Innovation
As Envirofit moves into new markets, new products must be developed to meet different cooking styles, typical food preparations, fuel types, improved efficiency, price sensitivity/affordability, and emissions reductions. The product development process from initial market research to final off-tool product can take up to a year, so new product line developments in the pipeline to support Envirofit’s expansion into Africa, Latin America and SE Asia include lower cost stoves, stoves optimized for different fuel sources (charcoal, dung, etc.), and a line of matched accessories. This planning reflects Envirofit’s mission to create products that directly meet market needs, creating market pull from our customers.
Envirofit International’s engineering department works closely with a combination of university researchers, national laboratories, and industry experts to develop the highest performing, most reliable products in the market. Through its partnership with this network of scientists and engineers, Envirofit has access to millions of dollars in research equipment, which would be nearly impossible to support without such a network. In particular, Envirofit works very closely with Colorado State University’s Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory to develop new research methods which will drive the development of clean indoor cookstoves throughout the world. These methods include: development of new, improved methods for the measurement of stove emissions, modeling the thermal and environmental performance of cookstoves, evaluation of advanced materials in the manufacturing of cookstoves, development of accelerated test methodology for the improvement of the durability of cookstoves, and design methods for improving stove safety.
Along with the Shell Foundation and EECL, Envirofit is very active in the development of globally-recognized standards and test protocols that help define what exactly is a "clean cookstoves". These standards will help ensure that the stoves that customers purchase have met certain emissions (health), functionality, and durability benchmarks. These standards will also help clean cookstove partner organization to easily select only those cookstoves which will truly drive the improvement in health and safety of households throughout the world.
All of this advanced engineering and research combines to make Envirofit International the worldwide leader in the development of clean indoor cookstoves which will meet the needs of households all over the world.
