line (BPL) and access to Self Help Groups (SHG) through the Self Employment Programme (SEP).

According to Pradeep Pursnani, Business Director, Breathing Space, Shell Foundation:

“The partnership represents an efficient pooling of resources for creating sustainable social impact. By partnering the government’s existing outreach, the IAP solution providers can spread awareness and drive conversion at a much faster pace.”

The current campaign involves engagement with district authorities as well as leveraging existing, compatible government programmes. The workshop at Devangere was a part of meetings being organized in districts to review the progress of the World Bank funded Gram Swaraj programme which covers 39 most backward talukas and 1341 Gram Panchayats of Karntaka. The workshops will cover all 15 districts that are under the Gram Swaraj program. Chief of the Gram Swaraj Program, Mr. Ekanthappa was keen that the IAP program be shared with Taluk level leaders. Two other workshops will be held in December at Mysore and Koppal.

The workshop at Devangere, attended by 60 Zilla Panchayat Members, Zilla Panchayat officials (CEO, CAO and PO) and state level officers from Gram Swaraj, was addressed by Sacchit Naik and Prabhu Andanur from Project Dharma, Gokuldas Adappa from Envirofit and Mahanthesh H K from micro-finance institution Grameen Koota and its enabling NGO Navya Disha.

The session was opened by Mr Ekanthappa, Chief Executive Officer of Gram Swaraj, impressing on the gathering the need for adoption of IAP mitigating measures. Mahanthesh outlined the IAP issues, health risks and options available while Adappa took the gathering through the advantages of Envirofit’s range of improved cook stoves. The partnership between the three IAP solution providers – Grameen Koota, Envirofit and Project Dharma – was presented by Prabhu. The session was followed by a stove demonstration.

Speaking on the workshop, Mahanthesh HK noted that:

“Participants wanted to know more about the cook stoves and are interested in taking up this activity in their locality. Zilla Panchayats have also shown interest in purchasing stoves for the Anganwadis in Davanagere district. As a whole, I thought the presentation was well received.”

According to Anuradha Bhavnani, Regional Director, Shell Foundation:

“After the pilots in different districts of Karnataka and an extensive Anganwadi engagement programme in Shikaripur Taluk, we knew that an effective IAP programme required four legs to stand on: a product, finance, a last mile distribution network and an enabling existing outreach, be it of the government or locally established partners with reach. The addition of Project Dharma to the efforts of Grameen Koota and Envirofit means we now have the ability to convert the heightened awareness into quick product deliveries. We have found in the past that the Government of Karnataka has been a very enthusiastic partner in addressing the issue of Indoor Air Pollution. Specifically, we found that by addressing the government organization, we were able to quickly build up awareness in the remotest of villages. Consequently, it made eminent sense to tie up the efforts of the three Shell Foundation partners with the huge capacity that the government puts on the table.”

Speaking on the initiative with Gram Swaraj, Pradeep Pursnani said:

“The Gram Swaraj programme was an ideal kick-start as it enabled our partners to speak directly to Taluk level programme managers in the most backward Taluks and Villages of Karnataka. Given that improved cook stoves provide great economies in fuel consumption, apart from the obvious health benefits, we were reaching out to an audience that has the ability to make a change in their villages and adopt Improved Cook Stoves as a village level program. This transformation would drive real change on the ground and our partners today have the answers to the three critical challenges of IAP: availability, affordability and access. We now look forward to the next stage of deeper engagement with six districts in Karnataka as well as new districts in Maharashtra and Bihar.”

‘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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Shell Foundation’s Enterprise Based Solutions: A New Approach To Indian Development Challenges

Shell Foundation’s recent elucidation of its approach to development challenges by building scalable and sustainable enterprises argued that that such enterprises could be built only after investing in core capacity and systems. Equally, such enterprises required more than grant finance to become sustainable: They needed business advice, market access and governance support.

