Green Energy Times supports addressing the problems of indoor air pollution. Unvented fires kill about as many people as outdoor air pollution from fossil fuels. About 10,000 people die from indoor air pollution every day, and many, possibly most, of them are poor women are cooking meals.
Solavore’s Indiegogo Campaign will Fund Distribution of Solar Ovens in India, Cambodia and Kenya
Social Enterprise Announces Solavore Works Program for Developing Countries
St. Paul, MN – November 23, 2015 Solavore, LLC, a women-owned social enterprise committed to the manufacture and global distribution of 100% fuel-free clean cooking technology, announced that it is launching an Indiegogo campaign today to initiate a program called Solavore Works that distributes solar ovens to individual families in India, Cambodia and Kenya. Nearly 3 billion families today cook on indoor open fires, resulting in serious respiratory disease and climate-altering deforestation. Founded by former NeXT Computer and 3Com senior operations executive, Anne Patterson, Solavore™ is the manufacturer of the Sport solar oven, a 100% renewable energy solar oven.
Every solar oven purchased helps to fund a Solavore Sport somewhere in the world where an open fire is still the main kitchen appliance. Solavore Works is Solavore’s corporate social responsibility program that supports projects in the developing world. The benefits that Solavore Works brings to communities in the developing world include:
- Respiratory health: freedom from common diseases such as pneumonia, which kills more women and children each year than malaria or AIDS
- The removal of one of the main causes of deforestation in the developing world
- Savings in energy expenditures, which can range up to 25-50% of a family’s budget
- Water pasteurization and food dehydration
- The ability for girls to attend school rather than spend their days collecting firewood with their mothers
- Increased income generation, enabling a woman to sell the food that she bakes or dehydrates in her solar oven
“As a social enterprise, our approach to poverty reduction is more in terms of enabling opportunity and less in terms of aid,” said Anne Patterson, CEO of Solavore. “Not just a source of clean food, we expect these ovens to help their owners develop goods to sell in the marketplace, and local assembly of ovens creates jobs as does the sales, distribution, and support of new ovens.”
The Solavore Sport is a virtually indestructible, retained-heat box-type solar oven made of rugged, durable, lightweight injection-molded nylon resin. Surround insulation and two-pot capacity enable unattended, family-size year-round cooking. The included water pasteurization indicator adds clean water to the Sport’s versatility, along with slow-cooking, baking, and de-hydrating. The Sport solar oven is an industry leader in price, performance, family-size capacity and rugged durability. The solar oven, in conjuction with a small, efficient wood burning stove when sunlight is not available, can reduce a family’s fuel consumption up to 80%.
The campaign’s featured perk is BOGO – Buy One Solavore Sport for your family, Give One to a family in a Solavore Works program. In addition to this, a collection of perks carrying the outdoors, solar, travel themes include:
- 100% Silk Scarf from Cambodia
- Nick Brandt (Big Life) photo book, signed copy
- Secrid Mini Wallet (contributed by SportiqueSF)
- Fjallraven Backpack (contributed by SportiqueSF)
- Silicone Solavore trivets/pot-lifters
- “I’m a Solavore BAGGU” re-usable grocery bag
- USB Recharger contributed by GoalZero
- Kristin Laing Designs Solavore necklace
- Nomad Portable Solar Panel contributed by GoalZero
- 1 week yoga retreat in Culebra, PR
- ThermoTent TT3 by ThermoTents
- Nightswapping.com: One Level-4 Standard Night
- Solavore CEO Anne Patterson cooks for your social or corporate event
Via profits from the sale of the Sport in the developed world, Solavore aims to empower women through “caring capitalism”. Solavore will direct the funds from this Indiegogo campaign to Solavore Works’ developing country programs which will expand to develop micro-loans and other consumer finance programs.
Solavore is a women-owned social enterprise whose mission is to promote clean-cooking technology around the world. The Solavore Sport oven was purpose-built by solar energy executives from 3M Corp. and University of Arizona for maximum efficiency, durability and ease of use. Solavore pledges to use its profits to remain independent and self- sustaining while providing clean cooking alternatives to the world’s 3 billion people who are still cooking over open fires. Over 20,000 Solavore Sport ovens have been deployed in 60 countries. Solavore is an active member of the Global Alliance for Clean Cook Stoves and Solar Cookers International. For further information please visit www.solavore.com. Follow Solavore on Facebook at www.facebook.com/solavore, on Instagram and on Twitter @Solavore.
For further Information contact:
Cathy Clarke
CNC Associates
O: 508-833-8533
M: 617-527-2089
E: cathy@cncassocs.com
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