An Illinois Wesleyan University alum has come up with a more environmentally friendly way to cook for residents on one Caribbean island.
Kevin Adair produces eco-friendly stoves used in the Dominican Republic and Haiti for a nonprofit he runs. He's now working with his alma mater to build prototypes of the stoves at IWU's Petrick Idea Center.
Adair presented to about 25 students on the enterprise he co-founded, Fuego del Sol [FdS]. Billing itself as a nonprofit “social-eco enterprise,” FdS is primarily a recycling operation, using paper and biomass waste to power a clean-cooking initiative in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
Most cooking in Haiti uses charcoal on lightly contained stoves, a process that uses fuel inefficiently and exposes cooks to high levels of toxic gases like carbon monoxide [CO]. Trees are harvested and burned by producers to yield charcoal, creating further pollution and hastening deforestation on the island.
Adair and Haitian entrepreneur Frantz “Frankie” Fanfan founded FdS in 2005 in the Dominican Republic. Initially intending to aid with water purification, Adair said locals identified cooking as a problem more in need of new solutions. The nonprofit offered solar stoves at first, from which FdS draws its name.
Listening to those living on the island to best address their concerns was a recurring theme of Adair’s remarks. Fanfan identified, for example, that fire stoves with recycled fuel would be more marketable than solar ones. FdS also found success by having donated stoves in schools serve as a test and introduction to their product in communities.
“And the people who cook with them every day as part of their regular job in the school cooking program end up saying, ‘OK, how can I have this at my house?’” Adair said. “And that’s the opportunity to introduce ecological cooking in the home.”
When it operated primarily in the Port-au-Prince area, FdS was compensated for its recycling services by entities like the city’s embassies and the United Nations, which it leveraged to offer stoves and briquette fuel at lower rates. Recent unrest in the country spurred a move to Anse-a-Pitre in the south of the country, where FdS is adopting a similar model with new partners.
FdS is working on the ninth version of its stove now. Hallmarks of FdS's designs include a contained combustion chamber and chimney to dramatically cut pollution exposure for cooks. Though charcoal is, in isolation, a more energy-dense fuel than recycled briquettes, FdS stoves are efficient and more than make up the difference, Adair said. Adair said briquettes are also significantly cheaper than charcoal, though while stoves are being paid off over the course of a year, total costs are comparable. At a price of about $50, purchasers receive the stove halfway through a year of payment, a financing structure locals suggested.
Adair said work with his professors at Illinois Wesleyan was invaluable in optimizing the stove design over time. Himself the holder of a master’s in behavioral economics, Adair stressed the value in an education that brings together people with many areas of interest. Students in attendance seemed to agree, including Matt Molsen, a Junior environmental studies major.
“People sort of learn how to do all sorts of different things. That can come with a little bit of uncertainty, but we can realize we can use all the tools we have in our toolbox to accomplish some great goals,” Molsen said.
Other students commented the meeting had a good turnout, and believed those present would be eager to volunteer their ideas and time at FdS and similar endeavors.
As seems to be a trend for FdS’s history, there are ideas for the future.
Adair said Haitians already engage in plastic recycling to create products like building materials, a market he thinks adapted stoves could pierce similarly to cooking; an offer of a lower-pollution, more efficient solution. He also believes FdS could be a model for other areas where cleaner cooking would improve public health, like some areas in Nepal.