While this basic approach has been tested out in many parts of the world, as outlined in the “Enterprise Solutions to Scale Report”, the touchstone for Shell Foundation could well be its activities in India where new business models were tried out, a slew of programs underwent gestation and where the Foundation had both a fertile entrepreneurial context and a complex matrix of economic challenges.

On the occasion of a Round Table on “Maximizing Impact through Enterprise Development Solutions”, Shell Foundation released the Country study on the Scale Report, titled “Shell Foundation in India: From Traditional Philanthropy to  ‘enterprise-based' solutions".

India has been the single largest country recipient of Shell Foundation investment to date. Says the report, “The country presents a sea of opportunities fueled by the same size and dynamism that make its development journey complex. What has been referred to as ‘India’s urban awakening’ and the growth of India’s rural consumer market are just two examples: recent figures suggest that there will be 700 million new residents in Indian cities by 2050. Such trends present both challenges and opportunities to our own partners in India.”

The country report makes the point that the success that Shell Foundation has had in building scalable partnerships has resulted in creating new business models and a new approach to the Indian development challenges.

One such partner profiled in the report is Envirofit India which is addressing the greatest energy poverty issue that challenges India: inefficient stoves in poorly ventilated homes that lead to premature deaths of over 500,000 women and children in India. Shell Foundation has worked with Envirofit to develop a viable business model and establish distribution and sales networks for a durable clean cookstove.

In 2011, Envirofit will complete the registration of its Voluntary Carbon Programme developed in conjunction with Eco-Securities, making it the first stoves carbon programme of its kind in India. This development will enable Envirofit to reduce the consumer price or reinvest funds in addressing some of the key market barriers by building local assembly and manufacturing capacity.

Cross-Sector Partnership To Tackle IAP In Nigeria

Envirofit International and Shell Foundation have joined forces with the US-based carbon finance business, C-Quest Capital, to kickstart propagation of clean cookstoves in Nigeria. The partners aim to deliver two million improved cook-stoves to Nigerian households over the next seven years.

“Carbon finance can be a key enabler to reach families that are suffering the most from IAP” said Pradeep Pursnani, the Business Director in charge of Shell Foundation’s IAP programme. “This unique partnership could be a genuine game-changer. We will help C-Quest develop a viable clean cookstoves business in Nigeria and to create new routes to market. This will be no easy feat, but success will de-risk the market and attract more investment into the sector, which will encourage further innovation and deliver better more affordable products to the people who need them. It is a good example of the role business can play in sustainable development.”

The IAP problem is particularly rife in Nigeria – a country that has the largest household wood-burning population in Africa. However the high costs associated with developing affordable “cleaner” stoves that cut these emissions, and getting these to market in a country of Nigeria’s size, has meant that for centuries people have had no large scale solution to the problem.

The partnership between Envirofit, Shell Foundation and C-Quest seeks to solve this problem by using cutting-edge stove technology and carbon financing to distribute stoves throughout Nigeria at prices that consumers can afford. The work will begin in villages in Kano State in the north of the country in March 2011 and is then planned to extend to other parts of the country based on market demand. Importantly the solution has already been validated in India, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia.

“The availability of carbon revenues allows a lower price which brings high quality, durable clean cookstoves into line with inefficient alternatives and makes it an easy choice for consumers,” said Ron Bills, CEO, Envirofit. “The success of this project will significantly impact the social, economic and environmental consequences of Indoor Air Pollution in Nigeria.”

Envirofit and Shell Foundation have created a global business to develop affordable clean cookstoves that significantly reduce fuel usage, emissions and cooking times. The stoves are specifically designed to meet user’s unique cooking styles and choice of fuel (predominantly wood or charcoal). C-Quest will purchase stoves from Envirofit and market them to households across Nigeria. They will then monetize the reductions in carbon emissions that the stoves deliver. With each wood cookstove estimated to save over one tonne of carbon per year, this will help bring down the price of clean cookstoves making them accessible to millions more people across Nigeria.

