Energy Saving Cook Stoves for Poor Women and Planting of Trees – Kenya

This project supplied women in Kenya with improved cook stoves and planted trees. These energy-saving cook stoves have proven popular among the woman because they are cheaper and easy to use. They are also eco-friendly, as their use reduces environmental degradation.

Fast facts:

500 energy saving cook stoves supplied to women;
15-20 kilograms reduced to 2-3 kilograms of fuel wood used per day;
30,000 tree seedlings planted .

The problem

The majority of households in developing countries cook over open fires. Women, who typically do the cooking, frequently visit local health centers suffering from respiratory diseases due to inhaling smoke.

In addition to health problems, many communities in developing countries face a fuel-wood shortage due to high demand resulting in the massive felling of trees, which is driving deforestation and causing desertification to spread.

The solution

This project innovated a new cook stove design that can use both fuel-wood and charcoal briquettes, thus reducing operating costs. The energy saving cook-stoves are made of clay liners, a metal casing, and vermiculite cement, which maintains heat during cooking. Such materials are cheap and locally available. These energy-saving cook stoves were supplied to women who had been cooking with open fires.

The project also involved planting of 30,000 tree seedlings in deforested areas and on community members’ farms. The trees planted aimed to provide fuel-wood for households, use as well as offsetting carbon from the atmosphere. A year of data was collected on those using energy saving cook-stoves versus those using open-fire cooking.

Helping the planet

Countless trees have been preserved since the energy-saving cook stoves use pruned branches for fuel-wood instead of entire felled trees. The use of energy-saving cook stoves leads to less fuel-wood usage, less trees cut down, and lower greenhouse gas emissions. This is helping mitigate climate change and reduce deforestation. The stoves can also use charcoal briquettes made from dry leaves and agricultural waste like coffee husks and rice husks, which are recycled into cooking fuel.

Helping people

Data collected showed that where energy-saving cook stoves were used, there was a reduction in cases of respiratory disease among women and children compared to those who were still using open-fire cooking. There were also economic benefits since most women using the improved stoves spent were able to spend more time working on their farms, rather than collecting fuel-wood in the forest.

Spillover effect

High demand for the product indicates great potential for expansion. With little support or through partial cost-sharing, users can quickly acquire and use the improved stoves, spreading their popularity. These energy-saving cook stoves can be easily adapted to other areas by adjusting the type of local materials, also since the technology used to make them is simple and can easily be passed from one institution to another. The project also has the capability to leverage private finance since this can raise revenue through carbon offset credits.