Background : In India over 160 million households i.e. two – thirds of total no. of households rely on indoor open fire / traditional mud stoves for their daily cooking. Only about 15% households have access to LPG. A lack of access to modern fuels forces these households to rely on burning solid biomass (mostly wood and cow dung) in traditional mud cook stoves that emit dangerous and large amount of smoke.

Problem : Not only is this method archaic and inconvenient, it requires users particularly women to spend money and time collect / buying fuel. Smoke of such stoves is the number 1 health risk for women and one of the largest contributors to black carbon emission that cause global warming. The fuel wood requirement for such stoves tends to damage fragile local ecosystems.

Various studies undertaken for Indian constituents and abroad state that there are grave health impact of cooking on such crude devices. In India over 8 lakh premature deaths are attributed annually to the noxious emissions from such cooking practices with women and children being most at risk.

Need : A clean cooking solution that provides a fuel efficient, smoke reducing affordable alternative which can bring about a variety of societal, health, economic and environmental benefits.

Solution : Stoves that by use of technology ensuring better health through drastically reduced emissions, financial gains via fuel savings, convenience on account of time saved and easy cooking.

The Product: Greenway Smart Stove uses state of the art air inducing technology. An innovative air regulator that pulls air up through the bottom of the stove into the combustion chamber greatly increases efficiency with which the fuel is burnt by fully combusting the fuel placed in its hearth. It burns up small particles that would otherwise be emitted as smoke. The stove delivers 65% fuel savings and 70% less smoke (complying with WHO / UN mandated household air pollution standard) while working on solid biomass fuels (wood, cow dung, agricultural waste).

Intended Impact of the project:

The proposed project intends to positively impact vulnerable households across social, health, environmental and economic outcomes at a scale that justifies a large scale community based intervention and fundamentally change the way daily cooking in undertaken. In=t would also generate significant and measurable impact on the local and global environment.

This intervention impacts the family unit especially women and young children thus magnifying the overall effects on a wider beneficiary base combating problems such as:

Social – Quality of Life: The smoke creates undesirable and unhealthy effects such as stinging ryes, scratchy throats and cough, and dirty soot covered walls. Household air pollution caused by traditional stoves causes 4 million premature deaths annually. With reduction in smoke by 70% it is a huge relief to households. Lives can be saved and the usage of the stove enables greater freedom and convenience (especially for women).

Time & Money: Households spend a lot of time and money buying and / or gathering bio fuels like wood, cow dung and other agricultural wastes. A 65% increase in fuel efficiency provided by the stove reduces time and monetary burden and leaves that much more time and money with households.

Reduction of Deforestation: The more inefficiently solid biomass fuels are burnt, the more trees and vegetation are cut down. The depletion of forests in turn destroys soil quality and agricultural land. With a conservative estimate of 50% wood saving and an average of 4 kgs of wood used per household per day, annual saving of 730 kgs of wood per stove/ per household can be gained. Slowing Down of Climate Change: Mud cook stoves and indoor fires emit green house gasses such carbon dioxide, methane and carbon mono oxide. They also emit 25% of all black carbon emissions in the world – black carbon is the second worst contributor to global warming after CO2. Fuel efficient stoves can mitigate 1.8 to 2.3 tonnes of GHG emissions annually thus proving to be a significant contributor towards slowing down global warming / climate change while also positively impacting the local ecology.