The new model builds on recent developments in UN-regulated carbon offset markets. The partners hope that this will encourage new entrants into the clean cookstove sector by ensuring long-term financial-viability, dramatically scaling social and environmental impacts. It follows the launch of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves in September 2010 - a $250million public-private partnership that aims to remove barriers in the global market for clean cookstoves, such as challenges linked to accessing carbon finance, which currently prevent the sale of clean cookstoves at scale.

In three years Envirofit has become the global leader in this new market. Shell Foundation have pioneered new ways to raise consumer awareness of IAP and to explain the need to change their cooking practices. Together the partners have developed innovative distribution mechanisms in India and Africa (in Zambia, Kenya and Tanzania) – working with NGOs, governments and microfinance institutions to reach the rural and urban poor. Having sold over 200,000 stoves since 2007, benefitting over one million people, Envirofit and Shell Foundation will now bring this expertise to Nigeria.

Ken Newcombe, CEO, C-Quest Capital said: “We are thrilled to join this partnership. We know that recent developments in carbon finance make it possible to offer superior returns on capital into energy services to the poor – activities that were once solely the domain of development finance. The carbon credits that we will sell on the market will also carry a high social impact which should affect the demand for them. This is the ideal partnership to prove that this concept can work”.

Envirofit Cookstoves For Orissa Anganwadi Centres

 Monnet Power Company Limited (MPCL) has introduced a pilot project to distribute improved cookstoves to Anganwadi centres for preparation of mid-day meals. MPCL is providing these stoves free in Malibrahmani in Angul district of Orissa, as per a report in India CSSR. Jivan Jyoti is a range of smokeless firewood stoves developed by a team of international scientist and researchers, which is being manufactured in India by Envirofit.

All Anganwadi centres in the district at present have traditional chulhas which take longer time to cook and emit a lot of smoke.

In comparison to traditional cooking methods, Jivan Jyoti would reduce smoke up to 80 per cent, consume 60 per cent less fuel, reduce cooking time by about 50 per cent and save upto 50 per cent fuel wood.

After the Anganwadi project, MPCL plans to distribute the stoves in all schools in the area where mid-day meals are cooked. In time, the company intends to distribute these stoves to rural households of the area at subsidized rates.

Read the full story on: CSR of Monnet Power: Monnet Power launches smokeless chulha in Anganwadi Centres in Angul

'Creation Of New Technologies Will Hold The Key To Clean Energy'

A series of innovative technologies hold the promise of providing the deprived access to clean energy. At the forefront are cook stove manufacturers such as Envirofit and Score Stoves, says Just Means News Writer Sarah Brown. "In CSR terms, the creation of new technologies will hold the key to clean energy for the developing world."

Envirofit, a manufacturer of clean energy cookstoves started as a result of CSR partnership between the Shell Foundation, Colorado State University's Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory, and the materials Science and Technology Division at Oak Ridge National Labs.

Envirofit has taken up the cause of clean cookstoves as their responsibility towards the society as according to them, Indoor Air Pollution (IAP) currently claims the lives of 1.5 million people a year worldwide, or one person every 20 seconds. Women and children make up 85% of these deaths due to their increased exposure in the home.

Brown notes that compared to traditional cooking fires, these cookstoves reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 80%, use up to 60% less fuel and reduce cooking cycle time by 50% .

Another Project, the Score Stove, a joint CSR venture between experts from across the world to develop a biomass-powered generator aims to assist easy access to energy in rural communities. It has multiple uses ranging from cooking, refrigeration and electricity generation from thermal waves emitted during cooking.

Tests have been carried out in Nepal and Kenya to investigate how the Score Stove works in practice. This has helped to hone the design and performance of the generator to ensure it is low-cost and high efficiency.

In order to make it viable, the target cost of the generator is £20 per household, based on the production of a million units.

