Chulha

Chulha, healthy indoor cookingPhilanthropy by Design

Chulha, healthy indoor cooking2 Chulha, healthy indoor cooking 3

Contents

Philanthropy by Design | 4

Killer in the kitchen | 6

Design brief and initial idea | 8

From idea to concept development | 10

Stakeholder workshops | 14

Design Innovations | 16

Testing and user feedback | 18

Final design and its benefits | 20

Challenges and achievements | 24

What now and where to? | 26

Conclusions | 28

Acknowledgements | 30

For many women in rural India spending several hours a day cooking

over an indoor open stove is the norm. What these women fail

to realize is that there is a invisible killer in their kitchen: burning

biomass fuels causes almost 500,000 deaths every year in India alone.

(Source: WHO 2009)

This booklet illustrates how Philips Design’s Philanthropy by Design

initiative can use its design expertise to help these women continue

with their traditional culture, while empowering them to select a way

of cooking that does not endanger their lives. It describes the brief

and the open-innovation process used in creating the ‘Chulha’ –

a low-smoke stove that prevents sickness and death from indoor

air pollution due to cooking activities with biomass fuels in rural

low-income communities.

The Chulha not only benefits the end-user but also various

stakeholders active in the value chain of smokeless stoves. The

production and distribution of the Chulha stimulates the creation

of local entrepreneurial skills and provides low cost, affordable

solutions that reach those who really need them.


Philanthropy by Design

The philanthropy principle

An increasing number of companies choose to help communities

by donating their products or expertise to special projects.

Known as ‘strategic philanthropy’, this approach is driven

by the desire to combine social responsibility commitments

while supporting the company’s objectives to enhance brand

image, strengthen employee engagement, increase trust and

customers loyalty, and even develop new ways of working

and innovative solutions.

Philanthropy by Design

Back in 2005, Philips Design initiated the Philanthropy by

Design program with the vision of philanthropic giving

through donating creativity to design meaningful solutions that

empower some of the more fragile categories of society. The

program launched with a workshop entitled ‘A sustainable

design vision – design for sense and simplicity’, in which NGOs

shared some of their biggest challenges with Philips Design.

The Philanthropy by Design program aims to create and deploy

humanitarian propositions addressing social and environmental

issues. Leveraging Philips Design’s creative expertise and

socio-cultural knowledge, the program channels design talent

to develop meaningful and sustainable solutions that can

contribute to a better future for all. It also opens up new

perspectives in co-creating value through cooperation with

‘unconventional’ partners such as international organizations,

public bodies and social players with complementary

expertise and values.

Chulha; the first Philanthropic proposition

The Chulha is a low-tech stove for healthy indoor cooking

and is the first proposition resulting from the Philanthropy

by Design program. What’s significant of the Chulha is the

attempt to support the work of NGOs to create better

living conditions for very low-income users, stimulating local

entrepreneurial activities based on a deep understanding of

local needs and conditions. In the case of the Chulha, Philips

donates Intellectual Property and design to local stakeholders

as a philanthropic contribution to sustainable development.

This model of production and distribution engages and

stimulates the local infrastructure.


In 2007, Philips Design’s Philanthropy by Design initiative

focused on the issue of indoor air pollution caused by cooking

with biomass fuel in open stoves. The ambition was to fight

respiratory problems and deaths of many women and children

that, in rural areas around the world, still cook indoor burning

wood. Our design community worked together with local

Killer in the kitchen

stakeholders, including the end-user, in rural and semi-urban

India, in order to create a stove that:

- Burns bio-mass fuel efficiently and directs cleaned smoke

out of the house through a chimney

- Stimulates the formation of local entrepreneurial forces for

its production and distribution

“ Total world deaths from indoor air pollution due to burning solid fuels are estimated at 1,619,000 each year. India alone accounts for 25% of such deaths: almost 500,000 of the victims are women and children”

Source: WHO 2009


The design brief challenged the Philips Design team to come up

with a low-smoke solution for healthy and safe cooking able to

fit the local socio-cultural and infrastructural conditions of rural

and semi-urban contexts of India. More specifically, objectives

were to design, develop and test a solution:

- Able to reduce indoor pollution and therefore health-related

diseases

- Able to respect local culinary habits and cooking behaviors

- Easy to access (locally produced and distributed), use

and maintain

- At low cost, to facilitate its diffusion and scalability

In order to feed the initial creative process, primary input from

NGOs and a first exploratory study in the field were used to

gather a basic understanding of local people’s cooking needs

and indoor air pollution in rural areas.

