Renewable Cooking Solution for All

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Renewable Cooking Solution for All

Gisenyi, RwandaDaa, Bhutan
Year Founded:
2013
Organization type: 
for profit
Project Stage:
Growth
Budget: 
$50,000 - $100,000
Website:
http://www.dazin.org
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Project Summary
Elevator Pitch

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

Dazin provides cooking fuel - for free to rural households and at below market prices to urban and commercial customers in Bhutan. Dazin addresses the lack of clean, reliable and renewable cooking fuel in developing countries while reducing green-house gases and generating jobs.

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

you see open firing cooking only in museums?
About Project

Problem: What problem is this project trying to address?

3 billion people in developing countries still use traditional fuels for cooking such as firewood, charcoal and animal dung. Globally 4 million people die each year due to harmful smoke released from open fires, impacting mostly women and children. Open fires causes deforestation, soil erosion also emits 25% of the world’s black carbon, a major cause of climate change. Dazin focus area, Bhutan has highest firewood consumption per capita globally.

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

Most obvious solution is to sell clean stoves as practiced by many other organisations. But the problem is How to sell and maintain efficient stoves to people earning less than $2 a day? Dazin collects free sustainably available biomass waste (forestry and agricultural waste) by people participation using extensive rural Collection Centres. Each household decides the quantity of collected biomass based on their requirements. Biomass waste is densified into fuel cookies in decentralized factories. People choose the free efficient stoves model (designed by Philips) and get the free fuel in return to those giving free biomass. The revenue is generated by selling surplus fuel cookies to others mostly in cities for less than competitor’s price.
Impact: How does it Work

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

A woman living in rural area providing 5 kg of biomass waste (whatever she usually collects) to our collection center generates 4.5 kg of fuel cookies. 1 kg of fuel cookies is given her for free in return, which used in our smokeless and efficient stove gives more energy compared to presently used 5 kg biomass by her. The remaining 3.5 kg of fuel cookies made from her contribution are sold in nearby cities at 30% lower price than petroleum gas so that her urban counterpart can get cost-effective and reliable cooking fuel. Dazin ensures that no trees are cut down due to our operations by involving the rural communities management group between household and a company. Bhutan Government provides forestry management training to the community.

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

We have proven our business model and provided smokeless cooking solution to more than 1000 people in Rwanda with our brand name Inyenyeri using fuel pellets. 98% of the rural households are still providing biomass by last 2 years (only 2% drop-out). The fuel saved from rural areas is sold in urban areas at 10% cheaper price than charcoal. Man who have never cooked before, has also started cooking with our product. We have started distributing 650 more stoves (impacting 3500 more people) in November 2013 after doing extensive field surveys for improving our service. We have established second fuel production factory in Rwanda after learning lessons. The rural households take the decision for the biomass type provided depending on the season. In Bhutan, we are launching our first ever people participation fuel cookies production plant in early 2014 with the aim to expand in South Asia.
Sustainability

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

Dazin is in fuel generation business. Dazin generates most of its revenue by selling fuel cookies, not by stoves. All the installed factories reach breakeven in maximum 2 years. The payback time for each free stove is just 3 months due to fuel sales. After 2 years, Dazin will launch social franchising model to expand rapidly in which rural communities can own the factory by giving a royalty fee, ensuring earnings for the community and company.

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

NRDCL in Bhutan produces and sells briquettes (from 2 factories) made from saw-millers waste. NRDCL has to transport the sawdust after buying from 14 different saw-millers. For Dazin, all the raw material provided is decided by rural households and more than 500 community forest management group in Bhutan. NRDCL does not provide any efficient stove resulting in green house gas emissions and low profit margins. Dazin provides range of efficient stoves plus fuel combo and after sales services. Bhutan also has 100% dependency of Petroleum Gas imports from India which is unreliable and expensive.
Team

