By Marc Gunter, October 12, 2017 Thousands of words, including many on this blog, have been written about the so-called clean cookstove sector. But the fundamental problem with cookstoves has been captured in a single sentence by Kevin Starr of the Mulago Foundation. “The cheap stoves aren’t good enough,” Starr says, “and the good stoves are way too expensive.” Yep. Cheap cookstoves–sometimes described as “clean,” “improved” or “efficient”–can save users money, reduce carbon emissions and slow down deforestation, at least when compared to open fires. But they don’t burn cleanly enough to keep users from breathing unhealthy air into their lungs, with terrible consequences for the health of children and adults. If the primary purpose of a cookstove is to prevent disease, then it’s ethically questionable, in my view, to put philanthropic or taxpayer dollars behind “improved” or “efficient” cookstoves that fall well short of World Health Organization standards. How, then, can philanthropy deliver truly clean cookstoves to the poor? Inyenyeri has a bold plan. A small company in Rwanda founded by an expatriate entrepreneur named Eric Reynolds, Inyenyeri leases high-quality stoves to poor people for a nominal fee, then recovers its costs and makes a profit by selling wood fuel pellets to its customers at a cost that is less than what they now pay for charcoal. The business model is ingenious, if not original. After all, you can buy a printer Inyenyeri has a bold for just $29.99 because the profits are all in the plan…the business ink. model is ingenious. “It’s the razor blade model, right? “It’s the razor blade You make your money from the blades, not model, right? You from the handle,” says make your money Louis Boorstin,* managing director of from the blades, not the Osprey Foundation. from the handle,” “Because it’s run that way, Inyenyeri can use says Louis Boorstin the best available cookstove. That gets you a health benefit, an environmental benefit and a social benefit–and a more viable business model.” Mulago and Osprey both have supported Inyenyeri. They want the company to succeed. So do I, for at least three reasons.

The challenge of “stove stacking” First, Inyenyeri is using Mimi Moto stoves, which are, by most accounts, the cleanest biomass stoves in the world. Designed by a Dutch company and made in China, Mimi Moto stoves can burn virtually any kind of biomass — wood, crop waste or dung —

but the uneven quality of those fuels makes a clean burn just about impossible to achieve. So Inyenyeri manufacturers lowmoisture fuel pellets, a standardized fuel that is turned into gas before it is burned, and calibrates the stove to match the fuel. This combination of stove and fuel is key to protecting human health. Second, to the best of my knowledge, Inyenyeri is the only cookstove company that tackles, head-on, the stubborn problem known To the best of my knowledge, as “stove stacking,” which Inyenyeri is the only refers to the fact that even after cookstove company that buying an tackles, head-on, the improved cookstove, many stubborn problem known as users continue to “stove stacking,” cook over household fires as well. This all but eliminates the health benefits of the new stove. So Inyenyeri typically provides its customers with two Mimi Moto stoves. “We’re trying to replace, in every house, every stove they’re using with the cleanest (biomass) stove on the planet,” Reynolds says,

