Philips chulha

Philanthropy for Design Innovating for those most in need:

Phillips Chulha cooking stove

https://www.90yearsofdesign.philips.com/article/10

SUMMARY:

More than 1.6 million people die annually due to smoke inhalation from indoor, wood-burning stoves. Philips Design came up with an idea to tackle the problem, as part of “Philanthropy by Design,” a program that looks to promote social empowerment through knowledge sharing, creativity, and codesign.

An excellent example of what can be achieved by such an approach is the Chulha smokeless stove. The story of the Chulha effectively began in September 2005, when the Philips Design global community came together in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, for a workshop entitled “A Sustainable Design Vision—Design for Sense & Simplicity.” Approximately 80 design ideas emerged. After the workshop, these ideas were filtered by criteria, such as compliance with Philips's corporate strategy, social investment policy alignment, technological feasibility, and Millennium Development Goals fit (see www.un.org/millenniumgoals).

In the end, the proposal deemed most appropriate was a smokeless wood-burning stove, initially intended for rural and semi-urban India. “This idea seemed to have the best chance of helping the socially disadvantaged through leveraging our expertise and capabilities without involving sophisticated and expensive technologies,” says Simona Rocchi, Director of Sustainable Design at Philips Design in Eindhoven. The stove would be simple to use and maintain, locally produced and distributed, relatively cheap, easily made, and able to significantly reduce indoor pollution. The last point is a major issue. Respiratory illness affects the health of the huge number of people living in developing societies who still cook indoors with biomass fuels (e.g., wood, dung).

Over the course of a five-month period, a three-person design team from Philips Design in Pune, India, turned the initial product idea into two field-tested prototypes. This collaborative effort involved local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), entrepreneurs, self-help groups, and a few families. It soon became clear from the research that any successful stove would have to accept different biomass fuels; be widely available in different seasons and locations; adapt to people's needs when cooking chapatti (bread), steaming rice, boiling water; and be able to hold different, non-standard cooking vessels.

A concept definition workshop followed with various relevant stakeholders (local NGOs, potential users, and entrepreneurs). The main problems associated with the stoves were discussed, along with the design proposals for the Chulha. “For example, people liked the idea of modularity and the steamer integrated into the stove,” says Unmesh Kulkarni, Senior Design/Account Manager at Philips Design, Pune. At the end of the workshop, key concept features were pinpointed and then depicted in detailed design sketches.

Two stoves have since been developed: The Sampoorna is an all-in-one unit intended for cooking/boiling with an integrated steamer for preparing rice, lentils, and so on. The Saral is a modular system with a basic cooking block that allows for the addition of various other accessories. It has been estimated that compared with traditional cooking fires, the Sampoorna and Saral reduce indoor smoke pollution by up to 90 percent. The Sampoorna will cost roughly €8; the Saral €5. “We estimate that approximately 50 percent of the 700 to 800 million people living in rural and semi-rural areas in India who currently cook using biomass fuels could afford the stoves at this price,” says Kulkarni.

Full article

http://www.design.philips.com/about/design/designnews/newvaluebydesign/helping400million_people_give_up_smoking.page.

Great design can achieve great things, not least in helping to build a better future for all. Philips has long applied the creativity of design to help address some of the world's most significant challenges with the aim of benefitting those most in need. This is the story of design for empowerment - the philanthropic realization of the company's brand promise of innovation and you.

Back in 2005, Philips Design started the 'Philanthropy by Design' program with the vision of extending its philanthropic giving through the donation of creativity. The program's aim was to develop meaningful solutions. Solutions that did not aim to generate profit but would, instead, address some of the world's social and environmental issues, facilitate 'frugal innovation' together with NGO partners and further the company's belief in responsible design. This work is being leveraged even more fully through the Philips Foundation (established in 2014 as a charitable organization in its own right) but started with ground-breaking projects such as the Chulha cooking stove and 'Trunky' and 'Monkey' child malnutrition measuring straps.

https://www.90yearsofdesign.philips.com/data/stories/philanthrophyfordesign/philanthrophy_for_design_02.jpg'The ambition was to fight respiratory problems and deaths of many women and children that still cook indoor burning wood'

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Chulha cooking stove - the first wholly philanthropic innovation

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. According to the World Health Organization, 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, with almost 500,000 of the victims being women and children.

The Philips Design community worked together with local 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 and stimulates the formation of local entrepreneurial forces for its production and distribution.

https://www.90yearsofdesign.philips.com/data/stories/philanthrophyfordesign/philanthrophy_for_design_04.jpg

'The workshop involved 16 participants who were invited to share their viewpoints and concerns in informal dialogues'

The result was Chulha - a low-tech stove for healthy indoor cooking that was the first proposition resulting from the 'Philanthropy by Design' program. What's significant with 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. Junglescapes, a 'champion' partner for the project in India, trains new potential entrepreneurs for the production and the dissemination of low-smoke Chulhas in rural India.

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.

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'.

'In collaboration with ARTI, both versions were translated into real applications'

https://www.90yearsofdesign.philips.com/data/stories/philanthrophyfordesign/philanthrophy_for_design_05.jpg https://www.90yearsofdesign.philips.com/data/stories/philanthrophyfordesign/philanthrophy_for_design_06.jpg https://www.90yearsofdesign.philips.com/data/stories/philanthrophyfordesign/philanthrophy_for_design_07a.jpg https://www.90yearsofdesign.philips.com/data/stories/philanthrophyfordesign/philanthrophy_for_design_07b.jpg

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 being a common problem) and 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 were translated into real applications. The Saral is a double oven with a hotbox costing between € 9 to € 11. The Sampoorna offers a more sophisticated solution, including a steamer, at a cost between € 13 to € 15. 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 fiber reinforced plastic at a cost of € 183, with the capacity to turn out more than 3,000 pieces.