The Charcoal Project

Carbon Offsets

So, you wanna deploy cookstoves to every corner of the world? McKinsey & Co. has one word for you: networks

Posted on by Jean Kim Chaix

In a meeting this week with the folks from Acumen Fund, we were asked what was holding up the large-scale deployment of improved cookstove worldwide?

The truth is there is no simple answer. Take your pick: low levels of capital investments, tariff barriers, lack of incentive policies, fluctuation price of oil, poor social marketing, instability in the carbon credit market, absence of standards, etc.

Looking for solutions, the folks at McKinsey and Co. think stakeholders would do well to focus on networking and sharing resources.

Listen to the Harvard Business Review and they’ll tell you the US needs to spend more time investing in social entrepreneurs in the developing world and less playing the role of incubator.

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American Power Act to fund biochar R & D as part of “fast CC mitigation” strategy.

Posted on by Jean Kim Chaix

Even though there are still a few skeptics out there, we were excited to learn that the current draft of the American Power Act acknowledges the potential role biochar can play in capturing CO2 during the biomass combustion process. Whether or not this language will end up in the final draft of the APA that will land on Bo’s desk for approval remains to be seen.  By the way, the last we heard the legislation would be submitted for debate in the fall. Below is the excerpt provided by Victoria Kamsler, Chair of the Biochar Offset Group out of Toronto, Continue reading→

A Man, a Stove, a Mission

Posted on by Jean Kim Chaix

Nathaniel Mulcahy’s speaks with the urgency and precision of someone on a mission and with little time.

Although he has patiently and politely dedicated the better part of an hour to our conversation, I know that the moment he hangs up he will be off to complete a million tasks on his to-do list.

Mulcahy has good reasons to be in a hurry. The first one is that he cheated death seven years ago following a really bad accident, so he’s a man on his second chance.

The second reason, which is linked to the first, is that he is determined to bring energy-efficient cookstoves to the world’s 2.4 billion people who sit at the bottom of the world’s energy ladder. They are the poorest of the poor who lack access to modern fuels and must make do with wood, charcoal, and animal dung to meet their everyday energy needs.

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