via Skype, from Rwanda. Biomass, he says, is readily available, “Our model is very capital intensive,” Reynolds says. “We have to cheap and easily turned into pellets. buy two stoves per household, in advance. We have to build pellet Third, Inyenyeri has invited independent researchers to do a factories. We have to hire staff.” The stoves cost about $80 each, rigorous study of its impact on health and poverty. A research he says, and he estimates that the company spends about $250 team from the University of North Carolina, funded with a grant of per household before it can generate revenues. $2.6m from the National Institute of Environmental Health In August, the IKEA Foundation made a 3m euro grant to Sciences, is conducting a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to see Inyenyeri, as part of its global commitment to protect the health of how cookstoves work in the field. (This is far superior to the lab children. That support is critical as Inyenyeri moves towards its tests that most cookstoves undergo.) The researchers will measure goal of providing cookstoves to 150,000 homes in Rwanda by personal exposures to air pollutants over a five-year period in 2020. homes using the cookstoves, as well as in a control group. They’ll That’s an audacious goal, but Reynolds expects growth also look at the financial gains, if any. US AID and the Global to come quickly as word spreads that customers can save money Alliance for Clean Cookstoves are also funding the study. by signing on with Inyenyeri. Rwandan families today mostly cook Interestingly, Ashu Handa, a development economist at over charcoal, and pay about 18,500 Rwanda francs, or $22, per UNC and a lead investigator on the study, told me by phone that month for fuel. Inyenyeri customers pay about 12,500 francs, or he has doubts about the future of biomass stoves. “I think the $15, per month, a substantial savings, in part because Mimi Moto developing world is going to move to LPG, natural gas,” he said. stoves are so much more efficient than open fires. But Handa says he has been impressed by what he’s seen of “It’s a big savings, and they don’t have to buy the stoves,” Reynolds and Inyenyeri. “Eric is a perfectionist,” he said. “He and Reynolds says. his team are so focused on getting this right.” Reynolds doesn’t Remarkab Remarkably, Inyenyeri believe that poor people will be able to afford natural gas stoves ly, Inyenyeri has anytime soon. come up with the has come up with the Reynolds, who is 65, came to the cookstove sector late in way to serve even way to serve even the life. A mountaineer, he founded Marmot, the outdoor clothing and the poorest of the equipment company, in a Grand Junction, Colorado, storefront in rural poor, who poorest of the rural poor 1974. His obsessive commitment to performance made Marmot a have no money and favorite of dedicated outdoor enthusiasts. (“Quality was Marmot’s gather their own raison d’etre and its greatest liability,” one critic wrote.) Reynolds wood. “We’ve all seen the pictures of kids and women carrying spent 13 years at Marmot and developed two other outdoor bundles of sticks and branches, wasting too many hours each week sports businesses, SweetWater and Nau, before moving to gathering cooking fuel for a three-stone fire,” he says. Rwanda in 2010 to launch Inyenyeri. Not wanting to leave them out, Inyenyeri came up with a It’s been a struggle, he admits, to find that elusive barter system under which rural household provide the company biomass stove that will protect the health of users. He tried a with wood, the raw material for its pellets. In return, they get Philips-made stove that didn’t work well. He likes the Mimi Moto stoves and pellets. These cashless customers only have to collect stove, but has worked with the company to improve it over the about half as much wood as they used to because the stove-pellet last two years. In the long run, he thinks, a two-burner stove might combination is so much more efficient than open fires, according be a better solution. Along the way, he’s encountered skeptics. to Reynolds. “I was in the wilderness for a long time,” he says. “People thought If all this sounds complicated, it is. The business has lots of moving I was Kramer on the Seinfeld show.” parts, and outstanding challenges, including distribution. Charcoal can be purchased in very small quantities, while Inyenyeri New commitments of capital customers currently buy a month’s worth of fuel at once. The To their credit, Mulago and Osprey helped keep Inyeneri company would eventually like to make its pellets available at afloat. Mulago provided an $800,000 loan and Osprey provided kiosks or vending machines throughout cities. about $600,000, mostly loans. Inyenyeri remains small, with about “We’re still scrambling,” Reynolds tells me. “There’s still a lot of 2,000 customers, but it is uncertainty involved.” poised for growth, thanks Because Reynolds, from the start, has to major new commitments But the potential is enormous. Maybe I of capital, grants and should have started this post by reminding been dedicated to preventing death revenues from carbon readers that about 3 billion — yes, 3 and disease, he has come up with a finance. billion! — people cook and heat their In June, the homes using open fires or crude biomass model that is designed, not merely to company got a vote of stoves. The WHO estimates that more sell or give away stoves, but to get rid confidence from the World than 4 million people die prematurely Bank. The bank, through its from illnesses attributed to household air of the smoky, open fires that kill carbon finance unit, signed pollution caused by cooking. millions of poor people every year. an agreement to buy at Because Reynolds, from the start, has least 600,000 and as many been dedicated to preventing death and as 1 million carbon credits from Inyenyeri between now and 2023. disease, he has come up with a model that is designed, not What this means is that the bank will pay Inyenyeri for each ton of merely to sell or give away stoves, but to get rid of the smoky, carbon pollution that it prevents by replacing open fire cooking open fires that kill millions of poor people every year. This with its stoves. The price of the credits wasn’t disclosed but they approach, if it works, will also save his customers money and are expected to be between $5 and $10 each. The carbon-finance deliver climate benefits on a meaningful scale. commitment has allowed Inyenyeri to borrow money that it needs To achieve its potential, Inyenyeri needs to raise still more capital. to buy stoves and expand its production of wood pellets. Lenders Reynolds hopes to have more to say about that at the annual include the Luxembourg-based Althelia Climate Fund. meeting of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves later this month in India.