Danish biotech company Novozymes has embarked on a new venture aimed at boosting human and environmental health in Mozambique by giving some 400,000 people access to clean, locally produced cooking fuel.
By 2014, CleanStar Mozambique hopes to provide farmers with an income-generating alternative to charcoal production while restoring degraded soil and improving biodiversity. The new social enterprise comes as part of Novozymes’ commitment to the Business Call to Action (BCtA), a UN-backed global initiative that encourages companies to fight poverty through innovative business models.
The company says wood and its derivative, charcoal, remain the primary energy source for most Africans, despite growing concern about long-term implications — the continent has already lost one-third of its forests to charcoal production.
According to the World Health Organization, smoke produced by cooking with charcoal and wood contributes to two million deaths around the world each year as well as chronic respiratory illnesses that primarily affect women and children. In Mozambique, 80 percent of urban households rely on charcoal for cooking, which causes health and environmental problems as well as economic ones, given the rising price of charcoal.
Using enzyme technology from Novozymes, CleanStar’s facility will process surplus cassava purchased from local farmers into two million liters of ethanol-based cooking fuel each year to sell in Mozambique’s capital Maputo, along with clean cooking stoves.
The company expects to sell 80,000 clean cookstoves tailored to local preferences and estimates an annual reduction of 320,000 tons of greenhouse gas as consumers replace charcoal fuel with ethanol.
Novozymes also projects the effort to save 9,000 acres of forest annually, with 2,000 low-income farmers growing a range of trees and crops on their land.
“Sustainable biofuels have the potential not only to help solve critical energy needs but also to spark wider positive changes in developing societies,” Novozymes Executive Vice President Thomas Nagy said. “We see this venture as a great example of what we call the bio-based economy — of how sustainable agriculture together with biotech solutions can meet the needs of people around the world.”
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Founder, Hower Impact
Mike Hower is the founder of Hower Impact — a boutique consultancy delivering strategic communication advisory and support for corporate sustainability, ESG and climate tech.
Published Apr 8, 2013 3am EDT / 12am PDT / 8am BST / 9am CEST