M&S Funding Clean Cook Stoves in Bangladesh as Part of UNICEF's New Carbon Offset Project

As part of its Plan A commitment to become carbon-neutral, Marks & Spencer (M&S) has become the first major company to sign on to UNICEF’s new carbon offset project, which aims to improve the health and lives of children, while drastically cutting carbon emissions, in developing areas.

M&S will kick-start the project in early 2014 by funding the manufacture, sale and maintenance of 40,000 fuel-efficient, low-pollution cook stoves by local entrepreneurs in Bangladesh. The retailer says the project will be delivered to the highest environmental and development standards and aims to qualify for ‘The Gold Standard’ carbon credit certification. The new stoves will be sold to low-income families from over 2,000 villages across Bangladesh.

Marks & Spencer CEO Marc Bolland said: “This project will have a huge impact in a country that is extremely important to M&S. Being carbon neutral is a key part of Plan A and it’s important that, wherever we can, we invest in high-quality offsets that support communities within which we operate. We’ll do this while at the same time working with partners like UNICEF, who can help us deliver our vision of becoming a sustainable, international, multi-channel retailer.”

According to the World Health Organization, some 49,000 people, 70 percent of whom are children under age five, die each year in Bangladesh due to the smoke generated from traditional indoor cook stoves. Indoor air pollution from solid fuel is the third-highest risk factor for deaths in South Asia and the number of deaths from indoor air pollution is greater than those from malaria or tuberculosis. Women and children, who tend to be primarily responsible for cooking, are the most affected.

Other projected benefits of the new cook stoves include:

• Being 50 percent more fuel-efficient than traditional stoves — M&S says they will produce one ton less carbon emissions each year, the equivalent of driving a car 3,000 miles.
• Helping to reduce deforestation and limiting local flooding — currently 90 percent of households in Bangladesh depend on biomass such as wood, forest cuttings and cow dung for fuel, but less than two percent of those households use fuel-efficient stoves. Bangladesh is one of the countries most at risk of the impact of climate change, especially in relation to rising sea levels that could leave millions of people homeless.
• Creating over 150 new jobs — local people will be trained to manufacture, market and install the stoves.
• Enabling households to save money on fuel — freeing up income for other essentials such as food and healthcare
• Freeing up time for children, especially girls, to attend school — in some cases, women and children spend a lot of time collecting firewood.

This financing-for-development collaboration brings together business and the international development sector to tackle both climate and health issues that directly affect the world’s most vulnerable children.

Yoka Brandt, Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF said: “We are delighted that Marks & Spencer is supporting UNICEF’s carbon offset pilot project in Bangladesh. This demonstrates how innovative private-sector partnerships can positively impact the well-being of children and the world that they inherit.”

Jonathan Porritt, co-founder of Forum for the Future said: “M&S led the world in becoming the first major retailer to go carbon neutral and has now reinforced that leadership by supporting UNICEF’s new carbon offset project in Bangladesh. This ticks literally all the boxes in terms of improved health, local economic benefits and reduced emissions of CO2. I sincerely hope that others will follow swiftly in their path.”

A number of initiatives and companies are focusing on offsetting carbon emissions by increasing the efficiency of cook stoves in developing areas, simultaneously helping to mitigate climate change as well as respiratory infections and disease attributed to indoor air pollution. Last month, Envirofit International, which develops and disseminates technologies aimed at reducing pollution and enhancing energy efficiency in developing countries, announced it will join Business Call to Action (BCtA), with plans to reduce greenhouse gases by 193,500 tons of carbon through the sales of 150,000 affordable, clean cook stoves across Kenya in the next two years. And the BioLite HomeStove, which is shortlisted for this year’s World Impact Design Prize, addresses the toxic smoke produced from the burning of biomass on an open fire by incorporating a fan into its design, which helps burn the biomass more efficiently, while reducing indoor smoke by 90 percent and eliminating up to 2.5 tons of GHG emissions per stove per year. The stove also has a USB port that harnesses some of the energy produced during use to provide a small charging station for cell phones or solar lights.