KANOUN

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KANOUN

Sidi Yaya Elgharb, MoroccoSidi Yaya Elgharb, Morocco
Year Founded:
2014
Organization type: 
nonprofit/ngo/citizen sector
Project Stage:
Scaling
Budget: 
$1,000 - $10,000
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Project Summary
Elevator Pitch

Concise Summary: Help us pitch this solution! Provide an explanation within 3-4 short sentences.

Indoor air pollution, caused by wood and charcoal smoke, is responsible for respiratory, heart and eye problems. What we propose is an improved cook stove, reducing the consumption of wood and charcoal and offering a complete combustion compared to traditional stoves.

WHAT IF - Inspiration: Write one sentence that describes a way that your project dares to ask, "WHAT IF?"

What if clean and affordable energy was directly accessible in homes reducing indoor air pollution?
About Project

Problem: What problem is this project trying to address?

The major problems that this project try to solve are: - Health hazards related to indoor air quality. - Global warming: Traditional cook stoves are typically both fuel inefficient and polluting. The huge number of these stoves around the world contribute to global warming. - Household fuel consumption and expenses. -Degradation of forest ecosystem and biodiversity.

Solution: What is the proposed solution? Please be specific!

What we propose is an improved cook stove that aims to create a thriving market for clean cooking solutions that save lives, improve livelihoods, empower women and protect the environment. Our solution is a cook stove, made from an inner piece of clay covered with a layer of steel on top of an insulating layer of straw. It is shaped in a way that brings the exact amount of oxygen to the fuel, This solution is adapted to morocco and can be implemented in other countries that uses cook stoves.
Impact: How does it Work

Example: Walk us through a specific example(s) of how this solution makes a difference; include its primary activities.

Our project is an opportunity to the people of “Sidi yahya, Morocco” to have a work and sustainable revenue, for example Aicha a woman with a good sense of negotiating commercialize our product in a weekly Market, Aicha deal with two providers, the first one provide steel, and the other one clay. She is now able to financially sustain her family; she went from living one day at a time and sinking into debts, to budgeting and forecasting how much money she will be able to save for future expenditures.

Impact: What is the impact of the work to date? Also describe the projected future impact for the coming years.

Until now, Aicha has sold 150 cook stoves, and we are considering to extend our production to other areas like “sidi bibi” in the south of Morocco, we also plan to provide our product to restaurant that uses traditional cook stoves. This new cook stove has so far spared the consumption of 60 tons of wood and reduced carbon emissions by 170 tons. The 500 families using the products are now saving up to 25$ per month and are sharing best practices to consume less fuel, get exposed fewer to harmful emissions and improve their living conditions by protecting their environment.

Spread Strategies: Moving forward, what are the main strategies for scaling impact?

KANOUN will first work with 3rd party distributors to use marketing and advertising strategies to encourage the adoption of cook stoves. We will then work to reach a national level which is a 40M $ market. Our next goal is Africa which represent a market of 926M dollars, this market is very accessible since we can customize every raw material available in order to create the relevant solutions adaptable to every context.
Sustainability

Financial Sustainability Plan: What is this solution’s plan to ensure financial sustainability?

Because KANOUN is a business and is based on the model cook stove sales instead of free distribution, this solution is financially sustainable through selling cook stoves and maintaining a margin above production costs.

Marketplace: Who else is addressing the problem outlined here? How does the proposed project differ from these approaches?

KANOUN is a locally sourced solution and the only cook stove that reduces drastically the consumption of wood and charcoal and offers a complete combustion of the used fuel. Even though KANOUN is more expensive than a traditional cook stove, it has a lifespan of 1 year and people save up enough money since they don’t have to buy new stoves regularly that break in no time.
Team

Founding Story

Founding story :Pottery happens to be one of the most popular handcrafts in Morocco. While we were looking for a stove that provides clean Air, we came across the improved cook stove solution. At that moment, we started thinking about teaching those potters how to use the handcraft they master to turn the row materials into a real product. After our research and experimentation in partnership with professors and laboratories, we ended up building a cook stove which revalorizes local materials and creates job opportunities. We have thus reached a brand new target market.

Team

We are a team of engineering students, and we believe that in this battle for life we could change this tough reality. Armed by our skills and our knowledge, we decided to look after this project, full of energy and motivation. We traveled many miles, we felt the pain of these people, we searched, we tried to find solutions, but we never gave up ! And then we succeeded ! Our team is our strength, our strength is in our harmony and our harmony defines our consisting and solid work.
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