Solutions
We must support the transition to cleaner cooking solutions now. We need to make cleaner cooking pathways accessible for everyone, allowing them to safely cook for their family and community. We must provide access to cleaner, locally appropriate, locally adapted and locally produced fuels. We do this to preserve our natural resources and forests, to combat climate change. We must leave no-one behind.
While the world transitions to clean cooking, there’s an immediate need for the some 2 billion people in the world to have access to cleaner cooking.
C onvenient (fast)
L ess smoke
E fficient on fuel use
A ffordable and available
N ot harmful (safety)
E asy to use and aestethic (buy beautiful, cook easy)
R obust (durable, strong and long lasting)
We believe the most effective way to measure the success of any ‘cleaner’ cooking solution is to look at
Impact = Performance x Adoption x Scale* (Danny WIlson, GeoCene, ETHOS 2021). If any of these factors are low, the product (and overall impact) will be low.
What we’ve achieved - A Malawi success story
Recently we worked with Malawi to provide their people with access to improved cookstoves. We’re proud to have reached our goal of disseminating 2 million cleaner cookstoves by 2020, our contribution to the global target of 100 million stoves as a step towards UN Sustainable Development Goal 7. We’ve saved 2 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per household per year, and have achieved an average reduction of 4 hours a week per family by reducing time required to gather firewood.
Due to this success, Malawi has been chosen as a Global Champion, in recognition of leading the transition to cleaner cooking.
One simple solution - Chitetezo Mbaula
The Chitetezo Mbaula is an improved cook stove locally-made of clay that caters for various size pots for cooking and heating water. The Chitetezo reduces fuel consumption by improved combustion and improved heat transfer. The current Chitetezo design is the product of over 15 years research and development, mainly in Malawi, incorporating user feedback and local preferences. A mechanical mold, known as the paddle mold, is used to facilitate standardization and to improve productivity. In 2014, quality control specifications were agreed on by various stakeholders in Malawi, which can form the basis of national and international standards for the Chitetezo.
Applying the impact = performance x adoption x scale formula, the Chitetezo stove outperforms other, more expensive stoves produced outside of Malawi, with local production bringing additional benefits through employment, shorter supply chains and easier replacement of stoves.