Tom Selleck says, “if there’s a global alliance to put a clean cookstove in every pot, then there should be planetary partnership to but a better briquette in every clean cookstove.”
Briquettes
Lost Kittens of 2010
Lost kittens is what we call the odds and ends we collect from the internet to share with you. As 2010 draws to close, we think this is a great time to thank all of you who have written to encourage us since we embarked on our mission only one year ago. Your words of support have kept us going and we hope you will continue sharing your thoughts in 2011. Creating a global community of stakeholders in the energy poverty sector is part of our mission but we can’t do this without you! We have a few treats in Continue reading
Rwandan widows and orphans launch breakthrough waste-to-energy program
Briquette programs that deliver high quality sustainable, alternative solid biofuels exist in major cities in sub-Saharan Africa, but not nearly at the scale necessary to significantly alleviate pressure on the environment from wood and charcoal production. There is clearly lots of room for growth of these types of programs that can create jobs, empower women, and delivering environmental benefits to the larger community. Triple bottom line, anyone?
Tanzania: Charcoal-making in five easy pieces
We published last month an interview with Dennis Tessier of ARTI-TZ, a Tanzania-based non-profit working to promote the manufacturing and marketing of briquettes made from the char produced in improved charcoal kilns. According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Tanzania’s forests are disappearing at a whopping rate of 4,200 square kilometers (1,620 sq. miles) annually. That’s about four times the size of New York City or half the size of Virunga National Park in the DRC. In our Q&A with Dennis he mentioned ARTI-Tanzania’s Waste to Wealth (W2W) project and we wanted to find out more. Below Continue reading
Can a Tanzanian venture spark a briquette revolution in Africa?
Everyone knows that telling people to voluntarily use less fossil fuels because CO2 emissions are harming the planet is a very weak motivator. But tell them they can save money, even make money, if they switch to a sustainable alternative fuels, THEN they start paying attention. In some ways, that’s what a Tanzanian non-profit is asking the country’s producers and consumers of wood and charcoal fuels to do: take biomass waste, convert it to briquettes using a simple mechanical process, and, voila, you’ve got yourself a cleaner burning, more environmentally friendly fuel for personal consumption or sale! ARTI – Tanzania Continue reading