Design brief and initial idea


At this stage of the design process, a broader and deeper

research in the field was necessary to collect all information

required to develop a truly effective, context-specific solution.

Information was collected on local production and distribution

channels, people’s insights on various cooking behaviors and

culinary habits, user interaction with available devices, and

people’s purchasing power.

The design team – with the support of Green Earth, a local

sustainable development agency dealing with grass root

behaviors and social studies – gathered deeper, more specific

insights into people by carrying out research in the villages

of Kerwadi, Phaltan, Maltan and Karad, all in the state of

Maharashtra. The research consisted of an initial 3-day visit

and introductory meetings with people from the villages,

followed by one week of observations and in-depth interviews

targeting four rural and two semi-urban families. The

interviews, conducted in the local language (Marathi), were

kept quite informal. All the family members were observed,

with particular attention paid to the women who were

carrying out cooking activities.

Infrastructural conditions, production facilities and

distribution channels for stoves currently in use were

investigated using the network of ARTI, an NGO with

considerable expertise in the smokeless cooking domain.

A needs analysis of stakeholders already active in the business

From idea to concept development

of smokeless and non-smokeless stoves was performed by

organizing various focus groups involving local entrepreneurs

and self-help groups, in order to understand the major issues

they face with regard to current solutions and the replication

and scalability of their activities.

Current issues

It soon became clear from the results of the research that the

key local design requirements called for a cooking solution able

to fulfill the following physical and socio-cultural conditions:

- Adaptability to different biomass fuels (from wood to cow

dung), available in different seasons and locations

- Adaptability to people’s needs when cooking ‘chappati’

(bread), steaming rice, boiling water

- Adaptability to the use of different, non-standard cooking

vessels

- Adaptability to various logistic constraints


Variety of Biomass fuel collection and squatting

while cooking and preparing.

Lack of basic infrastructure and amenities and damage during

use – maintenance and thermal instability of materials.


User insights, and the findings relating to stakeholders’ needs

were used in a local workshop involving the various players

engaged in the design process (ARTI, SEDT, SHGs, two local

entrepreneurs and two users). The workshop, intended to

define the key product features desired, involved 16 participants

who were invited to share their viewpoints and concerns in

informal dialogues. The dialogues were then followed by

a session to conceptualize ideal stoves and their expected

performance within the contexts under investigation. During

this phase, several pages of insights (context-of-life cards)

offering a stakeholder’s needs analysis – including end-users’

needs – were circulated among ‘experts’ in the production,

distribution and use of wood-burning stoves, for their feedback

and refinement.

At the end of the workshop, key design features were

pinpointed and prioritized as ‘easy to use and maintain’,

‘context specific’, ‘flexible’, ‘able to radiate value’, and

‘accommodating’.

Stakeholder workshops

ARTI – Appropriate Rural Technology Institute

Technology research/development and training

NGO, technology integrator / provider to rural

communities for employment generation and

improving overall quality of rural life

SEDT – Socio Economic Development

Trust an NGO for field implementation and

development programs. Rural intelligence and

people mobilization on field

Two SHGs – Self-Help Groups Mahalaxmi

Bachat Gat & Dhanalaxmi Bachat Gat have

established a highly efficient socio – economic

network to empower women to become

entrepreneurs. Agents of change. Key link to

rural users.

Two local industrial entrepreneurs Rural and

Semi Urban – Individuals / Small Industrial

Units driven by economic and social

development in the long run.


In the next step, a fine-tuning process conducted by the

design team proposed the following major design innovations:

- Modularity to facilitate distribution, installation and

reparability of both the stove and the chimney

- Mechanisms to ensure the chimney could be cleaned safely

(currently, where chimneys are available, they are monolithic

blocks which can be cleaned only from the roof)

- Improvement to construction (the weak bridge in current

stoves is a common problem)

- Flexibility of use for roasting and steaming, additional

functional features and appealing design format.

These innovations were incorporated in two versions of our

‘Chulha’: ‘Sampoorna’ and ‘Saral’. In collaboration with ARTI,

both versions have been translated into real applications. The

‘Saral’ is a double oven with a hotbox which costs between

9 to 11 Euros. The ‘Sampoorna’ offers a more sophisticated

solution, including a steamer, at a cost between 13 to 15 Euros.

