Read full press release on the MIT website

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BERKELEY, CA – MAY 1, 2012

The Berkeley-based nonprofit Potential Energy (formerly the Darfur Stoves Project), is proud to announce it has been awarded a $1.5 million grant from the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) Initiative. This grant, which will fund the distribution of clean cookstoves in Darfur and Ethiopia, comes on the heels of the organization’s recent name change to Potential Energy and reflects the move to expand its activities beyond Darfur.

Founded in 2007, Potential Energy (http://potentialenergy.org) works with local enterprises in poverty-stricken countries to manufacture and distribute household technologies, such as clean cookstoves, that solve critical life challenges. In partnership with humanitarian organizations such as Oxfam America, Potential Energy has already distributed more than 20,000 stoves in Darfur. The stoves decrease women’s exposure to violence while collecting firewood, as well as their need to trade food rations for fuel. In the past year, the organization has doubled the impact of its efforts – almost half of all stoves distributed in Darfur were distributed in 2011 alone, with another 15,000 planned for 2012.

In the long term, Potential Energy plans to develop a portfolio of clean technologies for the world’s poorest people using the same user-centered design and partnership approach that has led to the enormous success of its Darfur Stoves Project.

The $1.5 million, three-year grant from USAID’s Development Innovation Ventures Initiative (http://idea.usaid.gov/organization/div) supports Potential Energy’s transition to a more sustainable social enterprise approach through innovative marketing and distribution channels and capacity building for local organizations. Potential Energy plans to collaborate with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Institute for Globally Transformative Technologies for research and development, and will engage an independent group to assess the project’s impact and relative effectiveness of different marketing strategies.

For more information, please contact Andrée Sosler at andree@potentialenergy.org or at (510) 848-8486. You can also learn more on the organization’s newly launched website: www.potentialenergy.org.
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Founded in 2007, Potential Energy is a nonprofit organization that adapts and scales technologies to improve lives in developing countries. Building on the success of its flagship initiative, the Darfur Stoves Project, which has disseminated more than 20,000 clean cookstoves to date, the organization seeks to save lives, improve livelihoods, empower women and protect the environment.

But we are in a new era. Since the launch of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves in October 2010, there has been open dialogue about past failures and how to overcome them. If you attend a conference of cookstove specialists (yes, there are conferences just about stoves), you will hear people talking about user-centered design, social marketing, and impact evaluation.

Sweeping Conclusions

A recent article in the Washington Post, and subsequent New York Times blog post, describe a newly published study by Rema Hanna of Harvard University and Esther Duflo and Michael Greenstone of MIT about a cookstove project in India. I’ll save you some time: the project failed.

I have great respect for these researchers and do not question their findings. However, I take issue with reporters translating this one research study into the sensational headlines we’ve seen this week, such as “The Cookstove Conundrum” and “Nobody’s Using Cookstoves.”

The fact that a single project using a single technology in a single geographic area was a failure does not mean that all (or even most) cookstove projects in most areas are equally doomed. The Post and NYTimes writers should take a cue from the authors of the “Up in Smoke” study, and limit their conclusions to what can be supported by facts.

One of the study’s authors, Esther Duflo, is well known for her superb book about measuring aid effectiveness, Poor Economics, which describes the same sort of randomized controlled trial used in “Up in Smoke.” In the first chapter, Duflo and her co-authors warn readers not to make sweeping conclusions based on single studies: “[Poor economics] will not tell you if aid is good or bad, but it will say whether particular instances of aid did some good or not. We cannot pronounce on the efficacy of democracy, but we do have something to say about whether democracy could be made more effective in rural Indonesia by changing the way it is organized on the ground, and so on.” There is even a section of the book labeled, “In place of a sweeping conclusion.”

Success Stories

Consortiums such as the group behind the Uganda Efficient Stove Project are creating sustainable solutions to the health and environmental burdens of cooking. Working with a local stove manufacturer, the project had sold or distributed more than 80,000 stoves by December 2012.

Our organization, Potential Energy (formerly the Darfur Stoves Project), has implemented a cookstove project in Darfur, Sudan, since 2007. The need for stoves in arid Darfur is particularly acute: women risk sexual assault when they go out in search of firewood or they spend a third of their income buying cooking fuel. With our partners, we’ve distributed more than 20,000 cookstoves, which greatly reduce women’s need for wood.

Our “mass customization” approach means that women were consulted in the design process, and the stoves are mass-produced by making flat-kits (think Ikea) in India, and assembling these at a workshop in Darfur. Because our stoves are made to optimize specifically the type of cooking done in Darfur, Darfuri pots, and so on, we’ve seen close to 100% adoption. Have people completely abandoned their 3-stone fires? No. Is every woman who has received a cookstove using it exactly as she was taught? Probably not. Are we making an incredible impact on people’s lives? You bet. The evidence? Long lines of women eager to buy stoves each time a new batch is produced.

We will be commissioning a randomized-controlled trial by an independent research group at UC Berkeley. I hope the results get as much attention as the Hanna study, even if they are positive and don’t make for sensational headlines.

Andrée Sosler
Executive Director
Potential Energy (formerly the Darfur Stoves Project)

A portion of the proceeds benefit the Global NGO Oxfam America in associations with The Darfur Stoves Project. Experience includes signature Mr. C’s brunch cuisine prepared by experienced Cipriani chefs, sponsored beverages and and promotions. General reception admission to the 12th floor of Mr. C’s with swag bag including exclusive products unparalleled 360 degree panoramic views.

View event details at Eventbrite.

Ashok won in the category Lifetime Achievement for an Individual for his work on the Berkeley-Darfur Stove and received a prize of $500,000.

