More than half the world’s population cooks and heats with open fires or inefficient stoves. Their smoke is a lethal source of indoor pollution that kills 1.5 million people each year. A pilot programme in India has created self-sustaining businesses to sell improved clean-burning stoves. Now the programme is going global.
Fresh air for the world's poorest homes
by RUSTOM DAVAR
February 01, 2008
Swati Dadasukhatar lives with her family in a pink cement hut, just a few doors down from the tiny local post office in the Indian village of Kapsi. Sheaves of corn ripen in her courtyard amid old pots, discarded slippers, and here and there a stray plastic toy. The hut’s single living room contains a bed, an old television, and a phone connected to the exchange at Pune, the nearest city. In the dimly lit kitchen Dadasukhatar squats on the ground, cooking on her wood-burning stove. Here she makes everything from flat breads to spicy vegetable dishes, lentils and potatoes.
Four years ago this kitchen was a lot less comfortable. Smoke from Dadasukhatar’s traditional cook-stove filled the air, made her eyes burn and congested her lungs. “My walls used to turn black and the stove also used a lot of wood-fuel, which is scarce over here as there aren’t many trees in the area,” she says.
Nowadays the air is clean and safe to breathe thanks to her improved stove, which she first learned about when a local charitable organisation ran an awareness programme in her village.
Silent killer
More than half the world’s population still uses open fires or inefficient stoves for heating and cooking. The smoke they give off is a lethal source of indoor air pollution that causes 1.5 million deaths each year, or about one every 20 seconds, according to the World Health Organisation. Carbon monoxide, soot and other toxins present in the smoke cause severe respiratory illnesses and eye-related problems. The W.H.O. lists indoor air pollution as one of the top 10 global health risks, and the most lethal killer in developing countries after malnutrition, HIV/AIDS, and lack of safe water and sanitation. The most affected regions are China, India, and sub-Saharan Africa. Women and children suffer the most, as they spend a greater proportion of their time at home, tending fires and cooking.
Government-led efforts to address the problem by encouraging the use of clean-burning stoves have so far had mixed success. Government subsidies can only go so far in addressing an issue of this magnitude. Moreover, state-run programmes sometimes fail to address the needs of people using the stoves, both in terms of the stoves’ design and the way they are distributed.
But an ambitious programme running in India and other developing countries for the past few years aims to foster a more effective long-term solution by creating a viable, self-sufficient industry to manufacture and distribute cleaner-burning stoves. The programme, called Breathing Space and run by the Shell Foundation, an independent charitable organisation based in London, has so far sold more than 200,000 clean-burning cook stoves worldwide and improved the lives of more than a million people. By running the programme like a business, instead of as a non-profit – addressing the needs of consumers, and providing profit incentives to suppliers – the Shell Foundation aims to create a sustainable solution to the issue and roll it out around the globe.
“The problem with just handing out aid cheques is that you end up treating people as victims instead of as consumers,” says Simon Bishop, Policy and Communications Manager at the Shell Foundation. “In our model, people are making a profit all the way along the supply chain – thus fostering independence, creating sound market-feedback loops, and adding to the country’s economic growth.”
Sceptical consumers
To achieve the foundation’s goal, the programme is working to overcome a number of hurdles. One of the most daunting is marketing the stoves effectively to sceptical consumers who are often unaware that there is anything wrong with the old-fashioned way of doing things.
This resistance is partly due to the demographic of those affected by indoor air pollution. “Indoor air pollution affects the silent majority – the woman who doesn’t have a voice,” says Anuradha Bhavnani, Regional Manager of Shell Foundation, South Asia. Millions of rural women in India have little or no status in society, and are therefore used to tolerating all kinds of hardship without complaint. These women are often ignorant of the health risks posed by inefficient stoves. An important aspect of the foundation’s work is raising social awareness and educating people about the health benefits of improved stoves, through the grassroots efforts of local women’s self-help groups. These groups of village women contribute money to a collective pool, which is tapped for low-interest loans to individual members at times of need, or for important purchases. By connecting with these groups the foundation has managed to reach individual members, who are able to purchase the improved stoves with the group’s support.
Even so, it remains difficult to convince consumers to abandon their traditional, primitive methods of cooking and heating. Open fires are a way of life, and in order to abandon them, consumers need additional incentives.
“What we’ve found,” says Bhavnani, “is that consumers aren’t necessarily compelled to buy the products for health reasons. So instead, we win them over by promising a cleaner living environment and other conveniences – such as the fact that pots don’t turn black on improved stoves and are therefore easier to clean.” The health benefits then come as added perks, rather than being the main focus when the consumer is making a decision to switch.