Photo Courtesy: Score Research;  Envirofit

Read the full story on: CSR and new technology for the developing world

Improved Cookstoves And The Price Barrier

The Indian cookstove industry is looking keenly at two developments that have the promise to change the landscape for propagation of improved cookstoves: The National Biomass Cookstove Initiative announced last December and the recently launched Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves.

In a report in the Indian newspaper, Mint, cookstove manufacturers make the point that the challenge of price and an effective route to market remain the toughest issues, given the competition from the traditional chulha. Mouhsine Serrar, founder of Prakti Design Lab says, “We’re competing with chulhas that cost next to nothing,”

“We’re learning that there’s a ceiling for stoves—around Rs1,000,” Serrar says. “The thing is, in villages, the man of the household doesn’t make the decision about a stove— the woman does. And the woman can’t take a decision to spend that much on a stove.”

Similarly, other stove companies are also trying to deal with the pricing issue. Envirofit, for example, sells 8,500 stoves a month in the four southern states and Maharashtra but the report quotes Atul Joshi, senior manager for sales and marketing, as saying that they need to sell  25,000 stoves each month to start breaking even.

Read the full feature: Replacing the traditional ‘chulha’ in the Mint

Shell Foundation Catalysing Disruptive Change Through Angel Philanthropy

Shell Foundation's milestone report 'Enterprise Solutions to Scale' propounds the cause of 'catalysing disruptive change through angel philanthrophy'. The approach propounded by Shell Foundation, and demonstrated through its programs, makes the point that angel philanthropy directed at new entities who are entrepreneurial and have aligned vision of scale are likely to be more successful in creating social impact.

According to the Report, "We find it striking that in every instance where partnerships achieved scale and measurable social impact it has been with newly created entities that we helped co-found using new business
models we co-developed. In all cases we were also the sole partner and subsidy provider during the development and testing of these business models. By contrast, despite our various efforts, we have never succeeded in helping an existing organisation go to scale. We believe that angel philanthropy has significant potential to catalyse scaleable solutions to global development challenges."

The Report echoes the belief that often underlines much of angel investing, saying "we look for entrepreneurial partners who focus entirely on the venture and share the start-up risk by investing their own resources in it."

According to the report, "It is hugely important to have an aligned vision with partners, from the outset, with respect to achieving scale and sustainability. This means having a plan to achieve both social impact and financial viability from inception and which is subject to regular measurement and reporting. It is also based on recruiting the best staff and developing the most efficient operating systems essential for managing the complex multiple location operations that scale entails. Where we have partnered with individuals or organisations who did not share this early ambition to achieve scale, we found it virtually impossible to “retrofit” the subsequent capacity needed to achieve it."

Exploring the issue of which are the best partners to invest in from a social point of view, the report points out that the Foundation made a strategic shift and had "far greater success... when we focused our resources – time and money – on developing new approaches with a few carefully selected partners or by supporting organisations with a clear market demand for the products or services they offered."

Further, the report makes the point that the approach has to go beyond simply providing funds: "We believe there is a need to deploy resources to build a sustainable enterprise rather than simply provide grants to subsidise the short-term provision of products or services. Building sustainable enterprises means investing in core capacity and systems as a pre-requisite for scale. It also requires additional input over and above grant finance in the form of business advice, market access and appropriate governance support."

Accordingly, "SF has invested considerable time in providing a range of expertise, business advice and skills-based support to our partners. We believe that this “more than money” approach forms a critical part of our differentiated business model and serves to significantly reduce the risk of working in a start-up environment."

The report takes a look at Shell Foundation's IAP Strategy and the way in which the strategies were changed in order to create greater social imact. Says the report, "By 2007, SF had invested over US$4 million in nine pilots with a range of IAP-specialist  NGO partners across the globe. While this resulted in significant sales of improved cookstoves, no pilot showed the potential for scale-up or sustainability. As a result, we changed strategy and sought a global strategic partner with a proven track record in product design coupled with commercial experience in the marketing, distribution and sale of consumer durables."

