While the arduous burden so many women face of collecting firewood and the health problems cooking smoke causes women and children may seem like a tragic but distant problem, wood and charcoal cooking actually affects all of us. Approximately one quarter of global co2 emissions are generated by the rural poor, more than all transportation-related emissions worldwide combined. (Photo courtesy of Elsen Karstad, BURN Design Lab)
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By Debra Atlas May 3, 2012
It is no exaggeration to say that stoves save lives.
2.5 billion people around the world use open fires fueled by coal, wood, and charcoal to cook their meals. Each year, 1.6 million women and children die from upper respiratory disease related to indoor cooking smoke. That is over 4,000 people per day, and over half of them (approximately 2,500) are women in poor rural communities.As you may have heard, women in communities that rely on wood-burning stoves often walk over 10 miles and spend more than 30 hours per week collecting wood. This can be incredibly hazardous. In Kenya, for example, women walk to a nearby game preserve searching for wood. The forest authorities are known to demand payment from the women they catch, and to violently rape those who cannot pay.
Over 90 percent of total energy consumption in the rural developing world is wood or other biomass fuel. Because of this, families can spend over 35 percent of their annual income on wood or charcoal.
While all of this may seem like a tragic but distant problem, wood and charcoal cooking actually affects all of us through its contribution to global warming. Approximately one quarter of global co2 emissions are generated by the rural poor, more than all transportation-related emissions worldwide combined.
When a family adopts the use of a fuel-efficient cookstove, hundreds of thousands of trees are saved from destruction over the lifetime of the stove. Women and children’s lives improve, and global warming is slowed as well.
The Vision
Peter Scott, CEO of BURN Design Lab, has a vision to create viable alternatives to open fire cooking. Scott’s company brings together designers, engineers, and manufacturers to tackle the issue region by region. BURN currently has cookstove projects in Kenya, Haiti, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.BURN customizes their cookstove to fit the needs of the community. Their new cookstove for Central America has a large, heavy cement body with a metal plate on top for cooking tortillas and meat. Their stove for the Sahara region is small and portable. For places like Nairobi, Kenya, where people use charcoal, BURN designed a cookstove that uses charcoal. In other places, the company is developing agricultural waste pellets and building a stove that burns this fuel. They also make larger, industrial-size cookstoves for prisons and hospitals.
“It’s not the ‘one size fits all’ approach,” says Scott.
Although BURN Design Lab is a nonprofit, it also has a for-profit arm that raises money to build factories and cookstoves in the countries they are working with. BURN is in the process of raising $4 million to build a factory in Kenya right now. They are partnering with a number of investment companies and overseas corporations to reach their fundraising goal.
Scott proclaims that charity is dead, and only smart solutions will break Africa out of poverty. To that end, his company is working to create commercial viability.
“We can build a factory, make the cookstoves, then sell them at a relatively low price (around $25),” Scott explains.
He adds that many people in the countries they work with are spending half of their income on fuel. Investing in a rocket cookstove can save $150 a year in reduced fuel costs, according to Scott.
“We have an exciting opportunity for millions of people,” he says.
The project aims to produce three million cookstoves at their factory in Africa over the next decade.
“That will save 100 million trees and $600 million in reduced fuel costs!” says Scott.
Success So Far
The project has gotten a lot of attention and attracted some influential backers.Former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton have become are big advocates of fuel-efficient stoves like those produced by BURN Design Lab. They helped establish The UN Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, which has the goal of getting fuel-efficient cookstoves to 100 million households by 2020.
With the help of Secretary Clinton, the US State Department has contributed over $50 million in support of the project. What’s more, Julia Roberts has come onboard as the project spokeswoman.
Get Involved
While big things are in the plans, the cookstove project is currently run on a shoestring: the annual budget is around $75,000!“Because we’re a bunch of people that are trying to save the world, we’re always looking for people to donate anything from a bicycle to money to airline tickets so we can get to these countries,” says Scott.
Scott has people around the country contribute their skills to the cook stove project, whether they offer business skills, design skills, engineering skills, or something else. You can become a foreign ambassador, help promote the idea, help the organization raise awareness, or become part of their design network. If you are interested in getting involved, submit a volunteer or intern form online.
Sierra Club Green Home recognizes the large commitment Scott and his colleagues at BURN have taken on, and we invite readers to contribute. Cook stoves alleviate global warming while improving people’s lives.
Read more articles by Debra Atlas
© 2012 SCGH, LLC.
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