Cookstove With Simple Technology for High Environmental Impact in Haiti

It’s always nice to have someone to look up to—and a project to look up to can be equally inspiring. This week, Designed Good is featuring The Adventure Project—an initiative that uses simple technology for high-impact environmental and health benefits. Over the past two years, The Adventure Project has brought 4,700 charcoal-efficient stoves to families in Haiti. The stoves show off one of the seemingly simpler feats in engineering, but the changes they make are sweeping. Each stove cuts charcoal use in half, which saves families 20 percent of their cooking expenses and saves six trees per year.

As children sit around the fire as their mothers cook dinner, inhaling the smoke equates to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. The closed design of the charcoal-efficient stove reduces carbon emissions and drastically reduces health risks of those in the vicinity. The stoves themselves are also built by women in Port-au-Prince, providing a steady income and a means of reinvesting in their communities.

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In this way, the stoves represent the link between great product design and humanitarian aid. 1:Face watches, who are funding The Adventure Project through the sale of their product, are mirroring this link by designing watches that give back to specific causes. Designed Good is featuring the watches in every color—and three blue watch purchases alone are enough to fund one charcoal-efficient stove.

We caught up with 1:Face founder and champion Fam Mirza, who told us more about 1:Face’s mission. “I grew up in a third world country for the first seven years of my life and did not experience the same pleasantries that we are blessed with in the United States,” Mirza explains, “After visiting the same community I lived in my early years, my eyes were opened to an opportunity to bring the much needed help to those in unfortunate situations.”

But the link between the design and the cause goes far beyond color. Indeed, the 1:Face watch has a universal aesthetic that parallels its social objectives. Mirza pointed out that the minimal design of the watch resonates with all age and gender brackets. “I believe the design appeals to all demographics, and by accomplishing this we are able to create change on a massive scale,” he explained. “The mirror face element of the watch [also] gives the consumer the idea that change lies within their individual contribution.”