Founding Story

I was working as an engineer in a multinational company in India but I was more attracted to rural life and problems faced by the masses of rural society due to my travels. I noticed open firing smoke from cooking as one of the biggest problems and started working in cook-stoves projects after leaving my job in 2010. Most of my time was dedicated to read literature and try to understand the root cause of the problem. I got an opportunity to work on same issues in Africa. Over there, I realized that reliable fuel supply is as important as efficient stove. I wrote down various fuel production models using business as a tool. This idea was piloted in Rwanda along with a social entrepreneur and we have only got positive feedback from people.
About You
Organization:
Dazin
About You
First Name

Deepak

Last Name

Ashwani

LinkedIn URL
About Your Organization
Organization Name

Dazin

Organization Country

, DAG, Daa

Country where this project is creating social impact

, GS, Gisenyi

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Impact
Full Impact Potential: What are the main spread strategies moving forward? (Please consider geographic spread, policy reform, and independent replication/adoption of the idea or other mechanisms.)

Dazin success depends on increasing reach by fuel cookies factories. Dazin can rapidly increase the number of factories by build and maintain model in which the cost of establishment is done by the rural communities and households. Dazin will maintain and sell fuel cookies in urban areas by taking a royalty fee from each owner. The owner-operator is responsible for all costs and entitled to all revenues. Staff training is included in the purchase price and maintenance and repair are provided on a fee-for-service basis. Dazin aim to spread across more than 500 community forests in Bhutan.

Barriers: What barriers might hinder the success of your project and how do you plan to overcome them?

Rural customers cannot bring enough biomass resulting in low fuel production. Our Rwandan project has proven that rural households constantly bring the biomass. It is also possible that other improved stoves project ventures in Bhutan push out our operations. Unless the venture addresses fuel, it is not serious competitor, and so far all other improved stoves ventures do not use fuel-side approach. Biogas based projects provides fuel but limited feedstock in Bhutan is blocking it to expand biogas plants. For any technical issues, factory manager gets training from our Danish machine provider.

Sustainability
Partnerships: Tell us about your partnerships.

Dazin has collaborated with the rural communities to handle supply chain of biomass and to suggest improvements in the stoves. Dazin is in partnership with C.F. Nielsen, Denmark to buy the fuel cookies production machines. Dazin has also collaborated with Africa Clean Energy to supply gasifying cooking stoves (designed by Philips Engineers and considered as world’s best biomass based cooking stove by University of Berkeley, California).

Closing the Loop
How does your project primarily ensure that feedback delivers results?

Create an environment where people give feedback freely.

Please elaborate on your answer to the above question.

Dazin deals directly with the customers by collection centers and retail stores by focusing on women as a beneficiary. Dazin targets urban and rural households in Bhutan that use wood or other biomass residues for residential energy consumption. People participation is used to collect the raw material and the type of raw material is decided by each household. All the retail outlets are also used to take the feedback from the customers using our stove plus fuel combo. The Company also directly communicates with LPG users who are suffering due to high cost and unreliable supply of LPG.

Languages: In what languages are you able to read and write fluently?

English.

2nd Round Questions
Thinking about your feedback loop; what information are you trying to get from whom, to whom, and to bring about what change?
What is the purpose of your feedback loop?

If other, please specify
What mediums or mechanisms do you use to collect feedback? (check all that apply)

If other, please specify
Could you briefly describe the way you collect the feedback?
What mechanisms are in place to protect people from retribution?

If other, please specify
What are the immediate benefits or incentives for people to provide feedback?

If other, please specify
How do you ensure new and marginalized voices are heard?

If other, please specify
What are the incentives for the intended recipient to act on the feedback?

If other, please specify
How does the feedback mechanism close the loop with those who provided feedback in the first place?

If other, please specify
How is feedback published/transparent?

If other, please specify
Give two concrete examples of how feedback loops have brought a program or policy more in line with citizens’ desires.
If there was one thing you could change to increase the impact of your feedback loop, what would it be?
What are your biggest challenges or barriers in “closing the feedback loop”?

If other, please specify
Are you aware of The Feedback Store?

What are the main uses you can envision for the Feedback Store?
What is the one thing you would most like to see changed to improve the competition process?
What are you doing to make sure that feedback providers know that they are empowered by the information they can give and that they know exactly what the information they are providing?
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