Addressing Indoor Air Pollution in Bangladesh Workshop.
Improved Stoves and Better Health:
Lessons from Household Energy and Sanitation Sectors
World Bank, Dhaka, Bangladesh
June 2, 2010, 10:00 – 13:00pm.
Jonathan Rouse will join Priti Kumar and Dr Khalequzzamman to facilitate this World Bank-led workshop presenting findings from a 3-year review of lessons for the sector. The review focused on lessons from within the household energy sector in Bangladesh and around the world, as well as from the Total Sanitation campaign, which has enjoyed remarkable success. Sanitation and household energy also have some notable similarities, exlored in this work.
The final report will be published later this year, and will be linked to from this website.
Workshop by invitation only; contact us if you are interested in attending.
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Selling to the Bottom of the Pyramid: Lessons from Marketing Compost
HEDON London Regional Interest Group
Thursday 25th of March, 18:30 to 20:30, The Carpenters Arms Pub, London
Despite their low cost and decades of initiatives developing and promoting them, improved stoves remain a low priority for millions of potential users globally, and few are disseminated through viable business models. Commercial approaches are increasingly being recognized as a way of achieving greater scale. Applying marketing approaches (including analysing the market and competition, and careful product development, pricing and promotion) are key for success.
What has this got to do with compost? The issues of promoting compost and stoves are notably similar: both are often low-cost, under-valued products with great environmental and human benefits, but which lack ready-made markets. A recently published book on marketing compost presents the basic steps of a marketing approach in an accessible form. Jonathan Rouse will present some of the key principles and consider, with your help, whether and how these may be applied to our work of developing viable, robust stove projects and businesses based on a valued product.
This LondonRIG evening will also contribute to HEDON's thinking on marketing, and whether there is a need and demand for similar bespoke marketing resources for the household energy sector.
The short handout from the evening can be downloaded
here 
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New partnership with Berkeley Air Monitoring Group, California
10 February 2010
We are pleased to announce that HED Consulting and Berkeley Air have formed a partnership enabling us to more easily share resources and expertise. Berkeley Air is a California-based corporation whose mission is to protect global health and climate by providing high quality, scientific monitoring of household energy innovations.
This move builds on five years of collaboration between individuals in the organisations on a range of household energy training, monitoring and pilot activities in Africa and Asia.
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Improved cookstove carbon finance project, Africa. Due Diligence Assessment
6 January 2010
As part of its carbon finance activities, HED Consulting has been awarded a contract by US-based C-Quest Capital LLC to undertake a due diligence assessment for a stove programme in Africa. It involves assessing the market and biomass sources, and testing the performance of the stoves in-situ.
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Stove marketing handbook - outline proposal
14 December 2009
An outline proposal has been shared with a range of potential funders, publishers and users. Please take a look and let us know what you think.
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Stove marketing handbook
10 November 2009
Commercial approaches have much to offer stove projects. These involve identifying and engaging markets, and ensuring that your product is designed, priced and pitched appropriately. In other words, applying a marketing approach.
A breakout-group consultation at the PCIA Uganda Forum in March 2009 identified a demand for a stove marketing resource. The purpose would be to provide a practical guide to marketing for organisations looking to build successful markets for improved cook stoves in developing countries. It would focus on:
- the marketing environment;
- how to undertake a market assessment;
- product positioning and location;
- pricing; and,
- principles of promotion.
Many marketing resources are available, though few are geared towards low-value goods in low-income countries. Jonathan Rouse recently published a handbook on marketing compost (see Publications). This could be adapted for stoves, as promoting compost and stoves is quite similar; often both are low-cost, under-valued products with great environmental and human benefits. HED Consulting, with the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air (PCIA), is exploring how to take this forward.
Get in touch to comment or contribute.
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Technical enquiry service for household energy practitioners
12 October 2009
Many excellent resources are available to household energy practitioners in the field, including information on technical issues, implementation and monitoring. However, there is no substitute for tailored advice from experts.
A household energy technical enquiries service could provide support to southern partners on many topics including how to
- improve the design of a fuel-efficient cooking stove;
- design a monitoring and evaluation strategy;
- measure impact on indoor air pollution;
- choose a stove for a refugee situation;
- access carbon finance for your project.
HED Consulting is presently exploring the need for this service, and how it could best be delivered. Ideally, qualifying organisations and individuals would access up to one day of an expert's time, for free. The cost would be covered by a third-party funder.
Is there a demand for this service? How could it be funded? Could it fit in with any existing services or networks? Contact Jonathan Rouse if you are a potential user, contributor or funder of this service.
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Catalogue of methods: next steps?
9 July 2009
The World Health Organisation Catalogue of Methods was published a year ago, consolidating tools and methods for evaluating household energy and health programs from around the world. This was intended to be a dynamic resource, accounting for new and amended tools. How can this best be achieved? A revised printed version? An online wiki?
Get in touch to have your say.
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