The numbers we present below are an “order of magnitude” of what is taking place in the developing world. There are literally hundreds of published studies showing the key social metrics we cite. Where possible, we use exact data, but when none is available, we use conservative averages from various secondary sources obtained online. Stove benefit numbers cited throughout this website reflect social assumptions (such as average wage per day) taken from primary research conducted by The Paradigm Project and baseline studies conducted by our qualified partners in Kenya as these represent the most conservative view.
Stoves
We define “stoves” as improved cooking devices that are based on the “rocket” technology that maximize efficiency, heat transfer, combustion, safety and usability. Each stove that is distributed can be traced from the manufacturer to the distributor to the retailer and finally, to the individual. Our whole program depends on our ability to accurately track when and where our Rocket Stoves go, so we are extremely committed to making sure we know who is using our stoves where. The life or durability of a stove is important as well. We distribute a variety of Rocket Stoves that meet our benchmarks, but also have varying durability and life. For the purposes of our projections we conservatively estimate that each stove will last 3 years because some of our Rocket Stoves will last 3 years and some 5 years. The “What one stove can do” section refers to a Rocket Stove that lasts 5 years.
Lives Changed
“Lives changed” can be a nebulous and sometimes vague phrase. We define “lives changed” in relation to the benefits that our Rocket Stoves deliver to each individual in a family receiving a Rocket Stove. Our conservative assumption is that the average family size is 5 in the countries where we work so each stove equals 5 lives. “Changed” in our context means that the burdens related to cooking are drastically reduced and in some cases eliminated. If you observe the “What one stove can do” section, watch our videos and read our blog, you will see the change that can really take place.
Family Income Saved
Most of us in this world are living on less than $2 USD a day(1). Up to 35% of that income can be spent on fuel for cooking over open fires, which is incredibly taxing on a family’s ability to pay school fees, purchase food or seeds for planting crops or even just every day necessities. The “income saved” refers to the money that the family will save from purchasing 40%-60% less cooking fuel through the use of our Rocket Stoves.
WHAT ONE STOVE CAN DO: $ 0.31: typical amount spent on daily fuel wood for those who purchase it | .31 * 365 = $113.15 in annual fuel costs | 50%: typical fuel savings of fuel efficient cook-stove | $113.15 * 50% = $56.58 in annual fuel cost savings or $282.90 in income saved per stove over 5 years.
Productive Hours Saved
When we say “productive hours” we are talking about the time that women could use to work in their fields, to spend time with and take care of their families, to make bracelets for their women’s group or to use it for another productive task during the working hours of every day. That time saved refers to the reduced time that women spend collecting wood through the use of our Rocket Stoves. With women spending up to 30 hours a week collecting wood and then realizing an improved fuel efficiency of 40%-60%, the savings really start to add up.
WHAT ONE STOVE CAN DO: 8 - 10 km: average round trip distance for wood collecting | 10 km @ 5 kph (typical walking speed) + 1 hour gathering = ~3 hrs per trip | 3 hours per trip * 3.5 (average trips per week) = ~10 hours per week | 10 hours per week * 52 weeks = 520 hours spent annually collecting wood | 520 hours * 50% (typical fuel savings) = 260 hours saved annually | 260 hours saved annually = 1300 total hours per stove over 5 years.
Productive Time Value
The time that is spent by women around cooking is staggering from chopping wood to collecting wood to starting a fire and cooking a meal. Time is valuable and we give credit to that. We define “productive time value” as the productive activities that women use to the benefit of their families, communities and themselves. Much of this is lost when cooking over an open fire, but a Rocket Stove can and does change that. We realize that not all of the saved time will be used to create financial value and that some of the time may be repurposed and used in intangible ways for the family or community, but we assume that 60% of the time saved has a financial value and can be quantified.
WHAT ONE STOVE CAN DO: 260 hours saved annually (from above) | 260 hours * $0.13 per hour wage rate equivalent = $33.80 time value | $33.80 * 60% = $20.28 productive time value annually = $101.40 USD time value per stove over 5 years.
Emissions Reduced
Open fires are incredibly inefficient in both how cleanly and completely they burn fuel, but also in how much fuel they require to cook a meal. This inefficiency creates an incredible amount of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases that are both harmful to women cooking in the kitchen as well as to our atmosphere and planet. It is estimated that 25% of all global CO2 emissions are generated from the rural poor. That’s more than all global transportation emissions combined(2)! This is largely because the rural poor have no access to better, more efficient technologies. But with our Rocket Stoves that are 40%-60% more efficient than an open fire, “emissions” are reduced by 1 to 2 metric tons per Rocket Stove each year. That’s a hard quantity to grasp, but 1 metric ton equals 2,200 pounds. “Emissions” or greenhouse gases are byproducts that are released from a certain activity. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide and an activity that creates it could be driving a car, firing and running a coal plant or, in this case, burning wood to cook.
Trees Saved. [tree icon]
Trees saved can also be a difficult number to quantify since there are so many types and species of trees out there, but the average weight of a tree, across many different tree species, is 195.5 kilograms or 430.1 pounds. Based on our baseline studies of how much wood women are using to cook over open fires and the results of how much wood women are using to cook using Rocket stoves, we are able to determine how many kilograms or pounds are saved per Stove each year. Many women are using up to 10 kilograms of wood to cook each day over inefficient open fires and are then using only 5 kilograms of wood on an efficient stove. Using these recorded differences we are able to quantify the weight in wood that is saved each year and convert that into the number of trees based on the 195.5 average kilogram weight of a tree.
WHAT ONE STOVE CAN DO: 1.2 kg: average amount fuel wood consumed per capita in rural Kenya | 6 persons: average household size in rural Kenya 1.2 kg * 6 persons = 7.2 kg of fuel wood consumed per household, per day | 7.2 kg * 365 days = 2628 kg of fuel wood consumed annually per household | 195.5 kg: approximate weight of an average tree | 2628 kg ÷ 195 kg = 13.44 trees consumed annually | 50%: typical fuel savings of fuel efficient cook-stove | 13.44 * 50% = 6.72 trees saved annually or 33.6 trees saved over 5 years.
Jobs Created. [job icon]
We define a “job created” as a full or part-time work employment with either a stove manufacturer, our management and training staff in the project country, or work with a registered community based organization (CBO) to advance the project. Within CBOs is where the majority of the job creation exists. A CBO is simply a group of community members who gather together to address issues in their community from HIV/AIDS to the environment. When we train a group, several things happen. First, we educate and discuss the importance of the environment and how deforestation and a degraded environment can lead to decreased crop yields, droughts and overall difficult times. Many groups are more aware than we are on how the environment affects their lives because their lives are so tied to the land and their surrounding environment. Second, the group is trained on the health risks of cooking over an open fire for themselves and their children. Thirdly, we educate and train the groups on how a Rocket Stove can drastically improve both their cooking environment, their health, the health of their children, the amount of time and money spent collecting wood and the overall benefits of a Rocket Stove in speed and ease of cooking. Finally, we connect the group with an existing retailer where they can purchase a stove at a subsidized cost or give the group and opportunity to become a retailer of the Rocket Stoves themselves.
We calculate that 20% of CBOs that we train become marketers and retailers of our Rocket Stoves. The average size of a CBO is 30 members.
1) World Bank 2009, Low Income GNI per capita
2) The Nature Conservancy “Saving Forests to Fight Climate Change”, 2010