The stoves and their chimneys are mainly made of concrete

modular components, covered with clay. Their modularity

facilitates the replacement of broken parts over time as well

as transportation. The stoves can be packed in recycled woven

polypropylene bags, which are by-products of waste from

agricultural storage, etc. The moulds are made of FRP – fiber

reinforced plastic – at a cost of 183 Euros, with the capacity

to turn out more than 3,000 pieces.

Design innovations

- Adaptability of use (different cooking

functions) and appealing design format

- Flexibility of use (biomass / wood) and

burn efficiency

- Easy transportation and cleaning of the

stove and the chimney (modularity)

- material improvements and easier

manufacturing


Prototyping at the ARTI training centre in Phaltan, and testing

in rural and semi-urban homes, involved SHG representatives

and stove users. Feedback regarding improvements suggested

a few modifications to the initial versions of the stove.

Design interventions included technical changes related to

the manufacturing process to optimize gas flow within the

stoves and improve their thermal efficiency, an easier way of

assembling components such as self locking pieces for do-it-

yourself assembly, the introduction of a soot collector, and

a solution for fixing chimneys to the wall. Modified versions

were then installed in 12 homes for further trial and to

evaluate their technical performance.

Technical testing: College Pune and Approvecho

During the product development and testing phase, a technical

assessment of the Chulha has been conducted in laboratory to

define its eco-efficiency and emissions. Evaluation included a

certification of stove’s thermal performance, fuel consumption,

particles and carbon monoxide emissions. Stoves under testing

used bio-organic waste. The firewood used as fuel was free

from any potential pollutants.

Testing and user feedback

Quotes from users

“The stove is good for cooking regular meals.”

“ The second pot is very helpful for boiling

water / milk’”

“Most of the smoke goes out of the house”.

“ The house used to be full of smoke but now

it is much more clear”.

“We like the way it looks”.

“I like working at it”.

Test conducted: a few comparative values Saral Sampoorna Traditional

- Time requested for boiling 1 litre water 11.5 minutes 14 minutes 22 minutes

- Fuel requested for boiling 1 litre water 225gm 315gm 415gm

- Heating effeciency highest lower lowest

- Rate of cooling lowest lower highest

- Soot retention 100mg 80mg 20mg


The value co-creation process undertaken during this journey

of understanding and learning has resulted in a stove that makes

indoor cooking healthier, cleaner and faster when compared

with traditional indoor open cooking fires.

The Chulha also claims to be:

- Simple to use and easy to maintain

- Produced and distributed locally

- Relatively cheap

- Suitable for different culinary habits.

It also helped to go one step further. According to Dr. P. Karve

of ARTI, the overall research and design contribution has

helped in proposing a “Chulha that has a better chance of

succeeding than other concrete smokeless stoves because

it is more attractive, and has improved functional features”

(Karve 2007). It has helped to shape a stove that is easy to

handle, from manufacturing to installation and maintenance.

“The ‘Chulha’ and its chimney are easy to transport thanks

to their modular design. They are quick to assemble and

broken parts can be easily replaced over time” (Karve 2007).

Final design and its benefitsSampoorna (meaning ‘Complete’) with integral steamer:

price around 13-15 Euro


Technical product features bringing benefits include:

Bypass duct for efficient draft

- It ensures equal heat distribution and right turbulence under

the first and second pot, resulting in faster cooking and

boiling.

- It helps bring down the boiling time by 3 minutes, reaching

boiling time in 10-11 minutes: standard stoves boils around

22 minutes while our previous Chulha version (without

bypass) between 13-14 minutes.

Soot collector for cleaner air

- The soot collector reduces the amount of soot that reaches

the chimney and therefore both the risk of pipe obstruction

and the time required for chimney maintenance.

- Soot can be collected by passing the gases through a zig-zag

path in the chimney chamber at the stove level.

- This path built as a separate assembly can be removed and

scrubbed to clean the soot.

- As soot is collected at the earlier point the frequency of

cleaning chimney is reduced.

Chimney connector for easy maintenance and

installation

- Conventional chimneys, being monolithic blocks, needed

to be cleaned from the roof.

- Earlier chimney design was splitting chimney in 3 parts to

allow the cleaning from inside. However, this created an

issue of soot falling on the wall and surrounding from the

fixed piece during cleaning.

- Latest chimney design improvement moves the joint up

so that the top part of the pipe – connected to the roof –

is smaller and the fixed pipe -connected to the chimney –

is longer. the connection in-between holds the pipes and

when from cover is openend can help cleaning the fixed

part – ensuring all the soot alls in the chulha.