The other two winners were the Carbon Disclosure project, in the SMEs & NGOs category, and Schneider Electric, in the Large Corporations category.

Read more about the Zayed Future Energy Prize at WAM and gulfnews.com.

This October we returned to Darfur to check on the progress of our marketing trial. The trial is being led by our local Marketing Officer, Nazik Ismail of Sustainable Action Group. To date, we have provided more than 20,000 stoves free of charge to Darfuri women. Nazik, a native Darfuri woman, is helping us transition from free distribution to selling the stoves, which will ensure that the stoves are valued by users while maintaining the long-term sustainability of the project.

According to Jan Maes, our consultant who traveled to Darfur, “there is a huge demand – many people had already heard about the stoves (referred to as the 5-Minute Stove) before they attended a demonstration. Selling the stoves was easy, as most women were very eager to own this stove that had a reputation for cooking fast and cutting their firewood expenses by half.”

Customers have the choice of paying for the stove in full or through installment payments. These payment plans make the stoves affordable to all Darfuri women because the stove saves a woman more money in firewood expenses each month than the amount she pays for each installment. Women use the initial savings to help pay for the stove and continue to accumulate lump sums of cash for years afterwards.

The goal of this trial is to learn more about the market potential, so we are starting small – with only 500 stoves. But as soon as word got out that the stoves were for sale, more than 500 people signed up to receive one, so we already have back orders. Volunteers, students and community leaders were trained in using the stove, and then demonstrated the stoves at public events in their communities. Some women had heard about the stove before the demonstrations and were so eager to get one that they came to these demonstrations ready with their first installment payment!

Through this new market-driven approach and Nazik’s leadership, we will be able to reach many more women in Darfur and create a thriving, sustainable local market for cookstoves. Based on the success of this marketing trial, we are expanding it to many more communities in Darfur (and soon in Ethiopia!). In each new location, we will donate an initial batch of stoves, which our local partners will sell to women. Our local partners then use this sales revenue to purchase the next batch of stoves for the community. In this way, women are passing on the gift enabling other women in their communities to receive stoves – stoves that save wood, reduce toxic emissions, improve their health, enable them to save money, and protect them from harm – for generations to come. With your support, we will continue to empower these women to create their own solutions to poverty.

I first listened to the woman focused on stirring the roasting beans as she explained that they are the first of SIQQEE’s many women’s groups and that with seed funding, they are now able to earn a small income by selling grain at their local market.

The group was pleased that I was sharing my first coffee ceremony experience with them and astounded when they learned that scientists in the U.S. had tailor made a stove for Ethiopia. To help address Ethiopia’s high rates of deforestation and diseases caused by inhalation of cooking smoke, our partner, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) developed the Berkeley-Ethiopia Stove. This stove is similar to the stove that we distribute in Darfur but has been adapted for Ethiopian culture and cooking. The new design includes features such as notches that hold a coffee roasting pan in place and metal rods that hold a jebena, the traditional pot used throughout Ethiopia to brew coffee.

Debra visiting with a women’s group from the Ethiopian organization, SIQQEE in the Oromia region of Ethiopia.

As the first round of coffee was poured into small cups and served to everyone sitting in our circle, one woman described to me the day-long journey she takes each week to collect heavy loads of firewood for cooking. With over 90% of the Ethiopian population dependent on firewood and charcoal for cooking and lighting, deforestation has forced these women to travel further and further, taking up their valuable time that could be used for more productive pursuits.

One woman’s loud cough throughout our discussion was a reminder that these women are all too familiar with the harmful effects of cooking. The need for fuel-saving stoves around the world is tremendous. In fact, the need is so great in Ethiopia that the government recently committed to putting nine million clean cookstoves into use throughout the country by 2015. But they need the help of groups like us who have the ability to link the world’s best science with local customs. The innovative technology of the Berkeley-Ethiopia Stove can help lift many Ethiopians out of poverty.

The women expressed their eagerness to learn new job skills as stove sales agents and to serve as role models to young girls. This seemed especially fitting when I learned the name of their group means “growing by working” in the Oromo language.

As my second cup of coffee was filled, I told them more about our work in Darfur. Despite the already significant hardships that these women face, they audibly gasped when they heard about the dangers that await Darfuri women when gathering firewood.

As we sipped our final cup of coffee, the women volunteered to use the stove to prepare meals for their families and suggested that they demonstrate the stove at their local market. Zertihun will report back with the women’s feedback, which will help us to ensure that Ethiopian families are getting the greatest possible value from their stoves.

I left that day feeling over-caffeinated and inspired to hear from these women who are so eager to create their own opportunity that they volunteered to do a market trial. We’re very excited about the chance to help them and with your support, we will. I look forward to reporting on our progress!

David Selinger first garnered international recognition as an expert in the field of eCommerce data analytics and personalization with his groundbreaking work leading the research and development arm of Amazon’s Data Mining and Personalization team. In that role, David increased Amazon’s annual profit by over $50 million (25% of US profit, 2003) setting the industry standard for recommendation services.

David has decades of experience, from developing the first JavaScript-powered ad delivery system for Flycast–the same technology used by Google AdSense, DoubleClick and Overture–to leading Overstock’s personalization efforts as Vice President of Software Development and Data Mining. David also cofounded Redfin, a venture backed, industry-leading real estate search/brokerage company.

David holds a broad collection of awards and standing patents in customer segmentation, analytics and data mining, including over a dozen pioneered at RichRelevance. David’s accolades also include the coveted PC Magazine Editor’s Choice Award (won for 2Roam Wireless, acquired by Air2Web). David received his BS in Computer Science from Stanford University.