Member spotlight: Envirofit International

Gaining importance on the international political agenda, clean cooking solutions have attracted support from across the public and private sectors. Photograph: Graeme Robertson

By Jessica Alderman, director of communications for Envirofit International

Providing efficient cook stoves to communities, schools and households, EnviroFit International is making cleaner, less energy-intense cooking accessible

Envirofit International, an organization that champions the adoption of cleaner, greener, and more cost-effective cooking technologies, launched a new 100-litre institutional stove in Kenya on 21 March, 2014.

Household air pollution caused by inefficient cooking on open wood fires and traditional stoves claims more than 15,000 lives in Kenya each year and more than 4m deaths globally. Gaining importance on the international political agenda, clean cooking solutions have attracted support from across the public and private sectors. Envirofit's game-changing launch in Kenya was attended by senior figures including Dr. Mary Okello, director of the Makini School, Dr. Manu Chandaria, chairman of the Comcraft group and Robert Godec, United States Ambassador to Kenya.

The majority of previous attention has been drawn to households, where half the world's population cooks over an open fire. However, inefficient fuel burning also burns a major hole in schools' pockets. A school that feeds 300 students may use 18,000 kg of wood per year – as much as two double-decker buses. Recent reports suggest that schools offering meals to students have on average 28% higher enrolment – yet providing lunch can also place a large financial burden on schools, many of which spend 20-50% of their annual budget on fuel.

Envirofit's institutional stove has been designed with a high-performing combustion chamber that burns wood more efficiently – decreasing harmful emissions and fuel consumption by up to 90%. State-of-the-art technology and design have been employed to create a product that schools can afford – with only one third of the annual fuel bill.

"Our chef would begin cooking at 6am and often lunch would not be ready for the children at 1pm. Now she starts at 10am and never misses a meal," says school headmaster Titus Ktoko, the first recipient of the institutional stove. "With the new institutional stove, we can cook a meal for 300 students with just three pieces of wood."

The stove has also created positive impacts within Kenya's Ngelani community. Regina Musyimi, a parent who helps to supply firewood to the school, reported that, "It used to take me four or five days to collect firewood for the school for one week. Now it takes me only two or three days."

Impact in the community extends beyond firewood since the stove also helps to educate the community about clean cooking. "When we launched the parents saw how it was consuming less firewood, they wanted stoves for their homes too," said Mr. Ktoko. "We then contacted Envirofit and they were able to supply the community with household stoves as well."

According to Ron Bills, CEO of Envirofit, "Through working with schools, we can demonstrate the economic and social benefits of adopting clean-cooking technology to households. 84% of Kenya's population uses charcoal and wood cookstoves – with families spending as much as 30% of their annual income on fuel costs. When you use these traditional types of stoves, 90% of the fuel's energy is wasted and the smoke generated is equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day."

Envirofit is the world's leading clean cookstove business, producing high-performing biomass cookstoves that are efficient, durable, desirable, and affordable for households and institutions in developing nations. It was founded in 2003 to develop well-engineered technology solutions that address global energy and health challenges. In 2007, Envirofit partnered with the Shell Foundation to create a viable clean cookstove business. Its mission is to create products that reduce pollution and energy dependence while yielding health, environmental, and economic improvements. Using a market-based approach, Envirofit has pioneered the clean cookstove market, selling more than 700,000 stoves and impacting over 3.5m livelihoods across 45 countries.

By promoting behavior change at the community level, Envirofit aims to influence communities to transform household cooking practices. Envirofit is also working with corporations such as Kaluworks to explain the health benefits of clean cooking and make cookstoves more widely available.

The initial cost of the stove can be a barrier for schools, however Envirofit has partnered with Equity Bank to assist schools with financing the purchase. These schools can then benefit from huge savings since the stove pays for itself in less than six months.

Kenya is the first country in which Envirofit will offer institutional stoves to schools and other community services such as hospitals and prisons – sparking a wave of interest from Government, industry associations and other institutions at the launch. Envirofit expects to install 1,000 stoves in Kenya by 2015 and to make the product available across Africa later this spring.

Content on this page is provided by Business Call to Action, and originally appeared on the The Guardian Business and the Sustainable Development Goals Hub