- Building community trust

- Collaborating with stakeholders with various interests

- Beyond ‘deep listen’ to ‘community engagement’

- Communicating value and benefits

The route to create the chulha was not without obstacles.

Initially, we faced a communication barrier that slowed

down interaction with the key stakeholders and end-users,

and therefore the entire design and development process.

We had to learn to speak a ‘language’ able to:

- create convergence of different (political, social and

economic) interests

- give a ‘voice’ to ‘vulnerable’ end-users, bringing their

viewpoints into the dialogue with multiple stakeholders

with precise, and often consolidated, opinions

Such a ‘language’ could be developed only through a long

and patient process of intensive listening and engagement.

An effort that, in the end, paid off.

With regard to environmental aspects in particular, it has been

estimated that, in theory, the ‘Sampoorna’ and ‘Saral’ stoves

could reduce indoor air pollution from smoke by up to 90%

in comparison with indoor open cooking fires. What’s more,

technical evaluations conducted by ARTI and College of Pune

show that exhaust gases, carbon monoxide emissions and fuel

consumption were reduced in comparison with other concrete-

based indoor smokeless stoves.

Challenges and achievements

However, no official quality standards of reference are currently

available to judge the technical performance of concrete stoves.

Various NGOs use different criteria to evaluate performance

and different values for acceptable emissions. As a consequence,

it becomes difficult to scientifically prove the added value

of the ‘Sampoorna’ and the ‘Saral’ in technical terms. At the

moment, our intention is to go beyond evaluating the technical

performance of our stoves, to fully assess their economic and

social performance over the long-term, in order to verify all

the benefits they claim to deliver. Current plans include a small

social impact study that will run from September 2009 to

February 2010.


So far, to facilitate replication and diffusion of the ‘Sampoorna’

and ‘Saral’ stoves, design innovations have been recorded in

sketches and technical drawings. A comprehensive package

of communication and training materials, including posters

and videos, has also been created to explain how to produce,

distribute, install and maintain the stoves. With the support

of local NGOs, the intention is to allow Self-Help Groups

and citizens to use this knowledge for free. The hope is

that this will create not only better living conditions for the

end users – women and children – but also stimulate local

entrepreneurial activities centered on the production and

distribution of safe and healthy stoves.

ARTI will continue to play an essential role in all of this. It has

included our solutions in its portfolio of stoves (‘gas-fired’,

double wood-burning stove, simple concrete stove) for rural

and semi-urban communities, and it trains local stakeholders

to produce and distribute the most appropriate solution for

the selected target audience, according to income level and

infrastructural conditions.

The current production and distribution model proposed for

the ‘Sampoorna’ and ‘Saral’ stoves can easily be adapted as a

decentralized model, in which a trained entrepreneur invests

in a mould that is able to cover the demand of a couple of

villages, with 50-60 households each. However, the aim is to

shift to a semi-decentralized model where localization takes

What now and where to?

place at district level: with this model of scalability, the new

entrepreneur will be able to serve up to 30-40 villages, with

200-250 households each.

Besides the activities carried out by ARTI, ERIN Foundation

approached us with the intention of stimulating the broad

diffusion of the ‘Sampoorna’ and ‘Saral’ stoves in the rural

areas of Karnataka state (Southern India). Knowledge transfer

from our side has taken place and replication activities from

ERIN have started. Our ambition is to answer requests from

NGOs spread throughout India, but also in countries such as

Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc., where these stoves can provide

appropriate solutions to very similar people’s needs and

culinary habits.

Social impact study

In collaboration with ERIN foundation, by considering the

installation of 40 new Chulhas, we want to verify and assess

possible socio-economic and environmental implications of

our solution over space and time

The study will mainly focus on a better understanding of the

value generated for the end-users and their family members in

their contexts of living. However, it will also try to understand

the benefits generated for the key local stakeholders affected

and/or involved in its value network.

This pilot study will take place in rural areas around

Bangalore, over a period of 6 months

General questions to be addressed:

- What kind of benefits do the end-users experience, in

terms of functional performance, healthcare benefits,

potential wellbeing claims and lifestyle advantages?

- How would the local communities benefit from the

diffusion of the chulha, in terms of healthcare awareness

and local socio-economic development?

- What is the value / benefits created for the key

stakeholders involved?

- In which way do the local natural environment benefit?


How have design and creativity contributed to sustainable

development in this overall humanitarian experience? What

are the major lessons learned? Although it is difficult to

provide a complete evaluation of an experiment still in

progress, it is possible to outline certain considerations

about the approach used and the results achieved to date.

