Maximizing the benefits of improved cookstoves: moving from acquisition to correct and consistent use

Abstract

The adoption of clean cooking technologies goes beyond mere product acquisition and requires attention to issues of cooking traditions, user engagement, gender dynamics, culture, and religion to effect correct and consistent use.

Energy Efficiency at the Base of the Pyramid: A System-Based Market Model for Improved Cooking Stove Adoption

“…Furthermore, by providing an income source from trading the biomass, the liquidity barrier is lowered. It should be pointed out that the barriers possibly overcome by the proposed model are by no means the only possible barriers for ICS adoption; see, for example, [39] for a discussion.…”

The revolution from the kitchen: Social processes of the removal of traditional cookstoves in Himachal Pradesh, India

“…Improved and modern stoves often fail to meet households' dietary and religious preferences, which have coevolved with the use of traditional hearths (Crewe, 1997;Gill, 1987). Current debate in the cookstove community highlights the importance of sustained use and displacement of traditional stoves beyond acquisition, but conditions under which people abandon traditional stoves remain elusive (Shankar et al, 2014). As we will show below using a combination of survey and ethnographic research techniques, existing theories help explain a great deal of the changes going on in kitchens.…”

Uganda Clean Cooking Behavioral Diagnostic

“…The trend of "stove stacking"-when households use their baseline stove alongside their improved one-has been well documented (Shankar et al 2014;Erone et al 2017). Our survey of Envirofit users confirms this result: only 5 percent of owners had entirely stopped using their baseline stoves (see figure 20 for examples of such stoves).…”