Outlining its partnership with Envirofit, the report says, "From the outset, SF and Envirofit worked together to develop a viable business model, conduct in-depth consumer market research, undertake ground-breaking R&D in product  development and establish distribution and sales networks with an initial focus on southern India. Envirofit has subsequently produced a line of durable clean cookstoves that currently retail for between US$15-US$30 in India.

Excerpts from the section on the partnership with Envirofit to deal with the challenge of IAP:

Compared to traditional cooking fires, these reduce emissions, improve fuel efficiency, and are perceived to reduce cooking time significantly. A recent independent study in India has rated the stove as the preferred one as it is modern looking, has high fuel efficiency, uses traditional fuel and is portable and smokeless.

Envirofit has recently produced a clean charcoal burning stove which is now being sold in Africa and other developing countries. As part of wider efforts to enhance sales of clean cookstoves, SF developed and implemented local and national IAP awareness-raising campaigns (“Room to Breathe”), and established a range of effective distribution channels through partnerships with microfinance institutions and NGOs. It has also supported Berkeley Air Monitoring Group (www.berkeleyair.com) to conduct independent monitoring of the performance of the stoves.

Recent field work in India concluded that the Envirofit stoves showed statistically significant reductions of PM2.5, CO2 and fuel use. Additionally, 78% of users reported that cooking time was reduced compared to their traditional stove, 89% reported that the improved stove saved fuel and 97% found the improved stove easier to use.

Over the period 2007 to date, Shell Foundation has committed US$12.3 million as grant funding towards the development of a range of clean cookstoves as well as building up the capacity and operational systems of both Envirofit International and Envirofit India. In 2010 Envirofit started expanding into Africa and is expected to scale up further in 2011.

Since early 2008, Envirofit has evolved into the market leader in sales of clean cookstoves across India. Aggregate sales to date of more than 150,000 stoves benefit an estimated 600,000 IAP affected people. With a durability of 3 to 5 years depending on the model, stoves sold to date are predicted to save over US$30 million for India’s lowest-income consumers through fuel-saving of over 600,000 tonnes of wood and preventing one million tonnes of carbon from entering the atmosphere. The business has also created over 500 local jobs through the growth of its 400-strong network of manufacturing, sales and distribution channel partners.

Envirofit has succeeded in creating a sustained and growing market for its clean cookstove products in India. As market growth continues, Envirofit will shift further towards localised assembly and manufacture so as to continue efforts to lower end user costs. As with many other types of consumer durable products aimed at the Bottom of the Pyramid, it takes a long time for this high volume, low margin business to reach the tipping point whereby sales growth is generated largely through brand awareness. Despite increasing earned income and improving gross margins, Envirofit will rely upon grant funding in its continuing efforts to both develop and market better performing and cheaper stoves until it achieves financial break-even expected in 2014.

In line with meeting agreed Key Performance Indicators, SF will continue to support Envirofit with regards to its own global scale-up plans for clean cookstoves. SF is also a founding partner in the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, hosted by the UN Foundation to establish international standards and testing protocols for clean cookstoves, fund related health and climate research, and develop innovative financing mechanisms that aim to create a thriving global market for clean and efficient cooking solutions such as clean cookstoves and fuels. Their “100 by 20” goal is: 100 million households to have adopted clean and efficient cooking solutions by 2020.

Read the full report: Enterprise Solutions to Scale

Spreading Clean Air

An IHT Special Report says that the push for clean cookstoves to reduce indoor air pollution was elevated from a public health backwater to a high place on the global agenda with the kick off of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves in New York, at the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative.

Detailing the journey of Envirofit in its quest to provide improved cookstoves that reduce harmful emissions by 80 per cent, the report notes that Envirofit has sold more than 150,000 portable cookstoves in India, priced at $12 to $25.

