08/31/2009 01:00:00
A Colorado group concerned that wasteful wood burning by the world’s poor could doom efforts to slow global warming has won a $1 million prize for its work distributing tens of thousands of high-efficiency cook stoves.
Leaders of the Fort Collins-based nonprofit Trees, Water & People say they’ll use the money to expand operations in Central America and Haiti.
Their stoves, which vary in size from that of a paint can to an oil drum and sell for as little as $5, let villagers use 50 percent less wood, reducing tree-cutting.
The stoves emit 80 percent less smoke, cutting respiratory harm that the World Health Organization identifies as a major factor in child deaths.
Stoves vary in size from that of a paint can to an oil drum and sell for as little as $5. They use 50 percent less wood, making the lives of villagers, such as the ones above in Haiti, easier.
“Even though we’re going through a rough spot now, it’s still important that the United States help developing countries,” Conway said.
The work began in 1998 when Conway and Richard Fox, a former U.S. Forest Service contractor, were looking into ways of making more heat using less wood.
That challenge now drives hundreds of innovators, because more than half the world’s 6.8 billion people rely on burning wood and other plant material as their primary source of energy.
At Colorado State University’s Engines and Energy Conversion Lab, a special section works just on developing better stoves.
Australian mining giant Rio Tinto awarded TWP its $1 million sustainability prize, guided by the London-based International Business Leaders Forum.
Three other Colorado groups were among the 10 finalists: Denver-based Water for People, the India branch of Lakewood-based International Development Enterprises and the Equilibrium Fund (founded in Crested Butte).
TWP designs stoves, tinkering with insulation to prevent heat from escaping, and then produces the stoves in target countries.
The group also has planted 2.7 million trees, drawn from nurseries established in the countries where it works.
Expansion in Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Haiti requires more pickup trucks and compensation for local staffers, Conway said. More than 30,000 stoves have been sold in those countries.
The organization, with a budget of $1.5 million, employs nine people in Fort Collins. Its leaders hope the $1 million prize and the recognition that comes with it can be leverage by becoming a source of “carbon offsets.”
Under offset programs, such as the one operating in the European Union and one proposed for the U.S., polluters must cut their emissions of carbon dioxide or pay a program that is reducing emissions.
Each TWP stove cuts up to 4 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year. Under current programs, both mandatory and voluntary, offsets are selling for between $2.75 and $28 a ton, according to a survey by EcoBusiness.
“If pollution-offset trading became mandatory,” Conway said, “we could really help reduce global warming.”
Source – http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_13236335