From the very start of the experience, adopting a process in

which designers and researchers operate in a multidisciplinary

team, in an open dialogue with NGOs and various local

stakeholders bringing knowledge from the field, was essential

in envisioning an effective human-centered solution.

By developing a tangible design application, we were able to

bring our Philips brand to life and, consequently, establish

conditions for a return on brand equity: either by putting an

appropriate solution to the problem in place directly, or by

enabling local players to replicate and diffuse such a solution

autonomously. We have used our design knowledge beyond

traditional tasks of technical product design. Our designers,

often used to working in different domains and across various

businesses, have demonstrated that it is possible to assume a

steering role in organizing a proper network of competencies,

connecting multiple players with complementary expertise,

Conclusions

and facilitating a value co-creation process right up to its

implementation. Operating in contexts of developing and

emerging economies, we have certainly learned some basic

ground rules that should be considered in future projects,

especially when addressing under-served people and problems

within unfamiliar territories”.

First of all, we have realized that an understanding of the

local physical infrastructural, economic and socio-cultural

conditions is imperative before making any technological

choices. The challenge in coming up with an accessible,

affordable and sustainable solution for local needs is to

evaluate the best technological solution at a given moment

in time, rather than opt for the best available technology

(which is typical of a technology push approach). With our

Chulha for instance, insights from the targeted users and

local stakeholders helped us to understand current barriers

to cultural acceptance, as well as constraints on product

dissemination. Based on these insights the most feasible and

appropriate technological answer to achieve our objectives

could be given.

The design phase should be treated as a continuous and

iterative process, which goes backwards and forwards in

relation to the feedback received when the solution is tested

in the field. Any change and adjustment made to the initial

proposition needs to be evaluated in the field, not only in terms

of technical performance, but also in terms of possible far

reaching effects. For instance, feedback from evaluation of the

Chulha provided information to inspire improvements beyond

product and usage performance, to include instructions for

easy and cost-effective installation, distribution and production

– aspects that have stimulated new design interventions which

could result in the optimization of the entire value network.

Last but not least, it should be noted that the co-design

approach resulted not only in a way of delivering a solution

that better fit the context of application, but also enhanced the

potential benefits of the stakeholders involved, democratizing

the value creation process, and therefore increasing the

chance of implementing valuable solutions for all. Indeed,

with this approach, users and stakeholders worked together

in a participatory process where they all put their own

interests on the table. Key, in this regard, was to go beyond

listening intensively to local communities to acquiring their

true engagement, where users were even empowered in the

decision making process.

The question facing us now is this: how do we capitalize on

what we have learned? Our hope is that we can continue

make use of our imagination and design skills. It is our belief

that imagination, creativity and holistic thinking from design

communities – if they are underpinned by solid research to

help understand people and their socio-cultural and natural

environments – can become important assets to break down

boundaries and help move sustainable development forward.

After all, sustainability is, and remains, a collective creative

process of change.


Community stakeholders:

- Mahalaxmi Bachat Gat, Kerwadi, Parbhani District, India

- Dr Suryakant Kulkarni, Socio Economic Development Trust,

Kerwadi, Dist Parbhani

- Dhanalaxmi Bachat Gat, Phaltan, Dist Pune, India

- Mrs. Ashabai’s Family, Kerwadi, Dist. Parbhani, India

- Mr. Bhosle and Family, Maltan, Dist Pune, India

Local entrepreneurs:

- MG Rural Technologies, Karad, District Satara, India

- Vaishali Bhosale, Individual entrepreneur, Maltan,

District Pune

- Shakuntala Ingale, Kerwadi, District Parbhani

Project partners (ARTI)

- Dr Priayadarshani Karve, Appropriate Rural Technology

Institute, Phaltan, India

- Research team at Phaltan centre of ARTI.

Research support

Green Earth Consulting, Pune, India

Acknowledgements

Perfomance testing and feedback

- College of Engineering, Pune, India

- Approvecho, Pondicherri, India

Philips Design team:

Core Team:

Unmesh Kulkarni, Praveen Mareguddi, Simona Rocchi,

Bas Griffioen

Philanthropy by Design program owner:

Yasu Kusume

Philanthropy by Design program founder:

Stefano Marzano

References:

- World Health Organization studies on indoor pollution

- ITDG studies

- Aprovecho

- ARTI research

Chulha

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Transcript of Chulha