Impact Carbon Impact Carbon began as a research center within the University of California at Berkeley School of Public Health and has grown into an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to improving health and the environment through clean energy products that reduce carbon emissions. In Uganda, Impact Carbon partnered with Uganda Stove Manufacturers Ltd and JP Morgan Climate Care to introduce affordable, efficient and healthy stoves into the community through the Efficient Cooking with Ugastoves project. This joint endeavor targets low-income families, schools and hospitals, and distributes both charcoal and wood-fueled household stoves, as well as wood-burning institutional stoves to consumers.
After conducting community assessments, Impact Carbon identified three main barriers to improved cookstove adoption by consumers: 1) skepticism about the product’s quality, reliability and fuel savings; 2) a lack of understanding about the health, financial and environmental impacts of improved cookstoves; and 3) financial constraints. A targeted social marketing campaign and testing of message themes indicated that promises of financial savings resonated most with consumers. Stove manufacturers engaged in marketing efforts by educating consumers about the benefits of improved cooking technology and routinely staging cookstove demonstrations in the community to build consumer confidence. In addition, the project employs an innovative approach to ensuring affordability through the use of carbon financing. Impact Carbon sells carbon offsets generated from clean-burning stove use in Uganda and directs financial returns from those sales back to the community. This has allowed business to drop prices, offer warranties, extend credit to customers, improve marketing efforts and reach an additional 23,000 people per month. Without subsidies, Ugastoves cost around $11 USD; however, when subsidized, Ugastoves can be purchased for as little as $5 USD. In addition, Impact Carbon is establishing a widespread credit extension program that allows consumers who cannot afford the stove at the subsidized price to pay for it in installments using money saved from lower fuel costs.
Impact Carbon’s Efficient Cooking with Ugastoves project, which is the first Voluntary Gold Standard cookstove project to register and verify credits, demonstrates the value and viability of leveraging carbon financing to benefit underserved populations. Through these innovative efforts, the project has succeeded in connecting local and international partners to allow more Ugandans access to clean cooking technology. Impact Carbon continues to draw upon this successful model in other countries, operating projects under various stages of development in Asia, Africa and Latin America. For example, Impact Carbon’s efficient cookstove project in China is currently under validation, while the improved cookstove and water project in Kenya is nearing validation as well.
Please see the Bulletin #27 Awards Supplement [1] for an interview with Impact Carbon's Evan Haigler.
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