Envirofit makes 90 percent of its sales in India. But it started in business in Africa this year, in Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Mali, Ethiopia and other countries. Plans are in the works to expand in Latin America.

In spite of the support from Mrs. Clinton, “plenty of work remains in raising awareness about indoor air pollution and making clean cookstoves more efficient and affordable,” said Simon Bishop, head of policy and communications at the Shell Foundation. Global standards must be implemented and governments need to promote testing and certification of clean stoves. “This is an infant industry. We are going to need a lot of Envirofits,” Mr. Bishop said. “The world needs more energy but less carbon dioxide.”

Read the report A Healthier, More Efficient Way to Cook by Amy Yee

Time for Less-smoke Chulhas

On World Environment Day,India's leading newspaper, Times of India devoted its edition to examining various issues and initiatives around environment. Noting that polluting chulhas are finally finding alternatives in efficient, less-smoke chulhas that reduce health and environmental risks, the Times of India reported on the efforts by Shell Foundation and Envirofit to make a difference through sustained campaigns in South India and Karnataka.

The report quotes Shell Foundation's Room to Breathe Campaign head, Simon Bishop, saying, "A new impetus is required to get the government and agencies to spread awareness on the ill-effects of firewood-inefficient stoves"

The Times of India story, "Use Less-Smoke Chulhas" says: "Which chulha would you prefer this Environment Day? Firewood chulhas are on their way out. After decades of using inefficient chulhas that lead to indoor air pollution (IAP), now the market has some models of efficient, less-smoke chulhas that can minimize the health and environmental risks.

IAP is the kitchen fume released by the burning of wood and biomass. Black carbon, a major environmental issue, is also the main component of soot, a product of incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, the burning of biomass in rural cook stoves. However, now villagers have an option. The firewood consumption can be cut by 80% in case of fuel-efficient stoves.

“We are working in all four southern states. In Karnataka, we are in Gulbarga, Bidar, Chamarajnagar etc. Shell Foundation and Envirofit are particularly doing a lot of awareness activities in Shimoga. We have sold 1.20 lakh stoves already. So it’s clear that people are interested. But the user is usually the woman in the house but decision maker is the man. They often fail to understand what kind of health impacts the woman is facing,” says Envirofit MD Harish Anchan.

Various options like micro-finance partners are being used to make it easily affordable for villagers. The price range is around Rs 850 to Rs 2,500 for single and double pot stoves.

According to Simon Bishop who is leading the IAP campaign of Shell Foundation, internationally the campaign against IAP through efficient cooking stoves will pick up as it is one of the main ways to deal with carbon emissions.

Several organizations have already prepared a draft report on the initiative for development and deployment of cook stoves and action plan will be submitted to the ministry of new and renewable energy. “A lot of government resources had gone into the National Programme on Improved Cookstoves between 1985 and 2004 but the results were mixed. A new impetus is required to get the government and agencies to spread awareness on the ill-effects of firewood-inefficient stoves,” he said. 

US Ambassador Roemer calls for Clean Cookstove Standards

US Ambassador to India Timothy J Roemer on a two-day visit to Bangalore sat with women and savoured the aroma of vermicelli kheer freshly made on an improved cooking stove. He called for initiating clean cook stove standards to combat deaths through Indoor Air Pollution

Roemer on Thursday checked out a new range of stoves, that emit less smoke than traditional chulhas.

Interacting with a group of women, Roemer saw the ingredients that went into preparation of an Indian curry while enquiring about their experiences with stove, developed by Envirofit, which launched a range of clean burning biomass cook stoves across India in 2008.

Lauding the energy efficient technology used in the stove, he said such technology was good for business and health. India could provide leadership in such emerging technology as it did in IT technology field. "The new technology is safe for children, women and affordable," he said.

Designed by an international team of globally recognised scientists and engineers, the stoves reduces toxic emissions by nearly 80 per cent while using 50 per cent less fuel and reducing cooking cycle time by 40 per cent when compared to traditional chulhas.