“I bought an improved stove mainly to reduce the soot deposits on my kitchen walls and to save fuel, but as a result I’ve noticed that I now have less eye problems,” says Archana Gardi, another resident of Kapsi who has been using a Shell Foundation stove for the last three years.
Volatile gases
Other challenges that the foundation faces are effectively designing its improved stoves, as well as manufacturing and distributing them in a cost-effective manner.
There are two main categories of stoves – built-in stone or concrete ones with an attached chimney costing about $10, and portable metal ones costing about $25 that can be easily transported and used for camping or other outdoor uses. In both cases manufacturing costs must be kept down without sacrificing efficiency.
For instance, the stoves designed by the Shell Foundation’s regional partner, the Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI), have addressed this problem by using technology that allows wood to burn more efficiently and cleanly than in conventional stoves. A steady current of air ensures that volatile gases are completely consumed during combustion. Unlike some stoves, the foundation’s models require no battery-operated fans to produce the necessary airflow, reducing costs significantly. A study of 110 households in the state of Maharashtra, published in the journal Energy for Sustainable Development, found that these improved cook stoves reduced particulate matter by 24% and carbon monoxide by 39% one year after installation.
Designers must also make stoves work efficiently with a multitude of fuel types used by consumers in rural areas and villages, including twigs, wood chunks, coal and agricultural wastes. Dadasukhatar, for example, uses waste chilli and aubergine plants, and the dried branches of the babul tree. The foundation markets one stove that burns wood and wood chips. Another model burns dry leaves, sugarcane waste and ground-nut that have been converted to charcoal.
Local manufacturing
The foundation also faced difficulties with distribution and manufacturing as it expanded its reach in India. Improved stoves have never before been distributed through organised supply chains in rural India, so the idea is new to private companies and artisans responsible for manufacture and distribution. They need to be convinced that the new stoves are viable commercially before they agree to invest their own capital. This reluctance has gradually been overcome with the help of demonstrations run by the Shell Foundation’s regional non-profit partners and testimonials from satisfied customers who reflect growing demand for the new stoves.
The small companies that manufacture and distribute portable stoves are typically located in towns and cities, since their customers can carry their purchases home. Built-in stoves, on the other hand, are heavy and difficult to transport, so they are usually manufactured within about 10 kilometres (six miles) of the homes where they are installed. The foundation’s non-profit partners train local stonecutters and masons to build them.
One of the training centres is located in Phaltan, about a half hour’s drive from Dadasukhatar’s home in Kapsi. The centre boasts an array of demonstration models, some of which are used to cook meals for trainees. Artisans from neighbouring villages stay for several weeks while they learn to make the stoves. When necessary, the foundation has provided the initial investment to help stove makers tool up to make the new models. Breathing Space’s organised approach to the issue, its use of monetary incentives, and its partnerships with small NGOs that have strong relationships with the consumer have helped it achieve most of its goals. The pilots run by its regional partners in India have sold tens of thousands of stoves in the Bundelk-hand region of North India as well as in the western state of Maharashtra, with more than 80,000 stoves sold nationwide. Those pilots are now being expanded. Further pilots are being set up in the southern states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
“The business-based model is unique,” says Ajit Abraham, Manager at the Shell Foundation, India. “With our pilots, we’ve proved that it works.”
Going global
In addition to the programme’s efforts in India, it also set up similar pilots in 2002 in Guatemala, Mexico, Ghana, Ethiopia, Brazil and Kenya. A review of the efforts in these regions by consultancy Accenture led to a scale-up of operation in 2006, focusing on China, Guatemala, Brazil, India and a region straddling Uganda and Kenya. India was chosen as the lead country, due to the notable successes achieved there.
The goal now is for Breathing Space to sell 10 million clean-burning cook stoves in these five regions over the next five years. The Shell Foundation recently partnered with a US-based environmental non-profit, Envirofit International, to help expand the programme’s reach.
Envirofit, launched in 2003 as a result of research at the Colorado State University Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory, is the recipient of a World Clean Energy Award for its leadership in providing energy solutions. Envirofit will take over day-to-day management of the programme, building on the lessons learned from pilot programmes like those in India.
The Foundation will continue to set business objectives, raise funds and act as an investor. It will also measure the impact of the programme, and work on general advocacy and awareness of the issue of indoor pollution.
The partnership will initiate operations in India, while compiling data for Latin America and East Africa, where it plans to replicate the programme.
Meanwhile, back in the village of Kapsi, Swati Dadasukhatar is so pleased with her new built-in stove that she recently ordered a portable one. She also gladly lets the foundation use her courtyard for demonstrations and helps organise attendance.
As Dadasukhatar and other satisfied users spread the word, more and more of their friends and neighbours will begin to make the transition to a healthier lifestyle.
